The No.17 University of Wisconsin men’s wrestling team fell 24-16 to the No. 9 Illinois Fighting Illini Sunday afternoon at the UW Field House. The loss dropped the Badgers’ overall record to 7-7-0 and 1-4-0 in the Big Ten as the Illini improved to 10-1-0 overall and 3-1-0 in the Big Ten.
The Fighting Illini jumped on the Badgers 10-0 after two bouts and held the lead throughout the rest of the meet. Wisconsin won four of the 10 bouts while the Illini left with six wins. Although the Badgers suffered the loss, senior Dallas Herbst recorded his 100th career win in a matchup with Illinois’ Patrick Bond.
The meet started out slow for the Badgers as B.J. Futrell defeated junior Drew Hammon with a 17-4 decision, and Badger true freshman Tom Kelliher was pinned by No. 3 Jimmy Kennedy at the 6:19 mark in the first period.
The Badgers soon turned it around as senior Zach Tanelli, ranked No.1 in the nation at 141 pounds for the second straight week, scored the Badger’s first points with a 12-2 decision over the Illini’s Ryan Prater. Tanelli’s victory was his 14th straight overall.
“I knew [Prater] was a funky wrestler and was very unorthodox, so I just tried to stay out of any uncomfortable positions with him,” Tanelli said.
In the 149 lbs. class, Badgers’ junior Kyle Ruschell then continued the success and put the Badgers within three points of the Illini after defeating Illinois’ Eric Terrazas. Ruschell, who is No. 5 in the country for his weight class, got on the scoreboard with an escape in the second period after a scoreless first period to record the 4-1 victory.
Just before intermission, UW freshman Ben Jordan failed to defeat Illinois’ Mike Poeta. Poeta, ranked No. 2 in the country in his weight class, dominated most of the match, getting the 14-3 decision. The match left the Badgers trailing the Illini 14-7 at the break.
Badger true freshman Andrew Howe soon brought the Badgers back within four with a close 2-1 decision over No. 15 Roger Smith-Bergsrud. With a scoreless first period, Smith-Bergsrud scored first in the second with an escape, but Howe then countered with an escape of his own to even the score at one. Howe then used up 1:04 to record the win. Howe remains unblemished in dual action with a perfect 10-0 record.
True freshman Travis Rutt then took a loss to the Illini’s John Dergo at 174 pounds and No. 12 Jordan Blanton was able to defeat the Badgers’ Eric Bugenhagen to improve Illinois’ lead to 24-10 heading into the last two matches.
In the second-to-last match of the afternoon, Wisconsin’s No. 3 Dallas Herbst extended his six-match winning streak to seven and also recorded his milestone 100th victory in a hard-fought match with the Illini’s Patrick Bond. Although Herbst struggled in the beginning as Bond recorded a takedown, he quickly recovered and got an escape with 1:47 left in the period to take the 2-1 lead. Both wrestlers then went back and forth, both registering points until Herbst recorded the winning point with a takedown with 19 seconds left. This milestone win comes with great relief as Herbst struggled with Bond in their two previous matchups. During last year’s dual Bond prevailed 3-2, and during the 2006-07 season Bond also won, 7-3.
“I knew I had to push [Bond] and that it was going to be a very high-paced match,” Herbst said. “He is a very good wrestler, and I just had to hope he made a mistake.”
Herbst becomes just the fourth Badger under head coach Barry Davis to record 100 wins, the others being Craig Henning (105 wins), Eric Jetton (115 wins) and Donny Ratliff (135 wins).
The heavyweight match then put No. 9 UW senior Kyle Massey against the Illini’s No. 10 John Wise as Massey recorded the win with a 4-0 decision. The win was Massey’s fifth career victory over Wise as Massey improved to 13-5 in his senior season. Although Davis was not pleased with the overall outcome, he was proud of Herbst for the great achievement.
“Dallas is wrestling great right now,” Davis said. “[Bond] gave him trouble before, but he was able to pull it out in the end.
“The guys that were expected to win won,” he continued. “But the other guys made mistakes that just can’t be made. It’s hurting our team way too much.”
