The Wisconsin wrestling team did something they have not done since 1991 this weekend in beating Minnesota 17-16 on their home turf. The victory was also the first against the Gophers since the Badgers defeated them at home in 1996. In the process, Barry Davis picked up his 100th win as head coach of the Badgers.

Davis stressed coming into the match that the No. 13 ranked Badgers had to win the close matches if they were to come out of Minnesota with a victory. That proved to be the difference as matches involving 125-pounder Tom Clum, 149-pounder Tony Turner, and 184-pounder Brady Reinke, were decided in the final 30 seconds.

Reinke kicked off the dual meet against Josh McClay and the two went scoreless late in the third period before Reinke earned an escape and takedown to win 3-0.

The next match featured No. 1 ranked Damion Hahn against Deforest’s Lee Kraemer. Despite being dominating the match, Hahn was only able to forge a major decision against Kraemer.

The match of the night may have come at 125 pounds when No. 12 Tom Clum took on No. 11 Bobbe Lowe. Clum scored an early takedown and fought off an intense attack late in the third period by Lowe. Clum won the match 4-3.

Wisconsin and Minnesota both won five matches. The difference came at 165 pounds when Wisconsin’s Kelly Flaherty took on his brother Casey. The younger Flaherty controlled the match from the start winning 17-0 by technical fall in 4:09. Seven matches were decided by four points or less.

Wisconsin had little time to enjoy the victory as they headed back to the Field House for another Big Ten matchup against Penn State. Again, Davis believed Wisconsin was going to have to win the close matches to come away with a win.

Early it was Wisconsin winning the close matches with 157-pounder Tyler Turner picking up a 7-5 victory in overtime over James Woodall of Penn State. At 174 pounds, tri-captain Ralph DeNisco pinned Rich Brooks to give the Badgers a 12-0 advantage.

The turning point of the match came at 197 pounds when Penn State’s Joel Edwards defeated Lee Kraemer 7-5 in overtime. Kraemer gave up two backpoints in the final seconds of the third period. After the loss, Penn State started chipping away at the Badgers’ lead.

At heavyweight, No. 1 ranked Pat Cummins of Penn State managed a 15-3 defeat of Jarreck Horton. The match was followed up by Tom Clum’s second thriller of the weekend. A last second takedown in the match gave Clum a 3-2 victory over Adam Smith.

At 141 pounds, Wisconsin’s Tyler Laudon faced off with Russian-born Marat Tomaev. Tomaev was strong on his feet and held off a number of deep takedowns by Laudon. Late in the third period with the score 4-3 in favor of Tomaev, Laudon shot in deep but was countered into a cradle for a quick pin.

The final score found the Badgers losing 15-24. After the dual meet, Davis repeated the necessity to win close ones while stressing the importance of next week’s match against Purdue.

“We definitely lost the match we should have won,” Davis said. “We had a chance we kind of gave the meet away in a couple of situations. We’ve got to regroup. We’re letting our guys slow us down and not release their offense like we should. It’s not the end of the world, but we’ve got some things to work on. We’ve just go to bounce back next week.”