Sports

No. 8 Wisconsin to host No. 10 Northwestern

Friday night, the UW wrestling team will conclude the regular season as they welcome 10th-ranked Northwestern to the Field House.

The Badgers are coming into the weekend after moving up five spots to eighth place in the latest USA Today InterMat/NWCA wrestling polls. After defeating two top 10 teams last weekend in Michigan and Minnesota, the Badgers are peaking right at the time head coach Barry Davis was hoping they would.

“The guys did a good job (last weekend),” Davis said. “I think we’re starting to come around right now, at the right time. If we continue to do the little things right, I think we’ll be all right.”

After Friday’s match, the grapplers will get a little bit of a break before the Big Ten Championships March 8-9 in Minneapolis. Davis knows that this is the time of year when his guys could use a day or two off.

“I think we all need a break,” Davis said. “The coaches need a mental break too to get away and re-charge a bit. It’s a nice break to watch some great high school wrestling [and to] watch some of the recruits compete at the Kohl Center. We let the guys get away for a bit too. So it’s good for both of us.”

But before the Badgers can rest, they need to take care of the Wildcats.

Northwestern comes to Madison after going 2-0 last weekend, defeating Purdue and Illinois. Currently 8-7 overall and 3-3 in the Big Ten, the Wildcats come in with three returning All-Americans.

The top two weight-classes Friday night will feature four of the top wrestlers in the nation. At 197, junior Dallas Herbst, coming off back-to-back wins via pin, will face off against reigning Big Ten champion Mike Tamillow. Herbst is currently ranked 8th in the nation with an overall record of 25-2, while Tamillow is 2nd with a record of 23-2. At heavyweight, junior Kyle Massey, coming in with a 10-match win streak, will take on top-ranked Dustin Fox.

“They’ve talked about it quite a bit,” Davis said. “I know they’ve been thinking about it. (Assistant coach) Bart (Chelesvig) has been working a lot with them, Bart’s preparing them, and I’m sure they’ll be ready for it.”

Once past Friday, Wisconsin has two weeks to prepare for the Big Ten conference tournament. With seedings for the tournament not out until the week of the tournament, Davis will use next week to keep up on workouts and training.

Sophomore Trevor Brandvold believes that while the break will be nice, he and his teammates will be ready to go all-out once practice starts up again.

“It’s amazing how two or three days off the mat,” Brandvold said. “You miss wrestling. You’re itching to get back to the mat. That will help us get some real intense workouts.”

After the seedings come out, his grapplers will watch video of their first round opponents and prepare for their opening round matches. Senior Craig Henning knows he, along with the rest of the team, will be ready to go on that first whistle in Minneapolis.

“Now that we’ve seen most of the Big Ten guys that we’ll be facing,” Henning said. “We still have to focus on some of the other people. We’ll watch some tape, worry about what we’ll have to do for each individual matchup and figure out what we need to do to come into each match with.”