The IU wrestling team has tied three times already this season. Twice, the tiebreaker criteria of total team points scored has caused the Hoosiers to come up short and take a loss.
To avoid dropping more matches in the event they go to tiebreakers, the coaching staff has been stressing the importance of securing bonus points.
“It does not matter what weight you are at,” Sophomore Jake Danishek said. “When we square off with these teams everyone has their strong guys and everyone has weak guys. Our strong guys need to pick up bonus points and our guys going up against top ranked guys need to hang in and wrestle hard.”
This weekend the Hoosiers will host their final double dual meet of the season against Indiana Tech and Buffalo. IU Coach Duane Goldman said he wants to see his guys fight hard for every point in their matches.
Without dropping the two matches on tiebreaker, the Hoosiers would be unbeaten right now, which has the team understandably frustrated.
“To be that close to being undefeated is a little disappointing,” Goldman said. “Against Cal Poly we just didn’t come out of the gate very well. Wisconsin, especially having lost on individual match points, and that coming down to three guys on the team because seven guys scored multiple points, but three gave up way too many.”
Despite the two losses, the team says it is taking a lot away from those matches.
Danishek said there are positives and negatives to take away from every match, win or lose, and added it has been encouraging to see all the improvements the team has made over the last couple weeks.
Freshmen Jake Hinz and Garrett Pepple will look to use their improvements to their advantage as they take on nationally ranked wrestlers from Buffalo. Goldman said the rankings do not matter and the process does not change regardless of the competition.
“It’s the same process,” Goldman said. “A ranking is just a number. Everyone has an opponent they need to look at and face. For a lot of those guys, even though their opponents aren’t ranked, just like our guys aren’t ranked, they are still really good wrestlers.”
When the Hoosiers enter the University Gym on Sunday, they said they are going to trust the work they have put in, try to wrestle their best and come away with two more wins to move to 8-2 on the season.
“Trust with the work we are putting in on our weaknesses and strengths that we are going to beat teams like Buffalo,” Danishek said. “We believe we are a better team than them. So, if we wrestle our best we are going to beat them, it’s that simple.”
