Sports

Wrestling clashes with ACC

Undefeated and off to a strong start, the Wisconsin wrestling team will head to North Carolina this weekend to compete in the inaugural Atlantic Coast Conference-Big Ten Clash.

Borrowing from the men's basketball tradition, teams from the Big Ten and ACC will meet in this non-conference matchup. Wisconsin, along with Northwestern and Purdue, will wrestle North Carolina State, Virginia and back-to-back ACC champion North Carolina. The conference that fares best will take home the title for its region.

Through their first two meets, the Badgers have composed a record of 5-0, but will continue to face tougher squads this week as they wrestle the ACC's premier squads. Along with the normal challenges that come with any difficult match, the Badgers will also have to worry about representing the Big Ten well.

"Things are going well right now," UW head coach Barry Davis said. "This week will be a different test, of course. Any time you wrestle, you represent the university, and this week, representing the conference as well, you want to do the best you can possibly do."

"It's not too different from other matches," Badgers heavyweight Kyle Massey said. "We get tough competition when we wrestle in the Big Ten, and that's prepared us for this weekend."

Though the Badgers will be teamed up with Big Ten rivals Northwestern and Purdue this weekend, the team will still use it as an opportunity to scout out the teams for their future meetings. Having wrestled at the same meet as Northwestern last weekend as well, the Badgers will have the chance to scout one of the conference's top teams for a second time.

"I was taking notes this past weekend, mental notes and written notes. We'll watch the other teams compete this weekend too, and we'll take notes on them," Davis said. "We're always keeping an eye on our opponents."

"We always are keeping our eyes open and preparing," Massey said, "but we're always focused on wrestling first."

Wrestling against Cumberland, Navy and Indianapolis last weekend, Wisconsin won all three matches with relative ease (53-0, 29-7, 43-0), and the team is hoping momentum from last weekend will carry over to "the clash."

"Obviously, there are improvements to be made, but we're doing very well, and we want to keep doing well," Davis said.

With another month remaining before the Badgers start facing conference foes, the competition they'll see this weekend might be the best they will get for a while and a strong showing would certainly go a long way to establishing themselves as a team to be reckoned with this season.

"We're off to a really good start, and we want to keep the momentum going and keep rolling through," Massey said. "We're going to keep showing teams we've got more than they think."

"I think we're looking pretty tough, we're very solid right now," junior Jake Donar added. "We're looking forward to this weekend."