Sports

Wrestling ready for Field House return

It’s been 346 days since the last time the 13th-ranked Wisconsin wrestling team could sleep in their own beds the night before a match. After almost a full year, the Badger grapplers return to the mats of the Field House for two important Big Ten duals, welcoming Michigan State to town Friday and top-ranked Iowa Sunday afternoon.

“It’s always nice to sleep in your own bed,” sophomore captain Kyle Ruschell said. “You don’t have to worry about anything. If you want to work out, it’s right here. It’s your own facility. It’s going to be awesome.”

Friday night the Badgers welcome the 3-7 Spartans, a team which is 0-2 early on in the Big Ten season, despite returning seven starters from last year’s team. MSU does have two wrestlers ranked, with No. 4 sophomore Franklin Gomez at 133 pounds and No. 15 senior Joe Williams at 197 pounds.

“[They’re a] Big Ten team,” head coach Barry Davis said. “It’ll be a tough matchup at 133 and 197, both ranked guys. I see they gave Minnesota a pretty good go. They took four matches from them. But every time you wrestle someone in the Big Ten it’s not going to be easy — it’s going to be a war. We’ve got to be ready.”

Some people think the Badgers may be looking past tonight’s matchup and toward Sunday’s dual, when the top-ranked Hawkeyes come flying into town. Iowa is currently 14-1 on the season, their lone loss coming at the hands of No. 3 Oklahoma State. From last year’s squad, Iowa returns six NCAA qualifiers, three of whom garnered All-American status..

Many of the grapplers are looking back at last season’s dual when the Badgers went to Iowa City and defeated the Hawkeyes for the first time on their own turf since 1965. Junior Zach Tanelli believes Iowa will be looking to return the favor on Sunday.

“They’re going to come in really coming after us,” Tanelli said. “We beat them last year at Carver-Hawkeye, so they’re going to come in here to try to get a little bit of revenge, so it’s going to be big. They’re ranked No. 1, so it would be real big to see where this team’s at as a whole.”

Tanelli may have the toughest assignment of any grappler sporting the cardinal and white this weekend. Coming into tonight’s match with an overall record of 17-5, the 11th-ranked Tanelli must take on 4th-ranked Gomez before rebounding to take on 3rd-ranked Joey Slaton of Iowa Sunday.

“Right now I’m looking at Michigan State,” Tanelli said. “I’m not looking past Michigan State. Obviously, the kid’s too good to look past. And then I’ll worry about Iowa after that. It’s a good opportunity for myself to advance in the Big Ten and the national scene.”

The Badgers enter the weekend with a 10-2-1 overall record and stand 1-1 in the Big Ten after bringing home a 20-15 dual victory last weekend on the road at Indiana. Despite losing his match last weekend, senior Craig Henning — 4th-ranked at 157 pounds — knows that he has to rebound quickly because in the ig Ten, one must always be ready.

“Every Big Ten team is always tough,” Henning said. “[MSU] has a lot of guys who are younger, so not a whole lot is really known about them. There’s a lot that’s unknown about them at this point. We haven’t seen them at all this year. There’s a lot of people who haven’t been in their lineup. But I think it’ll be a pretty good dual.”

With only four Big Ten duals left after this weekend, it may be make-or-break time for the Badgers. With a 1-1 record in a conference in which any team can come out with a victory, Ruschell knows that this is the prime time for the Badgers to show the conference and the rest of the nation what they’re made of.

“We all need to step up,” Ruschell said. “We’re not where we need to be yet, wrestling-wise. I think going through these Big Ten duals… will help us keep going up and getting better — knowing our competition, and what we have to do and where we need to be for Big Tens.”