Wrestling | January 7

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – The Northern Illinois University wrestling team traveled 1,920 miles west to take on two Big 12 wrestling programs in Cal Baptist and No. 19 South Dakota State in a double dual at Van Dyne Gym in Riverside. The event, hosted by Cal Baptist, featured nine ranked wrestlers and top-notch talent to prepare NIU for its conference slate. After back-to-back duals, the Huskies went 1-1, earning a win against the Lancers after dropping its contest with the Jackrabbits.

"After a disappointing first dual, we responded well with a team win in the second dual," said head NIU coach Ryan Ludwig.

How it Happened: South Dakota State
The Huskies' (5-3, 2-0 MAC) day began with a tall task - facing the nationally ranked Jackrabbits (2-2, 0-0 Big 12). Blake West and No. 30 Tanner Jordan kicked off the action with a defensive bout at 125. West was just edged by Jordan 2-0, giving SDSU the early 3-0 lead.  

At 133, Bryce West suffered a 12-1 major decision loss to Derrick Cardinal before Jaivon Jones stepped onto the mat at 141. Jones' foe, No. 11 Clay Carlson, increased the Jackrabbits' lead to 10-0 after his narrow 6-4 win.

Anthony Cheloni was up next in the 149-match against Alek Martin. It was another close bout, but Martin did just enough to earn the 4-2 decision.

With NIU trailing 13-0, Anthony Gibson was due up in the 157-weight class. Gibson made things interesting and was one point shy of overtime, but No. 19 Cael Swensen slipped past Gibson with a 4-3 win.

Later at 165, No. 9 Izzak Olejnik helped NIU earn its first points of the dual as he notched a 3-1 win over No. 13 Tanner Cook, his 17^th win of the season.

At 174, No. 16 Cade DeVos logged an 11-3 major decision win over Hayden Pummel to give SDSU a 20-3 advantage before the upper weights were on deck.

Matthew Zuber gave the Huskies a shot of adrenaline at 184 after he knocked off No. 16 Cade King in a high scoring 12-8 upset, marking his 11^th victory in an NIU singlet.

The momentum however swung back in SDSU's favor as Jacob Christensen suffered a 15-0 tech fall setback to No. 12 Tanner Sloan in the ensuing bout.

In the final bout of the dual, AJ Nevills won via pin over Terrese Aaron at 3:00 to give the Jackrabbits the 31-6 victory.

How it Happened: Cal Baptist
After a short break, action quickly resumed with Blake West and Elijah Griffin kicking off the first ever meeting between NIU and Cal Baptist (1-4, 0-1 Big 12). West and Griffin were knotted at 4-4 before, with 23 seconds left in the third period, West earned a takedown and two points to help him secure NIU's first win of the dual.  

Hunter Leake tied the dual 3-3 in the following bout at 133, winning his matchup against Bryce West. Jones however put the Huskies back in front with a dominate 11-2 major decision win over Christian Nunez at 141, his seventh bonus-point victory of the season.

In Cheloni's bout against Chaz Hallmark, a late reversal from NIU's 149 starter helped him secure a 3-1 win and inflated the Huskies' advantage to 10-3.

At 157, Gibson tallied his second major decision win of the year after blanking Joey Mora 8-0. With the bonus-point win, NIU went up 14-3.

In the 165 bout, Olejnik and Frank Almaguer were tied at 1-1 as the final seconds of the third period ticked off the clock. In the sudden victory overtime, Almaguer accomplished a takedown to hand Olejnik just his third loss of the season.

Later at 174, Pummel and his foe, Louis Rojas, were neck-and-neck midway through the third period. Tied at 2-2, Rojas executed an escape to lift him above Pummel. In the end, Rojas took the match 5-2 and cut further into NIU's lead.

Still up 14-9, the Huskies upper weights were due up with Zuber and Peter Acciardi hitting the mat at 184. Tied 1-1 at the end of the third period, the third overtime of the day resulted in a Huskie win as Zuber logged a takedown at 1:42.

At 197, Christensen lost his bout to Caden Gerlach in the first period via pin which narrowed NIU's lead to 17-15. Thus, it all came down to the heavyweights.

Aaron and Chris Island grappled at 285 to finish off the action. The bout was closely contested, and it was Island who owned a slight 3-2 edge as the third period was winding down. But, with just seven second left, a stalling call on Island propelled the bout into overtime, giving Aaron an opportunity to send NIU off with a win. Aaron was the first to accomplish a takedown, sealing the Huskies' 20-15 road win.

"There were a lot of hard-fought battles on the day: Blake West got a nice win over a nationally ranked opponent. Olejnik beat a highly ranked guy from SDSU. Terrese Aaron had a huge comeback victory to secure the dual meet victory over CBU," said Ludwig.

"The outstanding performance of the day goes to Matthew Zuber who wrestled to two big wins, including a victory over No. 16 from SDSU."    

NIU will have less than a week to prepare for its third Mid-American Conference match of the season as it takes on Central Michigan (0-4, 0-0 MAC) at 6 p.m. CT in Mount Pleasant this coming Friday (Jan. 13).