Foley opened up the season with high momentum as he defeated Maryland’s King Sandoval 17-0 with a tech fall, his first matchup since redshirting last season with an injury. 

In a nail-biting match against No. 22 Patrick McKee, Foley fell short with a 3-2 decision loss against the Minnesota redshirt sophomore.

In the 133-pound class, redshirt freshman Jordan Hamdan held the lead 8-0 for a while, but minute by minute the matchup grew closer. Hamdan ended up pulling out the win, 13-12, for MSU. 

In his debut match against Minnesota's No. 24 Boo Dryden, freshman Tristan Lujan struggled to get the momentum going in a 6-1 loss.

Maryland’s redshirt junior Danny Bertoni lost to MSU’s Jake Spiess by a tech fall, which is usually a win by pinning the opponent, in under a minute. In his second matchup, Minnesota's Marcos Polanco kept the lead consistently, winning the match 7-1.

For the 149-pound division, redshirt freshman Peyton Omania defeated redshirt freshman Michael North by four, after going into the second round with a 7-5 advantage. The final team score was 13-9 as the Spartans defeated the Terrapins. 

But Omania couldn't keep the momentum alive as he fell short to Minnesota's No. 19 Michael Blockhus, a 16-4 major decision.

For his first matchup in green and white, freshman Chase Saldate defeated Maryland’s Lucas Cordio by pin only 1:30 seconds into the first round, finishing off his opponent with a final score of 23-0.

Following his win against Cordio, Saldate fell short to Minnesota's No. 6 Brayton Lee, 5-4, after entering the final period with a 2-0 advantage.

"I say what's even bigger than his pin, in that first match, was the second match," Caffey said of Saldate. "Even though he lost that second match, that kid's really good. ... That's huge for Michigan State and for him, definitely was happy to see him go out there and wrestle the way he did."

For the next two matchups, MSU’s No. 13 Jake Tucker and redshirt senior Drew Hughes pulled out the wins by narrow margins, 6-3 and 4-2, respectively. 

The Spartans continued into tough matchups with a back-and-forth match as No. 16 Andrew Sparks defeated Tucker in the final period.

The Golden Gophers pulled out another win as junior Jake Allar kept his 5-1 advantage into the final period, and scoring eight more in the final round.

The Spartans kept their momentum going after a slow start and by the next matchup, the Spartans led 32-0 as No. 19 Layne Malczewski defeated Maryland’s Kyle Cochran with a late 7-1 decision. 

Following a challenge on the mat during his match against senior Owen Webster, Malczewski kept his 4-3 advantage from the first round, leading 6-5 into the final round. Malczewski finished 9-6 with the Spartans' first win against the Golden Gophers.

Despite being in a different weight class from the 2019-2020 season, Caffey defeated redshirt freshman Kevin Masoky in a 14-4 major decision. Into the next matchup, MSU’s Brad Wilton carried on the tech fall streak with his win over Maryland’s Connor Bowes.

In the Spartans' second win against the Golden Gophers, Caffey defeated senior Garrett Joles after keeping his 6-4 lead into the final round, finishing it with a final score of 12-5.

For the last matchup of the meet, Big Ten Heavyweight Champ No. 1 Gable Steveson defeated MSU redshirt junior Brad Wilton with a score of 23-8.

In a post-match interview, Head Coach Roger Chandler discussed the Spartans' plans going into the next matchup against Penn State.

"I think the main thing we got to focus on is each individual," Chandler said. "... Everybody's had different issues that we have to address. And that's the great thing about the sport of wrestling is nobody's invincible, and everybody's beatable."

The Spartans are looking to carry the same energy into their next meet as they will compete Saturday, Jan. 24 at Penn State.