No. 22 grapplers hope to bounce back after 2 tough dual meets

It has been a rough two weeks for the No. 22 IU wrestling team. After losing their first dual meet of the season against Illinois on Jan. 21, the Hoosiers went on to lose their next three meets, the most recent loss coming against North Carolina State last weekend. \nThe Hoosiers have also fallen to No. 1 Minnesota and then-No. 25 Ohio State. The Buckeyes have since risen to No. 17.\n"We need to continue to find ways to win and not ways to lose," coach Duane Goldman said. \nThis weekend the Hoosiers meet No. 23 Michigan (1-7-1) on Friday and No. 12 Northwestern (11-7-0) on Sunday, both at University Gym in Bloomington. These possible wins could boost the Hoosiers' conference record to 3-3.\nMichigan's losing record on the season is deceiving. All the losses have come after facing highly ranked opponents, including Minnesota and most recently No. 7 Wisconsin, with its single victory coming against No. 24 Lehigh and tie with No. 8 Hofstra. Northwestern was recently bested by OSU 18-16, who came back and took the lead in the last two matches of the day. \nBoth weekend opponents contain several ranked individuals. \nNorthwestern's Ryan Lang and Jake Herbert are top-ranked in the 141-pound and 184-pound weight class, respectively. Michigan's Josh Churella is No. 2 in the 149-pound weight class. \nDespite slipping places due to their recent losses, the Hoosiers still boast several top ranked wrestlers as well. No. 7 Angel Escobedo (125), No. 20 Andrae Hernandez (133) and No. 7 Brandon Becker (157) in their respective weight classes.\nThe Big Ten Tournament officially begins March 3 and the team knows the pressure is now on to get the big wins to improve its tournament seed. Goldman hopes the team will continue to wrestle strong and improve on its ability to finish.\n"It's not that we aren't wrestling hard, it's not that we aren't wrestling well," he said. "it's just that we aren't finishing our matches"