The Wisconsin wrestling team closed out its Big Ten-regular season with a 29-12 victory over Northwestern this weekend at the UW Field House. UW junior Tony Black and sophomore Ryan Lewis pinned their opponents, while the Wildcats earned their only victories at the heavyweight and 157-pound positions. Due to injury, the Badgers forfeited at 149 pounds.
Grant Hoerr, the lone senior on Wisconsin’s squad (11-10 overall, 3-5 Big Ten), gave the Badgers a 4-1 victory over Northwestern’s (7-12, 0-7) 18th-ranked John Giacche at 141 pounds. Hoerr, ranked 16th nationally, extends his winning streak to six matches and enters the Big Ten Championship with a 7-1 conference record, 23-9 overall.
Freshman Brady Reinke (174 lbs.) put the Badgers on the board with a 13-7 decision over Jason Erwinski. Sophomore Ralph DeNisco (184) followed with a 10-4 victory before classmate Jareck Horton (197) earned four more points for UW with a 12-2 major decision against Brendon Curan.
Wildcat heavyweight Mike Little avoided the Badgers’ Justin Staebler in the closing seconds to hold on for a narrow 6-5 victory — cutting Wisconsin’s lead to 10-3. Tony Black had a 12-1 lead on Rob Potashnick in the 125-pound bout before using his flexibility and unorthodox style to pin Potashnick at the 4:42 mark. The victory was the first for Black in the Big Ten season.
Junior Kevin Black (133) earned a 21-9 major decision against Tommy Vargas before Hoerr added his victory to give UW a 23-3 advantage. The forfeit and Chris Borchardt’s 9-4 loss to Mike Kimberlin at 157 pounds cut the UW lead to 23-12. In the final bout, Lewis secured the Wildcats’ Nolan Walther on his back at 4:32 to earn his first fall of the season.
Women’s Hockey; The Wisconsin women’s hockey team swept 10th ranked Ohio State with a 3-0 win on Saturday night. The Badgers advanced to 19-9-2 overall and 15-5-1 in the WCHA, while the Buckeyes dropped to 15-12-4 overall and 9-11-3 in the WCHA.
Wisconsin started early in the first period with an unassisted goal by Kerry Weiland. The junior defenseman skated past the Ohio State defenders up ice to beat OSU goaltender April Stojak for her sixth goal of the season.
“One of our goals was to come out a little stronger,” Wisconsin assistant coach Tracey Cornell said. “I think we didn’t do such a good job of that yesterday and obviously they responded well tonight and were up to the task. We were happy with our defensive and offensive effort.”
Before the period ended, Wisconsin scored again with a power-play goal by frosh Molly Engstrom. Steph Millar cycled the puck up to Weiland, who passed it to Engstrom at the point. The goal was Engstrom’s sixth of the season and brought the score to 2-0.
“On the power play I thought we moved the puck well,” Cornell said. “The power-play goal was three or four perfect passesm, so it was well deserved.”
The second period was scoreless as both the Badgers and the Buckeyes fought for the puck.
The Badgers scored the final goal of the game at 13:30 of the third period. Millar brought the puck up the boards and passed it to Meghan Hunter just inside the blue line. Hunter took a shot that was deflected in by Kendra Antony for the goal.
Jackie MacMillan stopped 15 shots for the shutout, while Stojak stopped 22 shots in the loss
