IU places 3 wrestlers in B1G Championships, ties for 10th as team

The Hoosiers tied the Spartans for 10th place overall this past weekend at the Big Ten Championships in West Lafayette, Ind.

After entering the tournament with five wrestlers seeded, the IU had three wrestlers place.

“I think most of our guys wrestled pretty well,” IU Coach Duane Goldman said.

Redshirt freshman Taylor Walsh entered the tournament as the No. 6 seed for the 149-pound weight class. After winning his first match, Walsh fell to No. 3 seed Dylan Ness of Minnesota. Walsh earned fourth place overall.

“Walsh did really well, considering he hadn’t been on the mat in over a month,” Goldman said.

Senior Matt Powless was the No. 2 seed for the 197-pound weight class. After winning his first three matches, he made his way into the championship round against Mario Gonzalez of Illinois.

After an early lead by Gonzalez, Powless fought to regain the lead. However, despite multiple takedown attempts and stalling by Gonzalez, Powless ultimately finished second by a score of 10-4.

“I wrestled well yesterday, but obviously I didn’t wrestle well today,” he said. “I was not wrestling the same way I do in practice, and I was not moving the way I needed to. Overall, I’m not happy.”

Adam Chalfant was seeded No. 7 in the 285-pound weight class. Chalfant lost his first round, but wrestled back four times and won his final match to finish in fifth place.

“He did really well,” Goldman said. “He beat a couple of highly-seeded wrestlers, including the fourth-seeded wrestler who is also ranked 10th in the country. He has really improved a lot. He’s in a tough weight class, and he’s someone who deserves to be in the NCAAs.”

The Hoosiers now have four of their wrestlers guaranteed to compete in the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, including their three placers and sophomore Ryan LeBlanc at 174 pounds.

Looking ahead to the NCAAs, the coaches are going to continue to work more individually with the wrestlers.

“We’re going to keep them healthy and keep up the conditioning,” Goldman said. “We’re also going to look individually on the mistakes they made at this tournament and clean up those mistakes.”