With a loss to No. 18 Rutgers and an upset against No. 25 Stanford University, IU wrestling finished the weekend with mixed results.
The Hoosiers are now 5-10 on the season
IU’s first matchup was Friday night, as it fell to Rutgers 11-24.
Junior Fernando Silva came out aggressively and scored some early points in the first few periods against his opponent. But as the third period arrived, Silva seemed gassed and was narrowly defeated 7-8 in the match.
The seniors found the most success for IU against Rutgers.
Senior Bryce Martin scored a four-point near fall and dominated his matchup for a 13-0 major decision victory. Senior Elijah Oliver came out strong in his first competition since the Ohio State loss and recorded a 16-5 major decision of his own.
After the loss, IU Head Coach Angel Escobedo said he thought his squad let some of its matches fall through its fingers.
“I preached to my guys before the match to try to ring together a couple of consistent wins to get the crowd involved,” Escobedo said. “I think we missed some opportunities in that, but we have to rebound for tomorrow and come back strong.”
The Hoosiers took their coach’s advice and came out as the aggressors in Saturday night's matchup with Stanford.
It was a long night full of matches decided in the final period, but IU managed to handle the grind and land a 31-7 win.
Freshman Kyle Luigs shinned for IU in the first matchup of the night. His win put the team up 9-0 early.
The upperclassmen once again came through for IU. Senior Jake Danishek scored a takedown late in the third period. Martin piled on a 10-1 decision as well to bump the score to 16-3 in IU’s favor.
Junior Buddy Conley coerced a sudden victory win in his matchup, and as the team’s lead grew to 19 points, the Stanford wrestlers began to look visibly disappointed.
The Hoosiers finished strong the rest of the evening and ended the night winning nearly all of their matchups.
Oliver capped off the night for IU with a surprising pin in the second period to end the competition.
IU is back in action against Iowa at 8 p.m. Feb. 15 in Iowa City, Iowa.
