While the UW football team completed its winningest season, and the UW men's basketball team continues to hold down a No. 2 national ranking, another men's team is making plenty of noise lately.
The UW wrestling team, while maintaining an undefeated record and No. 15 national ranking, upended then No. 10 Penn State this past weekend to open Big Ten play in front of a record crowd of 900 people at the UW Fieldhouse.
With a final score of 17-16, UW prevailed in what was a hotly competitive match in which each school won five matches each.
UW junior Collin Cudd suffered his first dual meet loss individually in the 125-pound weight class at the hands of No. 2 ranked Mark McKnight of Penn State. However the Badgers' spirit was not tainted as UW sophomore Zach Tanelli regained the momentum for Bucky as he upset No. 6 ranked Jake Strayer in the 133 pound weight class.
After Strayer successfully locked up Tanelli for nearly a minute, he attempted to perform an illegal move which gave Tanelli the edge at 6-5 with a half a minute to go in the match. Tanelli then went on a bit of a run including notching an escape, a three-point near fall and takedown to finish off the upset and secure his first Big Ten match victory 12-6.
After UW freshman Kyle Ruschell and senior Tyler Turner added match victories in the 141-pound and 149-pound classes to extend the UW lead over Penn State to 9-3, the eventual dagger was put into the heart of the Nittany Lions when junior Craig Henning dominated PSU's Bubba Jenkins in the 157-pound weight class.
Penn State battled back after Craig Henning's tech fall and cut the Badger lead after Nittany Lion wins in the 165 pound class where PSU's Dave Rella squeaked out a tightly contested match over UW junior Jake Donar. Penn State then went on to win its second consecutive match when No. 5 ranked James Yonushonis of Penn State beat UW sophomore Mike Felling 13-4 in the 174-pound division.
UW freshman Trevor Brandvold extended the Badger lead after he defeated Phil Bomberger, improving his record to 14-3 overall and 9-1 in dual meets.
UW sophomore and No. 11 ranked Dallas Herbst fell short in his match against the national runner up in Penn State's Phillip Davis, losing his bout 11-2 and opening the door up for Penn State heading into the final match of the evening.
UW sophomore heavyweight Kyle Massey was matched up with No.12 ranked Aaron Anspach of PSU. Massey eventually lost the match to Anspach 8-5, but in doing so he prevented Anspach from gaining any bonus points and secured the win for UW 17-16.
This marks the second consecutive time that UW has beaten Penn State in upset fashion in the last two seasons. It also marks their 15th win in a row, making it the second most wins in school history only half way through the season.
UW will grace the mats next in Evanston, Ill., as the Badgers take on the Wildcats of Northwestern Saturday.
