Wrestlers face road tests

The IU wrestling squad started the Big Ten season on the wrong foot. Penn State came to Bloomington last Friday and overpowered an injury-depleted Hoosier squad 37-4. But the next day, the Hoosiers went to Indianapolis and swept a four-team dual meet. This three-meet winning streak should provide the Hoosiers a morale boost going into meets against No. 3 Ohio State tonight and No. 10 Michigan Friday.\n"It's good to have some momentum," said junior Coyte Cooper. "We dug ourselves into a hole (against Penn State), now we got ourselves out."\nThe Hoosiers will get plenty of tough competition this week as they face what will probably be their most challenging road trip of the regular season. The Buckeyes boast five victories over top 10 teams this season. Tonight's meet will mark the beginning of Big Ten competition for Ohio State.\nThe Wolverines are 6-4 this season and are riding high after defeating Illinois last Friday night to open up their Big Ten season. \nCoach Duane Goldman outlined what he thought his team needed to do to improve on the Penn State meet.\n"We're obviously looking for a much better showing than what we did against Penn State," Goldman said. "We need to stay aggressive and stay smart. Some of our guys, against Penn State, didn't wrestle as smart as they should have. Some of our guys need to take this chance to focus and establish themselves regardless of their age or rank."\nSophomore Pat DeGain, said the team needs a confidence boost.\n"We have great lower weights and our upper weights have done great," said DeGain. "Once our middle weights pull through and as soon as they start believing in themselves, we'll have a great team."\nThe Hoosiers may receive another boost if they can return to full health tonight. Joe Dubuque, a freshman, missed four meets with a knee injury and returned to the lineup against Penn State. But Goldman said that Dubuque wasn't quite ready. Dubuque was beaten by Penn State sophomore Adam Smith and was limping noticeably towards the end of the bout. Dubuque went 3-0 the next day and should be ready to compete tonight.\nAnother Hoosier making his way back from injury is 184-pound junior Ty Matthews. Matthews was forced to miss the Big Ten season opener with a knee injury of his own, but there is a possibility he could be in the lineup tonight. \n"Ty's an extremely tough kid," Goldman said. "It's still bothering him, but he wants to wrestle. Pain is not a big deal to him. He might be able to overcome the pain, but we have to decide if it's the smartest thing for him"