Senior Kyle Bounds lifts NIU’s John Odeen off the mat in the 165 pound match. Bounds defeated Odeen, 8-6, on the way to a 28-6 team victory over the Huskies Saturday afternoon in the Spartan Duels at Jennison Field House.
Trailing in the late stages of its Spartan Duals match against Rutgers, MSU wrestlers Nick Palmieri and Tyler Dickenson delivered clutch performances to force a tie in a key Spartan Duals match.
The Spartans finished the afternoon 2-0-1 at the inaugural Spartan Duals event, but were lifted by the late efforts of Palmieri and Dickenson to turn a 13-10 deficit against the Scarlet Knights into an eventual 16-16 tie.
MSU defeated Stanford, 25-10, in the opener, and closed out Northern Illinois, 28-6, to go undefeated at the first Spartan Duals event, which featured six teams and action spread across three mats of the Jenison Field House floor.
“The six college teams and three dual meets make it worthwhile for a team like Rutgers or Stanford to make the trip all the way here,” MSU head coach Tom Minkel said. “I think it went very, very well.”
The Spartans got off to an early lead against Northern Illinois in the final match, using a major decision from No. 1 133-pound senior Franklin Gomez to take an early advantage.
With the Spartans ahead 10-3, No. 13 149-pound sophomore David Cheza earned a solid 4-0 decision in his match-up to bring the Spartans ahead 13-3.
The entire second half of the Spartans’ lineup recorded victories against the Huskies, as MSU earned several close decisions to win comfortably against Northern Illinois.
165-pound senior Kyle Bounds and 285-pound senior Alan O’Donnell secured close matches during the second half of the match to lead the Spartans.
With a rigorous Big Ten schedule upcoming, Saturday’s performance should serve as a warm-up for what to expect during the next several weeks.
“I feel like we’re ready,” 141-pound freshman Dan Osterman said. “We’ll just have a good week at practice this week and work on some things. … Overall we wrestled well and it was a pretty good day.”
Gomez continued his winning tear this season, moving to 12-0 on the season with three victories Saturday.
The Spartans begin Big Ten play Friday against highly ranked Minnesota and then move on to face several more ranked opponents before the middle of February.
Minkel said at his press conference last week that he would like the inaugural Duals to turn into an annual event.
The match against Rutgers went back and forth throughout the second half, with Rutgers pulling ahead 13-10 late.
The Spartans battled back to tie, but in spite of their efforts, players were slightly disappointed for not being able to wrap up the victory.
Nevertheless, MSU will try to use Saturday’s effort to its advantage as it begins the road ahead.
“I felt like we performed pretty well and gave our best,” Gomez said. “You can tell because all the matches were pretty close.”
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