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True freshman TJ Wunnicke will be travelling to Central Michigan for the first time in the Cardinal and Black.

Wrestling

Huskies Hit the Road to Face No. 5 Central Michigan

Feb. 6, 2008

DeKALB, Ill. - The Northern Illinois wrestling team returns to the mat for Mid-American Conference action at fifth-ranked Central Michigan, Thursday.

The Huskies (8-6, 2-1 MAC) are coming off a 24-13 loss to nationally ranked Northern Iowa, in which Northern Illinois picked up victories not only from standouts Pat Castillo (Western Springs, Ill./Lyons Township) and Duke Burk (Peoria, Ill./Notre Dame), but also senior David Benner (Fowler, Ind./Benton Central) and true freshman Bryan O'Connor (Carol Stream, Ill./Glenbard North).

Central Michigan has only two losses on their record this season, the first coming Jan. 20 in a 20-16 defeat at the hands of No. 6 Minnesota, and the second coming six days later to fourth-ranked Iowa State, 25-6.

Northern Illinois has also faced the Golden Gopher and the Cyclones. The Huskies fell 39-4 to ISU in both team's season-opener, and lost 35-12 to Minnesota. Northern Illinois and Central Michigan also competed indirectly against eachother at the 2007 Midlands Wrestling Championships, where NIU placed 10th and CMU finished third.

A match-up to watch Thursday will be at 174 pounds, where No.13 Burk's will wrestle third-ranked Brandon Sinnott. The pair combines for only six total losses, and have accumulated 40 wins between them. Last year, Burk was scheduled to face Sinnot's twin brother Christian, but had to pull out of the contest due to injury.

In addition to Brandon Sinnott, the Chippewas have six grapplers ranked in the national coaches poll: Luke Smith (No. 19 at 125), Eric Kruger ( No. 12 at 141), Trevor Stewart (No. 8 at 165), Christian Sinnott (No. 4 at 184), Wynn Michalak (No. 6 at 197) and Bubba Gritter (No. 8 at 285).Central Michigan also has nine of it's athletes ranked first in the MAC.

In 2007, Central Michigan left DeKalb with a 27-9 victory over NIU. Castillo, currently ranked 10th nationally at 133 pounds, is the only current Huskie to have picked up a win in the contest. He defeated Chippewa Luke Smith 3-2 in the dual's 125-pound bout. This year, Castillo will likely face Conor Beebe, who has accumulated a 15-12 record on the year. Castillo's shift up a weight leaves Huskie true freshman TJ Wunnicke (Dodgeville, Wis./Dodgeville) to battle Smith.

After the Huskies' match-up with CMU, they will travel to Ypsilanti to face Eastern Michigan, Clarion and Gardner-Webb, Feb. 9.

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