Eight Hoosiers place at Michigan State Open

Matt Coughlin brought home the tournament crown in the 165-pound weight class at the Michigan State Open as the IU wrestling team opened the season with two meets on the road.\nCoughlin, who is ranked fourth in the country in his weight class, opened the tournament with an 8-3 win over Jason Martin of Purdue, then followed it with two more impressive wins, yielding only three points in matches against Eastern Michigan’s Justin Brandel and Kent State’s Obie Simpson. To advance to the finals, Coughlin asserted his dominance in a pin against Old Dominion’s Chris Brown, and finally capped off the day by pinning Dominic Marella from Northwestern.\n“This win was a major confidence booster,” Coughlin said. “Being able to start the season like this is always good, but I know there is room for improvement.”\nBehind Coughlin, IU continued to roll as eight Hoosiers placed in the competition, which lasted all day Sunday and hosted 21 schools.\nAfter a second-place finish in the 133-pound weight class by junior Andrae Hernandez, one of the highlights of IU’s afternoon took place when sophomore Nick Walpole squared off in the semifinals of the 149-pound weight class against freshman and fellow Hoosier Kurt Kinser. Walpole defeated his teammate by a score of 7-3 and eventually lost to Kaylen Baxter of Old Dominion in the finals.\n“I would have rather been on the other side of the bracket as Kurt,” Walpole said, “but that’s just how it goes sometimes. It is always weird battling a teammate in a tournament.”\nBefore the team headed to East Lansing, Mich., for the Michigan State Open, it kicked things off by blanking Wabash in Crawfordsville, Ind., 44-0.\nLed by a stellar performance from Angel Escobedo, who pinned his opponent in 32 seconds, the Hoosiers swept the Little Giants with convincing victories by all wrestlers, including two at the end of the match by Eric Cameron in the 197-pound weight class and by Justin Kuhn in the heavyweight class.\nIU coach Duane Goldman said he was pleased with his team’s performance, but thought the Hoosiers were far from perfect.\n“(This weekend), we showed that we have a lot of talent here, but we’re going to have to develop and work hard as a team to improve,” Goldman said.\nWalpole, like Coughlin and Goldman, echoed that even though the Hoosiers succeeded this weekend, there is still a long way to go.\n“I need to get a lot better in my conditioning,” Walpole said. “I’m going to have to keep working to try and go six or seven minutes without fading.”\nThe Hoosiers have some time off before hosting the Hoosier Duals, held in Bloomington on Nov. 24.