Freshman 197 pounder Jacob Cooper thinks about his next move on Jan. 15, 2015 at Jenison Field House. For the first time in school history, the wrestling and gymnastics teams held a joint meet.
On a night where the air was cold and the weather was gloomy, the MSU wrestling team brought excitement to Jenison Field House, where they teamed up with the MSU gymnastics team in the first annual "Tumbles and Takedowns" event.
The inaugural event between the two teams might have began in disappointing fashion, because the MSU gymnastics team lost to Iowa by a final score of 194.900-192.575, and the unranked MSU wrestling team (0-9 record, 0-4 in the Big Ten) took on the No. 20 ranked Purdue Boilermakers (6-2 record, 1-1 B1G), in which they fell to 0-9 on the season and were defeated by a final meet score of 27-15.
The Spartans got off to a 3-0 lead over the Boilermakers when redshirt sophomore Mitch Rogaliner (8-11 record) defeated Purdue redshirt freshman Ben Thorton (14-8 record) by a match score of 7-4 in the 125-pound weight class match.
“I’ve wrestled that kid before so I had a good idea of what he was going to do,” Rogaliner said. “But he came out and hit me in a quick takedown and put me in a cradle real quick so I knew I would have to fight through that. I just stuck to my game plan and in the end held out with a win.”
MSU’s second match victory of the evening came in the 141-pound weight class match when Spartan redshirt sophomore Javier Gasca (13-4 record) defeated Purdue redshirt senior Danny Sabatello (11-9 record) in a tap out, in which the final score was 7-1. Gasca’s tap-out victory gave MSU a 9-3 lead.
Purdue was quick to strike back when redshirt junior Alex Griffin (9-4 record) dominated MSU redshirt junior Kaelan Richards (1-7 record) by a match score of 15-0. Griffin’s victory put Purdue within striking distance of the Spartans, with a score of 9-8.
Purdue would go into intermission with a 11-9 lead over the Spartans and continued to look strong in the second half. The Boilermakers won the first match of the second half when No. 5 ranked Chad Welch (20-3 record) defeated MSU redshirt sophomore Dean Vettese by a match score of 12-4 and widened Purdue’s lead to 15-9.
The fatal blow for the Spartans would come when Purdue redshirt junior Tanner Lynde (6-7 record) would force a tap out on Spartan redshirt freshman Shwan Shadaia (8-8 record) in the 184-pound weight class match to give Purdue a 24-9 lead over the Spartans.
MSU’s only score in the second half came when freshman Jacob Cooper (4-9 record) would pin redshirt senior Drake Stein (9-13 record) into submission to give MSU six points, but still led Purdue 24-15 with one match left.
“One thing that stuck with me was (Jacob) Cooper’s fall,” Gasca said. “You can see that he’s a true freshman, but he’s wrestling some of the best guys in the country. He’s going to do big things and it’s cool to see someone like that young, hungry and making big moves.”
The Spartans, who remain winless, have struggled all season, but Friday night’s loss was also their best performance of the year, scoring a season high 15 points in a single meet.
Head coach Tom Minkel knows what his athletes are capable of and still has faith in the Spartans.
“We’re kind of a work in progress,” Minkel said. “We’re a young team, we’ve got a lot of young kids and it’s a process. We’re making progress but we’re wrestling some really good teams, so sometimes it doesn’t show as much as you’d like.”
MSU will take a few days to regroup, but they’re still not out of the woods yet, as they prepare to take on No. 13 Illinois (9-2 record, 0-2 Big Ten) at home on Sunday. The meet is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
Support student media!
Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
