The University of Northern Iowa wrestling team does not get any breaks in their schedule as they wrestle some of the best competition in the nation. A week after dropping two conference duals to Utah Valley and Wyoming, the Panthers had to square off with No. 3 ranked Oklahoma State Thursday and then face Appalachian State and Chattanooga Saturday.
Oklahoma State had eight of the 10 wrestlers ranked in the top 15 and seven wrestlers ranked in the top 10. With such a solid lineup, the Cowboys have earned a No. 3 ranking behind Iowa and Iowa State. The ranked wrestlers for OSU took care of business and the Panthers earned victories against two unranked OSU wrestlers.
Caleb Flores (125 pounds) fell to No. 9 Chris Notte 9-3 to open the dual and No. 6 Jordan Oliver recorded a tech fall against Joey Lazor (133 pounds) to put the Cowboys up 9-0 to start the match. Charlie Ettelson (141 pounds) and Trent Washington (149 pounds) earned consecutive victories for the Panthers to bring the score to 9-6.
In the next match Tyson Reiner (157 pounds) faced yet another ranked wrestler in the No. 14 ranked Neil Erisman. Reiner recorded the only take down of the match, but Erisman escaped with a 3-2 riding-time point win to stop the Panther momentum. Erishman had over a minute of riding time advantage to give him the 3-2 victory. After this match, OSU got into the heart of their lineup and rolled out five top 10 wrestlers, leaving with victories in each to finish off the dual with a 30-6 victory.
In the first dual of the day the Panthers squared off with Appalachian State. UNI won seven of the seven of the 10 dual matches to finish with a 30-9 win over the Mountaineers. Dustin Bauman (197 pounds) dropped the first match of the day with a 6-2 decision to Dylan Temple. The Panthers then strung together six straight wins starting with Christian Brantley (Heavyweight). Flores, Lazor, Ettelson, Washington, Reiner and Jarion Beets all picked up victories in the dual to start the day off.
Later in the day the Panthers faced the host school, Chattanooga, and looked to pick up their second win of the day. The Panthers dropped the first three matches of the dual by a total of six points to fall behind 9-0. Washington and Reiner picked up consecutive victories to pull UNI within three points halfway through the dual.
The Panthers took three of the final five matches to end the dual with each team winning five matches, but Chattanooga recorded a major decision at 184 pounds to give them a one-point advantage over UNI. The Panthers fell just short with a 16-15 final score. Beets, Bauman and Brantley picked up the three victories to finish off the meet.
The Panthers will return to action Friday at Northern Illinois. Then UNI will travel back home to face off with North Dakota State Feb. 14.
Wrestlers drop two out of three
Published: Monday, February 8, 2010
Updated: Monday, February 8, 2010
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