“It was huge for us to win this Big Ten match,” McClure said. “This is the toughest conference and it was just grueling going against the top five teams in the nation for a while.”

The Spartans will wrestle Division III opponent Olivet College at noon on Friday at Jenison Field House and will use that last home match to honor the seniors that will graduate in the spring.

Head coach Tom Minkel said that the team was resilient in getting the win when they won matches that could have gone against them. The team will keep practices consistent for the season and improve from there.

“We’ve been generally making progress and it was good to feel and see the progress happen over the weekend,” Minkel said.

All wrestlers are aware that the Big Ten is one of the toughest conferences, Kaczanowski said.

“It’ll help us go on to the next match with confidence. We’re working on a lot of different things individually,” he said.

Now that the Spartans have wrestled many “brutally tough teams,” Minkel said it’s starting to sink in the seniors’ minds that the season is coming to an end.

“It’s funny to know that the day is coming where they’ll end the career,” he said. “It’s their last home meet.”

For Kaczanowski, he thinks of ending his wrestling career as motivation to put in his best effort preparing himself and competing.

“It’s always interesting to have that last hurrah. I’ve been doing this for a long time and it’s easier knowing that I don’t have four more years to be here,” he said.

Other seniors, like McClure, said that it is rewarding knowing how much they worked while being a part of the team.

“It’s my last dual meet at Jenison,” McClure said. “I want to finish strong and get a pin for the team.”

He said realizing it is the last home match will hit him “after the fact.”

“For me, it’s hard to grasp. I just get that feeling that I just got here and now I’m a few days out from ending my career,” McClure said.

Although he said Olivet is a Division III team, they “shouldn’t overlook them.”

“We’re a much better team, and I just tell the guys to do what they do best and treat it as any other match,” McClure said.

Leading the team, Kaczanowski said the motivation to work hard has been there for a while.

“We have a lot of guys coming in and putting extra time outside of practice,” he said.

Minkel said he wants to see the team and the seniors finish strong so they can once again see the progress they have made throughout the season.