Dubuque reaches personal milestone with victory

Heavyweight matches usually stay close and rarely earn bonus points. But, then again, they are usually at the end of the dual meets. So when sophomore heavyweight Dave Herman started out the day for the No. 15 Hoosiers by posting a four-point major decision, it set the tone for IU's 31-7 victory over Ohio State Friday night at University Gym. \nThe Hoosiers also beat Purdue in West Lafayette Sunday 24-13 to start out the Big Ten season with a 2-0 record and an 11-0 record overall.\n"It really started us off on the right foot," IU coach Duane Goldman said about Herman's win. "If he had a shaky match, that could have made it real difficult."\nFor the rest of the match, it seemed that everything was going the Hoosiers' way. Following Herman's match, senior Joe Dubuque posted a five-point technical fall to give IU a 9-0 lead. He followed his Friday performance up by earning his 100th career victory in a 10-3 decision over Brandon Tucker in the Purdue match. The win gave the defending national champion a 14-0 record on the season and extended his winning streak to 21 straight matches.\nThe Hoosiers extended their early lead against the Buckeyes due to freshman Andrae Hernandez's sudden victory decision over the Buckeyes' Reece Humphrey. During that match, both Humphrey and Hernandez needed to take injury timeouts, but both were able to finish the match. Humphrey went down early, clutching his shoulder, and Hernandez suffered a leg cramp a couple of minutes later. Hernandez said his cramp was the result of trying to maintain weight for this weekend's matches.\n"This week I let my weight get out of control," he said. "But I wrestled tough, I stayed with it and I got the win in overtime."\nThe Buckeyes narrowed the lead to 12-7, taking the 141-pound and 149-pound matches, two weight classes Goldman knew Ohio State was strong in.\n"We want to win every match if we can but they have some real strong weights," he said. "We knew that 133, 141, 149 on up through there, even 157, they're ranked all through those weights, so that's a lot of the power in their lineup and so we knew we had to weather the storm in there."\nBut the rally was never enough for the Buckeyes to seriously rattle the Hoosiers' confidence built up by the early lead. Sophomore Brandon Becker halted the Buckeyes' momentum by posting a 16-3 major decision over Steven Sommer to give the Hoosiers a 16-7 lead. Becker, ranked No. 7, said that he wanted to get more than just a three-point decision out of the match.\n"Late in the match I was up a bit and I wanted to get the (technical fall)," Becker said. "I fell one point short but I still did alright. But more importantly, I wrestled well."\nThe Hoosiers continued to win matches, and when sophomore Marc Bennett posted a fall six minutes and 12 seconds into his match, the 25-7 lead was enough that the Hoosiers had clinched the win with two matches left.\nMomentum continued for the Hoosiers as sophomore Justin Curran earned two escape points in the final 15 seconds to win his match 5-4.\n"I thought I was wrestling well the whole match," Curran said. "He just kind of caught me off guard, but I wasn't going out that way."\nSenior Brady Richardson finished the meet with a 12-5 decision.\nThe Hoosiers continue their Big Ten season with a match Friday against No. 3 Illinois, the first of six straight matches the Hoosiers will face ranked opponents.