Michigan State wrestling defeated the Indiana Hoosiers 20-16 Friday night, snapping its two-match losing streak. The match also served as Senior Night.
This win wasn’t only a special night for the seniors, but also for Head Wrestling Coach Roger Chandler, who reached 50 wins as a Spartan. Chandler, who accepted the head coaching position in 2015, is in his sixth season with the team.
Junior Tristan Lujan (14-7) and Hoosier junior Jacob Moran (20-10) started out the night for the 125 weigh-in. The crowd could tell these two were evenly matched. The dogfight ended in Lujan’s favor, and the Spartans went up 3-0 to start out the night.
Despite this discrepancy, the Hoosiers capitalized on the Spartans in the featherweight criteria. Hoosier freshman Henry Porter (17-6) ran away with the win against Spartan graduate student Ravyon Foley (11-7) for the 133 weigh-in.
Following his lead, Hoosier senior Cayden Rooks (10-8) matched up and claimed the victory against Spartan redshirt junior Jordan Hamdan (20-9) for the 141 weigh-in. Hoosier redshirt senior Graham Rooks (22-6) then outwrestled Spartan redshirt junior Peyton Omania (13-9) for 149 weigh-in.
The Indiana Hoosiers led 10-3 going into the 157 weight class.
Spartan junior Chase Saldate (20-4) was able to stop this run by the Hoosiers, going up against junior Derek Gilcher (21-8). Fans approved, and the unanswered points finally became answered with Saldate leading the way.
The Hoosiers still led the charge 10-6, with promising efforts by MSU: it was still anyone's match.
Sure enough, the tide came in. Spartan junior Caleb Fish (22-6) secured the 165 weigh-in, and MSU trailed 10-9.
Hoosier redshirt junior and standout DJ Washington (18-4) is a well known powerhouse in college wrestling. He made that evident to those who watched at Jenison, as he took the win against Spartan freshman Ceasar Garza, who is 13-9 on the year. Washington was on the watchlist going into this matchup between the Hoosiers and the Spartans, and rightly so.
Nonetheless, Spartan redshirt Senior Layne Malczewski (19-3) had some cracks of his own. He was able to take the win for the 184 pound weigh-in and put the Spartans in a good spot for graduate student Cameron Caffey, who was up next on the mat.
At the last home matchup, Caffey scored a whirlwind of points in the last 10 seconds of the 197 pound weigh-in.
Before Caffey’s match, you could see the MSU fans within Jenison, but not exactly hear them. With Caffey on the mat, you could definitely see and hear them alike. Up against Hoosier junior Drayton Harris, Caffey (16-3) won his weight class and put the Spartans up 20-13.
MSU ultimately took the win 20-16. The Spartans will travel to Central Michigan Friday, February 17th to take on the Chippewas at 7 p.m.
