The Hoosiers fell to 3-3 in conference play after losing to Ohio State 27-9.
Despite the loss, three Hoosier wrestlers were victorious and improved their Big Ten seed for the conference tournament in March.
“We fought hard,” IU Coach Duane Goldman said. “I think some of our guys wrestled a little apprehensively. When you wrestle the best guys in the country, they are not going to be holding anything back. So, we just need to get out there and get after it.”
Freshman Jake Danishek found himself down three entering the final period before making his move.
Down one with 20 seconds remaining, Danishek took down his opponent to take the lead and managed to hold Kresevic down for the final seconds to secure the one-point victory, his third straight in the Big Ten.
Teammate Luke Blanton he was happy to see this continued success Danishek is having and said that he hates wrestling Danishek.
“He’s a good guy, and he’s snot-nosed in the room,” Blanton said. “I hate wrestling him, he’s always in your face.”
Goldman said Danishek keeps finding ways to win. They aren’t always pretty, but it’s about getting his hand raised.
Sophomore Jake Masengale also found a way to get his hand raised, winning by a slim margin against Ohio State’s Josh Fox for his second Big Ten victory of the season.
This was the second time Masengale and Fox had met this season, dating back to when Masengale won at the Eastern Michigan Open. This time, Fox wrestled completely different.
Goldman said they had a close bout last time, but Fox wrestled with a different style this time and was glad to see Masengale push himself to get the win despite being under the weather.
The third victory for the Hoosiers came when former walk-on Luke Blanton defeated No. 11 Hunter Stieber, finding his fourth victory against a ranked opponent on the season.
Since defeating two ranked wrestlers in the same weekend, Blanton had not been wrestling him normal style.
“Luke hasn’t been wrestling like himself,” Goldman said. “Ever since he won those big matches and got in the rankings, he got his first experience as one of the top guys in the country and it made him wrestle differently.”
Blanton agreed with the coaches and said it was a wake-up call to get back to wrestling how he wrestles.
The Hoosiers will now prepare for a double header next weekend against two ranked opponents. IU will travel to undefeated Iowa on Friday before Purdue comes to Bloomington on Sunday.
This is a big part of the season for the freshman, as this is the normal time high school wrestling comes to a close.
“We’ve got to get healthy and get the younger guys up to speed,” Goldman said. “In their last full season, the freshmen were gearing up for the state championships around this time of year. Now, they have four more weeks of regular season before the Big Ten Championships. We’re trying to train them accordingly while keeping them upbeat and fresh.”
