Iowa dominant as Ohio State, Michigan rest starters

Nebraska Cornhuskers 25, Ohio State 16

Kind of...: I called for a 23-13 OSU win, and it was the Huskers who got it done. How was I so wrong? Start with my prediction: 23-13 OSU. 1) I got Heinselman/Cronin wrong, as Cronin won 3-1, so that would move it to 20-16 OSU. 2) Carson Kharchla didn’t wrestle at 165 for OSU, and Nebraska’s Bubba Wilson got the win. That shifts it to 19-17 Nebraska. 3) Kaleb Romero didn’t go for OSU at 184, and Nebraska’s Lenny Pinto recorded a fall, which shifts things to 25-14 Nebraska.

So, yeah, 125 was a tossup won by Liam Cronin, who’s on a hot streak. And OSU rested two really good wrestlers because nobody cares about dual meets.

Iowa Hawkeyes 33, Michigan Wolverines 8

Atinat:Things went about as well as they could have for Iowa, winning 8 of 10 matches and scoring 9 bonus points against the Wolverines. That did include three wins against backups, at 133, 141, and 165 pounds, but it also included three ranked wins, including Cobe Siebrecht knocking off #9 Will Lewan in sudden victory. Drake Rhodes went for Iowa at 184 and surrendered a tech fall, and Mason Parris came from behind in the third period to stay unbeaten against Tony Cassioppi in a thrilling match.

As I said in the preview, I don’t think a full Michigan lineup does that much better against the Hawks, but it still would have been nice to see. However, with the stakes as low as they were, I can understand why the Wolverines are resting guys late in the season. A thorough drubbing by the Hawkeyes nonetheless, and I’m happy about it.

Michigan State 20, Indiana Hoosiers 16

Atinat: This one was as close as anticipated, with both teams winning five of ten matches and Michigan State surviving on bonus points. Those bonus points didn’t come until the very end, too, with Malczewski recording a pin at 184 and Cam Caffey following it up with a tech fall at 197 to seal the dual. The individual matches went mostly as expected, with the lone exceptions (in my mind) being Henry Porter upsetting Rayvon Foley, and Chase Saldate avenging his December loss to Derek Gilcher. As I said in the preview, this was a competitive dual between two programs in similar spots, trying to cement their place in the bottom-middle of the conference.

Penn State Nittany Lions 33, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 8

Kind of...: Rutgers got a TF at 125, and PSU rested RBY so Joe Heilman grabbed a decision at 133. Otherwise, PSU rolled, with Levi Haines being the only Nittany Lion not to grab bonus points. I am sure he is filled with shame at only winning 8-2. Nothing new was learned from this event.

Maryland Terrapins 19, Purdue Boilermakers 18

HWAHSQB: WOOOOOO!!!!!!! Turtle Power!! The Terp lineup was back to full strength and they used it for a thrilling come from behind B1G victory, the first for the Maryland grapplers since 2015-16. The Terrapins trailed 9-0 and 15-4 before taking 4 of the last 5 matches including Jaxon Smith’s first period pin to give them the opportunity to go for the win in the final match of the day, where Jaxon’s brother Jaron scored a 3-2 victory. Maryland had three on point wins in those final five matches and Braxton Brown lost to Matt Ramos 8-3. If Purdue wins one of those close matches or Ramos gets a bonus point, Purdue doesn’t leave the east coast in shame, but the Terps did what they had to do.

Purdue, you guys need to go sit in the corner and think about your life choices.

Atinat: At long last. I think my favorite part of all of this is that Jaron Smith, who sealed the deal for the Terrapins, was also the only wrestler on the team with a Big Ten dual victory with Maryland. Smith is an eighth-year senior who got a decision victory in their 2016 win over Michigan State while wrestling at 184 pounds.

Northwestern Wildcats 30, Northern Illinois 6

Atinat: Boooo. Everybody boo with me. Boooo! Yeah, the Wildcats crushed the Huskies. Michael DeAugustino did drop a tiebreaker decision to Blake West, so that’s cool, and Maxx Mayfield lost to Izzak Olejnik in a battle of weird double-letters, but that’s all the Huskies could get. Northwestern got six bonus points from the other eight matches, including three from an Andrew Davison second-period pin at 197 pounds. Go pick on someone your own size.

Minnesota Gophers 19, Wisconsin Badgers 15

Kind of...: Okay, I said 23-12 Gophers here, and it was 19-15. The discrepancy basically was that Brayton Lee didn’t go at 157, so Garrett Model gave UW a win I wasn’t expecting. Otherwise, things went pretty according to form. If anything, Minnesota looked even better than the score would indicate. Michial Foy, now 0-4 vs. Braxton Amos, held Amos to a 2-1, takedown-free victory that was even more boring than the usual Amos match. At HWT, Garrett Joles made Trent Hillger work for a 3-2 win. And Cael Carlson held Dean Hamiti to a 7-3 decision, registering a 3rd period takedown. The only real highlight for the Badgers was Eric Barnett getting a 5-4 win over Patrick McKee at 125.

Penn State 44, Maryland 3

HWAHSQB: Well the afterglow of that B1G victory didn’t last long. Braxton Brown won 1-0 at 125 and then the pain started. 44-3, that means PSU nearly averaged a TF across their 9 wins. Sheesh.

Iowa State 21, Illinois Fighting Illini 13

HWAHSQB: First off, I’d like to point out that Illinois lost to iowa by 6 and Iowa State by 8 so clearly Ames >>>>> iowa city. Zac Braunagel scored a huge win, beating #5 Yonger Bastida 4-3, knocking off a top 5 guy for the second time this year (Jacob Warner was #3 when Zac beat him) He also took the #1 guy in the country to SV, so clearly he has the firepower to be an All-American. The concern is that he can also wrestle really close matches with guys ranked significantly lower than top 5 and when you wrestle close matches all the time, it’s hard to AA, but great win for big Brauny. Danny Pucino was upset 10-7 by Casey Swiderski for his 3rd lost in last four matches after climbing into the top 10 of Intermat rankings. Pretty much everything else went to script as Illinois proves again that they are good, but not ever going to be great.

Michigan Wolverines 23, Indiana Hoosiers 18

Atinat: Okay, first of all, I want to apologize. I said to not waste your time with this one, and it ended up being a pretty competitive dual. Of course, Indiana only beat two Michigan starters, and only won four matches, but their two pins kept this dual within reach, technically, until the very end. That said, Jacob Bullock is beating Mason Parris exactly zero out of a thousand times, but to keep this dual within contention is a major win in itself for the Hoosiers. Man, it would’ve been great to see Michigan get burned for resting guys in a dual setting. Will Lewan did need tiebreakers to beat Derek Gilcher, but that was the only Michigan win that was particularly close, with the Wolverines getting one match by fall and the other four by an average of 7.25 points.

Nebraska 27, Rutgers 10

Atinat: This one, I think, lived up to the hype. Mostly because there wasn’t a ton of hype. The dual started at 197 with a Silas Allred 6-0 decision, and continued into a Boone McDermott major at heavyweight to put Rutgers up 4-3. Liam Cronin and Dean Peterson wrestled maybe my favorite 7-minute, one-takedown match this year, with Cronin consistently getting to a leg and Peterson constantly fighting it off, until Cronin finally broke through in the final minute to win 3-1. Joe Heilmann beat Boo Dryden to put Rutgers back on top, but Devon Britton went in place of Joey Olivieri at 141 and gave up a tech fall. That was enough to secure the victory for Nebraska, who won 4 of the last 5 to take the dual 27-10. Mostly it was just Cronin-Peterson living up to the hype, I guess.