Hoosiers place 5th in Big Ten tournament

After ending the regular season with a loss, the IU wrestling team began postseason play with the Big Ten tournament this weekend after a two-week layoff and finished fifth. \nAfter the first day of wrestling, the Hoosiers were ranked fourth behind Minnesota, Wisconsin and Penn State, but they were only 2.5 points out of second place.\nThe defending champion Minnesota Golden Gophers were leading the pack, up 40 points on second place Wisconsin. \nFreshman Angel Escobedo started off the tournament strong, defeating both Brandon Precin of Northwestern and Will Livingston of Ohio State. He then lost to Charlie Falck of Iowa, which gave Escobedo just his fifth loss of the season. \nIn the final round Sunday, he faced Colin Cudd of Wisconsin and defeated him 5-2, then defeated Gabe Flores of Illinois, locking his third-place finish.\nFreshman Trevor Perry was seeded fifth going into the tournament, where he sought revenge on John Murphy of Michigan State in the first round. Murphy was the only loss on Perry’s record during the regular season. Perry defeated Murphy, 10-3. \nPerry was then toppled in the next round by fourth seed Gabriel Dretsch of Minnesota. Later, he faced Jason Martin of Purdue and Matt Winterhalter of Illinois, both of whom he defeated. \nOn Sunday he faced Eric Luedke of Iowa in the opening round, where he lost. He eventually beat Matt Maciag of Wisconsin to seal a fifth-place rank. \n“For being a freshman, and this being my first Big Ten, it was pretty exciting,” Perry said. “Fifth wasn’t too bad. I feel pretty good.”\nJunior Brandon Becker and sophomore Andrae Hernandez were the only Hoosiers to earn a bid to the championship round, which also took place Sunday. \nHernandez was the sixth seed going into the tournament and was the lowest seed to advance to the championship round this year. \nBecker had a bye in the first round, but he got a major decision against Jake Murphy of Purdue in the second round. In the championship semi-finals, he faced No. 3 seed Craig Henning of Wisconsin, defeating him for the third time this season. He then lost to C.P. Schlatter of Minnesota in the championship match. No. 2 seed Becker had the highest pre-tournament seed on the Hoosier squad. \nHernandez defeated unseeded Chris Diehl of Michigan and quickly followed that victory with an upset of No. 3 seed Mack Reiter of Minnesota to advance to the semifinal round, where he topped Jamie Kennedy of Illinois. He was then set to face top-ranked defending champion Nick Simmons of Michigan State in the championship round Sunday, where he lost 6-4.\n“It was a great confidence boost to beat a number two and number three seed,” Hernandez said. “I would have liked to win, but it didn’t turn out that way.”\nThe Hoosiers finished the tournament with a final ranking of fifth place overall.\n“We were impressive,” IU coach Duane Goldman said. “A lot of teams were impressed at their showing despite their youth.”\nMinnesota dominated the top spot with a margin of 56.5 points between it and second-place Wisconsin.