[media-credit name=’Derek Montgomery’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The No.12-ranked Wisconsin men’s wrestling team (7-3-2 overall, 0-3-2 in Big Ten) struggled at the Field House this weekend against two ranked foes. Friday evening Wisconsin dropped a closely contested match to No. 7 Michigan, 23-16, before battling to a Sunday tie with Michigan State, 16-16.

The Badgers dug themselves a hole early Friday as they were forced to forfeit the opening match at heavyweight. However, they quickly recovered by winning the next two matches at 125 and 133 pounds.

At 125 Wisconsin’s Collin Cudd narrowly defeated Michigan’s Jim Stutich, 5-3, with a second-period reversal for his first career Big Ten dual win.

In the third match of the night, No. 6-nationally ranked Tom Clum dominated his opponent, No. 13-ranked Mark Moos, in a major decision, 12-0.

Wisconsin met its downfall in the middleweights, though, as the Badgers dropped the next five matches in succession.

Ed Gutnik lost to No. 6-ranked Josh Curella of Michigan at 141 pounds by a score of 8-3. Gutnik struggled to generate offense throughout the match, only earning points for three escapes. Curella posted two first-period takedowns to assume control of the match from the onset.

At 149, freshman and No. 14-ranked Craig Henning fell to No. 6-ranked Eric Tannenbaum, 10-3. Just like Gutnik, Henning scored all three of his points on escapes.

Sophomore tri-captain and No. 12-ranked Tyler Turner lost by a 12-5 score to Michigan’s No. 4-ranked Ryan Bertin at 157 pounds. The match was close after one period with the score tied at 3-3, but Bertin tallied six-straight points in the second to break the contest open.

Michigan won two more matches by major decisions to essentially seal the victory. UW freshman Jake Donar lost to No. 2-ranked Ryan Churella, 11-3, at 165 pounds, and junior tri-captain Kelly Flaherty fell at 174 by a score of 11-1 to Nick Roy.

However, the Badgers did make a comeback. Senior Brady Reinke, ranked No. 9, improved his record to 8-0 on the season by beating Josh Weitzel, 9-3.

Junior tri-captain and No.14-ranked Ryan Flaherty finished the night for Wisconsin in style, pinning Steve Hellnick to move to 19-4 on the season.

UW head coach Barry Davis was disappointed the team could not quite pull out the win.

“Well we knew ’41, ’49, ’74 all their records are real close, but they won all three,” Davis said. “If you flip one of those matches around it is a tie match. It has been that way with the last two dual meets, only one match away from beating two highly ranked teams.”

“You can’t be good one week and not the next,” Davis added. “We have to be more consistent.”

Sunday afternoon was slightly better for UW, as the Badgers worked the Spartans to a 16-16 tie.

Wisconsin again dug itself an early hole, with Cudd falling 12-0 to No. 3-ranked Nick Simmons by a major decision.

But the Badgers quickly bounced back with Clum beating Ryan Froese by a major decision, 19-8.

Then came the most closely contested match of the day as No. 12-ranked senior Tyler Laudon upset the Spartans’ No. 3-ranked Andy Simmons in sudden death, 5-4.

“[Winning] was a great feeling,” Laudon said. “I knew he was tough coming in, but I had pretty good success last year against him at the Big Ten [Championships]. I ended up giving up the first takedown, but after that I could really feel him wearing down. I just stayed on him and it ended up working out in the end.”

Next up at 149 was Henning, who dropped his closely contested match 8-7 to No. 19-ranked Darren McKnight.

The Badgers then won two matches in a row, with Turner knocking off Matt McCarty, 9-3, and Donar taking down Bryan Harney, 8-2.

The conference foes then traded wins to give UW a 16-10 overall meet lead. No. 19-ranked R.J. Bourdo of Michigan State beat No. 16-ranked Kelly Flaherty by 11-4 at 174 pounds. No. 9-ranked senior Reinke stepped in at 184 and delivered a gritty win over Joe Williams, 10-7.

“I feel good about Brady Reinke, totally hurt, he shouldn’t even have been on the mat,” Davis said. “His back was hurt. He could hardly walk. He went out and took one for the team.”

At 197, Ryan Flaherty had a chance to ice the match for the Badgers but couldn’t quite pull through, losing by a 14-8 margin.

The meet came down to the last match at heavyweight. Junior Lee Kraemer came close to winning the match for the Badgers but fell late, 10-6, to Spartan Max Lossen.

Coach Davis was still unhappy with the performance of his team.

“I give credit to Michigan State,” Davis said. “They came out to wrestle. I’m not real happy with Ryan and Kelly Flaherty right now. Those guys right now, it is just a mental thing. They’re captains. They should be stepping up.”