Hoosiers spoil Wisconsin fun

MADISON, Wis. -- Sunday was wrestling Fan Appreciation and Senior Day at the UW Fieldhouse in Madison, Wis. Among the scheduled events was a "dash for cash," in which three fans slithered around the gymnasium floor on their stomachs gathering as many $1 bills as they could get.\nUnfortunately for the 400 plus in attendance, the Badger wrestling squad spent a fair share of their day scrambling around the wrestling mat as well. \nThe 20th-ranked Hoosiers (15-6, 3-5 Big Ten) came into town and spoiled the festivities, taking home a 25-13 victory in the final match of their regular season. It also gives the squad confidence following Friday's 20-12 loss to Michigan State (6-7, 2-5), which left the Hoosiers with a bitter taste in their mouths.\n"We weren't very aggressive. We looked kind of flat," assistant coach Pat Cassidy said. \nThe loss was flooded with questionable calls that prompted coach Duane Goldman to call it "the worst officiating I've seen in my life." Among the alleged miscalls were debatable last-second take downs of Hoosiers Mike Dixon and Jack Wade. \n"Those weren't takedowns," Cassidy said. "In both matches, the guy only had one leg. But bad refereeing or not, you can't let the ref decide the match for you."\nDixon bounced back in the opening match against Wisconsin with a 3-1 victory over 20th-ranked heavyweight Justin Staebler. Dixon applied his smothering defense and appeared to frustrate Staebler throughout regulation. The match went into overtime before Dixon broke the 1-1 tie.\nGreg Schaefer had another big weekend in the 125-pound class, defeating both Michigan State's 12th-ranked Chris Williams 10-4 and Wisconsin's 16th-ranked Tony Black 15-4. Schaefer has now won nine consecutive matches and appears to have subdued all effects from his mid-season ankle injury.\nSenior Gabe Cook also came up clutch with a dominating victory against the Badgers' Mark Trinitapoli.\nThe highly anticipated rematch between the nation's top ranked 165-pounder, Wisconsin's Donny Pritzlaff, and the Hoosiers' No. 9 Kevin Stanley turned out to be one of the few bleak points Sunday afternoon. Following a 1-0 victory on Friday, Stanley couldn't seem to find an opening against the highly aggressive Pritlzlaff and lost the match 15-5. \n"I got out of position. I let him control the tempo of the match and that's why I lost," Stanley said. "If I see him in Big Tens, I'm going to have to be less cautious and more aggressive."\nStanley, Schaefer and 184-pound junior Viktor Sveda were the only Hoosiers to walk away with victories on Friday. Sveda also joins Schaefer as the only Hoosiers to go 2-0 on the weekend.\nBut none of those three is feeling as confident as 197-pound sophomore Ty Matthews. The coaching staff was looking for a big performance from either Matthews or Brett Becks, who got the start against Michigan State. Becks' 25-11 loss against 12th ranked Nik Fekete, combined with Matthews' convincing victory over Wisconsin's Jareck Horton have given him the edge.\n"I think Ty looked pretty good," Goldman said. "I have to talk to my assistant coaches, but I think Ty is looking pretty good."\nMatthews got off to a quick start and never looked back, amassing more than three minutes of riding time in his 10-3 victory. More importantly, he continued to wrestle aggressively long into the third period, which has been one of his major weaknesses all season.\n"That changed today. I really felt I could dominate this guy and that's what I did. It felt good," Matthews said. "Charles and Duane have been working with me on keeping me aggressive through the whole match. That was probably the best I looked in the third period all year"