So far we have had two dual meets this season.  Our first dual was last Friday, November 13^th at the Field House.  The Badgers (#12) defeated Old Dominion (#22) with a 21-19 score.  It came down to Eric Bugenhagen – HWT -  scoring a takedown in the last 23 seconds for a 3-1 decision. 

It was the first College dual for newcomers Tyler Graff – 133 (RS Freshman), Cole Schmitt – 141 (RS Freshman), Greg Burke - 157(RS Sophomore), Brendan Ard – 174 (True freshman), and Jackson Hein – 197 (True Freshman). 

 On Sunday we took on Nebraska (#7) and fell short with a score of 26-17.  Going into the last match the score was 20-17 when true freshman Brendan Ard took on senior Steven Dwyer (#6).  The score was 3-3 going into the last period when Ard took down to start the period and ended up getting caught and pinned.

As a staff we could have had Ard take neutral going into the third period because he scored the only takedown in the match but because it’s early in the year and we know he has to learn to get off the bottom, we made him choose down ~ that’s the position that he needs to work on.  People may say that in such a close dual meet why didn’t you choose up to win the dual meet………….well, the focus is not dual meets, but preparing your athlete for the National Championships.  Now, if we were in the National Championships, we would choose neutral if the athlete has not made the strides he needs to make when in the down position.

 Other’s are asking why we didn’t have Graff go for back points – well, we are working on Tyler Graff trying to take his opponent from his feet to his back, so what better way to do that and to give Tyler that experience than to release the guy and go for the takedown again.  Again folks……..this is only November.

We have a long way to go before March rolls around.  The key is preparing for the National Championships.

 Some of you are wondering why Travis Rutt and Trevor Brandvold have not been in the line-up.  Rutt will be in the line-up this weekend vs. Boise State and Brandvold will be back in the line-up for the Northern Iowa Dual on December 11^th.

 On Friday, we are heading out to wrestle Boise State (#10) and Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon on Sunday, November 22^nd.  We are looking forward to our dual vs. Boise State with some of the match-ups where 10^th ranked Tyler Graff will be taking on 3^rd ranked Andrew Hochstrasser and Greg Burke will be taking on #6 Adam Hall.  True freshman Brendan Ard will have another tough opponent in #8 Nathan Lee and Travis Rutt will be taking on #7 Kirk Smith. 

 As you can see the Badger wrestlers have a tough schedule and are taking on some top ranked opponents.  Again, this will test our young men in battle and we will see how they respond to that.  As a staff, we know that when they step on the match they will leave nothing to chance ~ they will accept the challenge.

 On a side note, we would all like to congratulate 3 x NCAA Champ, 3x World Champ and Olympic Team Member Lee Kemp on his induction into Wrestling Hall of Fame this Friday, November 20^th.