DeKALB, Ill. – The Northern Illinois University wrestling team concluded its regular season on Sunday afternoon at Victor E. Court, falling to No. 21 Old Dominion in a Mid-American Conference dual by a 27-6 scoreline.
 
The Huskies (10-12, 2-6 MAC) picked up two wins over the nationally ranked Monarchs (13-5, 6-2 MAC) as redshirt freshman 149-pounder Austin Culton (Sycamore, Ill./Sycamore) and 174-pound redshirt sophomore Trace Engelkes (Winnebago, Ill./Winnebago) earned victories by decision. 
 
NIU head coach Ryan Ludwig rued some tough starts to matches that put the Huskies in deficits they couldn’t recover from, despite impressive efforts to win several third periods of matches.
 
“We could’ve got off to faster starts in matches. We didn’t start wrestling well until the third period in too many matches, and that hurt us today,” Ludwig said. “But I’m very proud of Austin and Trace. Culton earned his first MAC win, and Engelkes installed his plan and picked up a great victory."
 
Ludwig now has his Huskies looking forward to the postseason, where NIU will compete at the MAC Championships at Missouri in two weeks looking to earn automatic-qualifying berths to the NCAA Wrestling Championships.
 
“We have a great week of training ahead of us. We’re going to work very hard this week, and then we’re very confident that we’re going to peak the week after that at the MAC Championships,” Ludwig added.
 
Following Friday’s 26-10 win over Buffalo, NIU saw its dual start at 133 pounds for the second consecutive time as Michael Hayes from Old Dominion defeated NIU’s Jordan Northrup (Machesney Park, Ill./Harlem) to open the match with a 7-5 decision.
 
No. 11 Chris Mecate then gave the Monarchs a 6-0 lead in the team score with a 7-0 decision over Tyler Argue (Matteson, Ill./Mt. Carmel) at 141 pounds before Culton earned his sixth win of the season in dramatic fashion at 149 pounds, recording a sudden victory takedown to defeat Kevin Johnson, 3-1.
 
At 157 pounds, T.C. Warner of Old Dominion dominated from the top position and didn’t allow Andrew Morse (Alto, Mich./Lowell) any scoring opportunities, taking a 3-0 decision.
 
Shaun’Qae McMurtry (Lockport, Ill./Nebraska) fell behind 6-0 against No. 15 Tristan Warner but the NIU redshirt sophomore 165-pounder recorded two third-period takedowns but was unable to overturn the big deficit, dropping a 7-5 decision that extended the ODU lead to 12-3 at intermission.
 
Engelkes got the second half of the dual off to a great start for the Huskies with his 4-3 victory over Austin Coburn thanks to a reversal followed by a takedown in the third period to seal the decision and make the score just 12-6 in favor of the Monarchs.

But at 184 pounds, No. 4 Jack Dechow of Old Dominion showed what a returning All-American can do, recording a 20-8 major decision over Huskie freshman Quinton Rosser (Cincinnati, Ohio/Archbishop Moeller) to bring the team score to 16-6.

Then a technical fall for the Monarchs at 197 ensured Old Dominion’s team victory as Kevin Beazley defeated Alec Brown (Oak Forest, Ill./Oak Forest), 17-1.

The match concluded with two more decisions in favor of ODU in matches that saw the Huskies finish strongly but were still unable to recover from slow starts.

Matt Tourdot won a 12-7 decision over Arthur Bunce (Munith, Mich./Dansville) at heavyweight before NIU senior Derek Elmore (Loves Park, Ill./Harlem) wrestled at home for the last time, dropping a 4-1 decision to Brandon Jeske.

NIU gets back on the mats in two weeks when they kick off the postseason at the 2015 Mid-American Conference Championships. The tournament starts Saturday, March 7, and runs through Sunday, March 8, inside Missouri’s Hearnes Center.

#21 Old Dominion 27, NIU 6
133: Michael Hayes (ODU) dec. Jordan Northrup (NIU), 7-5; ODU led 3-0
141: No. 11 Chris Mecate (ODU) dec. Tyler Argue (NIU), 7-0; ODU led 6-0
149: Austin Culton (NIU) dec. Kevin Johnson (ODU), 3-1 (SV1); ODU led 6-3
157: T.C. Warner (ODU) dec. Andrew Morse (NIU), 3-0; ODU led 9-3
165: No. 15 Tristan Warner (ODU) dec. Shaun’Qae McMurtry (NIU), 7-5; ODU led 12-3
174: Trace Engelkes (NIU) dec. Austin Coburn (ODU), 4-3; ODU led 12-6
184: No. 4 Jack Dechow (ODU) maj. dec. Quinton Rosser (NIU), 20-8; ODU led 16-6
197: Kevin Beazley (ODU) tech. fall Alec Brown (NIU), 17-1 (6:39), ODU led 21-6
285: Matt Tourdot (ODU) dec. Arthur Bunce (NIU), 12-7
125: Brandon Jeske (ODU) dec. Derek Elmore (NIU), 4-1; ODU wins, 27-6

-NIU-