The Wisconsin wrestling team competed in two Big Ten dual meets this weekend and came out victorious in each one.
On Friday night, the No. 11 Minnesota Golden Gophers came to the UW Field House to battle with the No. 18 Badgers.
After the first matches of the evening, UW found itself trailing its rival from across the border.
At 125 pounds, Minnesota's eighth-ranked redshirt freshman Zach Sanders recorded a 10-4 decision over Wisconsin junior Drew Hammen. The Badgers fell again at 133 pounds, when fifth-ranked junior Jayson Ness of Minnesota pinned UW's junior Erik Senescu in 1:51. With the win, Ness improved his overall record to 28-4.
The Badgers got on the scoreboard at 141 pounds, where top-ranked Badger senior Zach Tanelli took down Minnesota's eighth-ranked sophomore Mike Thorn, earning a 7-5 decision. The UW senior moved to 22-3 overall with the victory.
UW junior Kyle Ruschell, ranked No. 5 at 149 pounds, kept the momentum going for the Badgers when he registered a 12-4 major decision over Minnesota's redshirt freshman Joe Grygelko.
Minnesota got a win when the Gophers' senior Tyler Safratowich scored a 7-5 decision over Wisconsin freshman Ben Jordan at 157 pounds.
At 168 pounds, Wisconsin's eighth-ranked Andrew Howe, a true freshman, scored a 4-1 decision over Minnesota sophomore Scott Glasser. Another true freshman, UW's Travis Rutt would follow up Howe's win with one of his own, defeating Minnesota redshirt freshman Kaleb Young with a 3-1 decision at 174 pounds.
At 184 pounds, Wisconsin sophomore Eric Bugenhagen defeated Minnesota freshman Sonny Yohn with a 3-2 decision in a closely contested match.
Wisconsin's No. 3, senior Dallas Herbst, would record the Badgers' fourth consecutive victory over the Gophers, defeating Minnesota junior Gordon Bierschenk with a 5-2 decision at 197 pounds.
In the final match of the night, the Gophers picked up a victory when sophomore Ben Berhow got a well-earned 3-2 decision over UW's No. 8, senior Kyle Massey, at 285 pounds. This final win would not be enough for the Gophers, however, as Wisconsin came out of the meet victorious, 19-15.
On Sunday afternoon, the team was back in action as it welcomed No. 25 Purdue to Madison.
Not unlike Friday, Wisconsin fell behind early in the smaller weight classes. Purdue redshirt freshman Matt Fields recorded a 7-4 decision over Hammen at 125 pounds. At 133 pounds, Boilermaker redshirt freshman Carson Beebe got a 4-2 decision over UW true freshman Tom Kelliher.
The Badgers got on the board when Tanelli recorded yet another victory, taking an 8-4 decision over junior Juan Archuleta of Purdue in 141. Tanelli increased his winning streak to an impressive 16 consecutive matches.
At 149 pounds, Ruschell recorded his second victory of the weekend, pinning Purdue's No. 8 senior Jake Patacsil in 1:54. At 157 pounds, Purdue junior Nick Bertucci scored a 6-0 decision over Jordan, tying the meet at 9-9.
Howe continued his excellent freshman season, recording a 9-3 decision over Purdue's No. 16 sophomore Luke Manuel. With the win, Howe is 21-4 overall, with a perfect 7-0 record in Big Ten matches.
Purdue junior Nick Corpe scored a 5-1 decision over Rutt at 174 pounds. The Boilermakers followed this up with another win, as No. 14 sophomore A.J. Kissel recorded a 1-0 decision over Bugenhagen.
The Badgers found themselves down 15-12, but with the last two matches featuring Herbst and Massey for the Badgers, confidence remained high and Herbst and Massey delivered.
Herbst scored a 2-0 decision over Purdue's No. 13 sophomore Logan Brown at 197 pounds, and Massey capped off the meet with a decisive 10-2 major decision over Boilermaker junior Chris Kasten at 285 pounds, avenging his defeat Friday night.
At the end of the day, the Badgers walked away with another 19-15 victory.
The Wisconsin wrestling team will be back in action Feb. 22 at noon to take on Ohio State at the UW Field House. It will be the team's final meet before the Big Ten Championships in March.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
