After Michigan stormed back to within three points (18-15) following the 184-pound bout, Minnesota's Justin Bronson (197 pounds) and Ben Berhow (heavyweight) pulled off impressive victories to seal the win for the Gophers. The dual meet victory avenges the Wolverines' 23-16 upset of Minnesota earlier this month at the National Duals and was the Gophers' second in their last five meetings with Michigan.
Minnesota also defeated Michigan State 23-15 Friday in East Lansing. The defending national champions have won their past 11 Big Ten dual meets dating back to the 2005-06 season.
Minnesota's vaunted group of lightweights took care of business in the early going Saturday and allowed the Gophers to jump out to a substantial lead after just three matches. Both No. 1 Jayson Ness (125 pounds) and No. 2 Mack Reiter (133 pounds) earned sub-2:00 minute pins to start the dual, and No. 4 Manny Rivera followed that with an upset victory over third-ranked Kellen Russell of the Wolverines at 141 pounds.
Ness' pin (coming in just 1:13 over Michigan's Jason Lara) was his NCAA Division I-leading 17th of the season and puts him just three shy of the Gophers' single season mark of 20, set by current head assistant head coach Marty Morgan in 1989-90. Ness is a perfect 26-0 on the season and owns the second-longest active winning streak in Division I wrestling.
Reiter, coming off a hard-fought loss to No. 5 Franklin Gomez of Michigan State Friday night, bounced back with a dominating performance against Michigan's Chris Diehl. The two-time All-American pinned his Wolverine opponent in just 1:34 to improve his overall record to 16-2 on the season.
Rivera gained a measure of revenge at 141 pounds against the freshman Russell. Then ranked first in the nation, Russell beat Rivera 10-6 in mid-January at the National Duals, but it was the Gopher that turned the tables Saturday night. Rivera scored a takedown in the second and a clutch reversal in the third period to emerge with the 4-2 win and improve to 25-2 on the season.
Down big early, the Wolverines narrowed the gap to 15-6 after Minnesota's Luke Mellmer was pinned by No. 8 Josh Churella, but No. 7 C.P. Schlatter extended the Gopher lead with a 10-4 win over Jeff Marsh at 157 pounds.
Tyler Safratowich wrestled well against third-ranked Eric Tannenbaum at 165 pounds, but lost a tight 6-2 decision. The Gopher junior, well known for knocking off several highly-ranked wrestlers last season en route to his first-ever NCAA appearance, was down just 2-1 after two periods but could not muster anything offensively in the final two minutes of action.
Gabe Dretsch, fresh off his 100th career victory Friday night against the Spartans, was overpowered by Michigan's second-ranked Steve Luke at 174 pounds and lost a 9-3 decision. Luke also topped Dretsch earlier this month at the National Duals. After Mitch Kuhlman was beaten at 184 pounds by No. 2 Tyrel Todd, the Wolverines had closed the gap to 18-15 entering the final two matches of the night.
Needing an individual victory, Minnesota turned to Bronson at 197 pounds against Michigan's Ryan Selley. The two evenly-matched wrestlers battled through a scoreless first two periods, but the Gopher senior finally wore down his opponent in the third frame. Bronson earned an escape to start the third and notched a late takedown which, combined with the bonus point for riding time, gave him a 4-0 victory in the match.
Redshirt freshman Berhow had struggled somewhat in dual meets this season, posting a 2-3 record entering Saturday. But the Hayward, Minn. native outscored Matt Guhn 5-1 in the third period to pull off the 7-3 victory at heavyweight and send the Gophers home with a perfect Big Ten opening weekend.
Saturday's announced attendance was 1,181.
Minnesota now turns its attention to the top-ranked Iowa Hawkeyes, who will visit Williams Arena Friday night (Feb. 1) at 7:30 p.m. The Hawkeyes will enter the highly-anticipated meet sporting a 14-1 dual meet record and have held the top spot in the nation since winning the National Duals two weeks ago. Iowa will be without top-ranked 165-pounder (and defending national champion) Mark Perry, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery earlier this week. The meet will begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised live on the Big Ten Network.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now