The Wisconsin wrestling team hosted a pair of ranked teams this weekend at the UW Field House, losing to top-ranked Minnesota Friday night before rebounding to defeat No. 18 Indiana Sunday afternoon.
Sunday marked the regular-season finale for the Badgers as well as the last home match for senior Tyler Turner.
The Badgers dominated most of the match, taking four of the first five matches. The match started off on a high note, as Zach Tanelli pinned Hoosier Andrae Hernandez in a time of 6:30 to give the Badgers a 6-0 lead they would not relinquish.
"Tanelli learned from his Minnesota match a bit," Badgers coach Barry Davis said. "He kept his poise after getting down on his guy. He worked through it and managed to get the pin."
After winning three of the next six matches, Dallas Herbst took to the mat to face off against freshman Nate Everhart of Indiana. Herbst started off shaky and Everhart capitalized, taking a 4-1 lead into the final period. Herbst scored a takedown to get within 4-3, and then it was a case of déjà vu to the Craig Henning match from Friday night. Everhart was warned for stalling then continued and Herbst was given two penalty points as time expired and escaped with a 5-3 win, and put the Badgers ahead for good.
"He had me where he wanted me for a bit," Herbst said. "Then I started to turn him hoping to get some near-fall points. But I can't let guys get that first takedown on me. If I want to succeed at the Big Tens and NCAAs then I've got to work hard to get that first takedown."
The Badgers (19-3, 5-3) finished off the Hoosiers by a score of 21-13, and finished the regular season in third place in the Big Ten behind only Minnesota and Illinois. Though the Badgers lost two of its last three matches, Davis thinks his team is ready for the Big Ten tournament and ensuing NCAA tournament.
"We had a successful dual meet season. We finished on a positive note today beating these guys. Now we've got to go into practice every day this week and work on the little things to get our guys where we want them. We've got to pick up the intensity level a bit every day, … use our time wisely and efficiently and we'll be ready for the tournament."
Going into the match against the Golden Gophers, the Badgers knew they would have their hands full. Gopher wrestlers took seven of the 10 matches, with the Badgers getting wins from Henning and Herbst. Turner received a forfeit from defending national champion Dustin Schlatter.
"We didn't take advantage of a few opportunities they gave us," Davis said. "We knew that Minnesota was coming in strong and they are No. 1 for a reason. They showed us that reason tonight. Now we take what happened against them and we'll try to learn from it."
The highlight match was at 157 lbs. with Henning taking on Minnesota's C.P. Schlatter. After a scoreless first period, Henning scored an escape in the second and took a 1-0 lead into the third and final period. Schlatter took a 3-2 lead and looked to have command of the match. However, after receiving a stalling warning in the second period, Schlatter continued to stall. That spelled his doom, as he gave Henning three penalty points in the final eight seconds of the match and scored a 5-3 victory.
"I could feel that he was trying to just hold onto me," Henning said. "I started kicking trying to get out, and I guess that was when the ref saw the stalling. I was hoping that kicking would give me my chance. The match wasn't what I had hoped, but it'll help me prep for the tournaments."
Minnesota took the final match of the night and scored a 28-12 win, keeping alive their bid for an undefeated Big Ten dual season.
