Completing a weekend sweep of dual meets, the No. 19 Wisconsin wrestling team defeated Northern Illinois 27-9 Sunday afternoon at the UW Field House. With this weekend’s victories against No. 16 Northern Iowa Saturday and Northern Illinois Sunday, the Badgers improve their overall record to 3-0 in dual meets.
“Today went pretty well ,and the wrestlers came out pretty hard today just like yesterday. We wrestled aggressively, and overall I’m pretty happy,” Wisconsin head coach Barry Davis said Sunday.
The Badgers came out strong, taking the first five of six matches from the Huskies. At 174 pounds, sophomore Kelly Flaherty earned an 18-2 technical fall victory against George Kirgan at the 4:03 mark by tallying 10 near-fall points. Two matches later at 197, Lee Kraemer pinned NIU’s Brandon Check in 5:33, putting Wisconsin up 14-3.
At 125 pounds, Tom Clum won against Gralan Early. Clum scored four takedowns, three near-fall points and an escape. He also accumulated over two minutes of riding time giving him a 13-5 major decision victory.
In the most thrilling match of the day, UW’s Cole Wunnicke defeated 16th-ranked Josh Wooton 12-10 in double overtime at 149 pounds. Wunnicke tied the match 9-9 in the third period with an escape concluding the regulation. In the first overtime, Wunnicke again tied it up 10-10 by scoring a narrow escape at the conclusion of the OT. Then in the second overtime sudden death round he scored the winning takedown to earn his first dual victory of the season.
“Today was real good for Cole and I think it was a big turn-around match for him,” Davis said. “Today he kept his poise and better position and he turned it up a notch when he had to.”
-compiled from staff reports
