"Our schedule is very tough, as we have wrestled three top-25 teams in our first three matches in Missouri, UNC and UNI," head coach Steve Martin said. "We knew we would have to be on to be able to beat NIU. This mentally was a good win for us. We wrestled with an aggressive style straight up and down the lineup. From a competing standpoint, it was good to see us battle the entire match. We learned a lot about our team on this five day road trip. We have a lot of work to do moving forward."
After the Huskies' Brock Hudkins defeated Steven Simpson, 4-3, at 125, the Monarchs secured back-to-back decision victories from Alex Madrigal and Emilio Saavedra at 133 and 141, respectively, to put ODU out in front, 6-3.
Northern Illinois responded with a 9-3 decision win from 12th-ranked Steve Bleise at 149 and a 6-0 victory by Caden McWhirter at 157 to reclaim the lead, 9-6, at the intermission.
Old Dominion would never look back from there, as the Monarchs rolled to five straight wins from 165 to 285. Seldon Wright earned a 17-8 major decision at 165, while freshman Antonio Agee picked up the first dual meet win of his career, securing a late third period takedown to knock off Shaun'Qae McMurtry, 3-1, at 174.
Jack Dechow kept the momentum rolling for Old Dominion, registering a controlling 6-1 win at 184 over Bryce Gorman. At 197, with the battle of top 10 wresters deadlocked at 1-1 in the final 30 seconds, Kevin Beazley secured both ankles of Shawn Scott for a takedown to go up, 3-1. A quick escape by Scott narrowed the lead to 3-2, but Beazley held on for the 3-2 triumph to improve to 8-1 on the season.
To close out the dual meet, Will Hilliard scored a takedown and four nearfall to jump out to a 7-2 first period lead over Caleb Gossett and hung on for the 12-7 win to clinch the dual meet for the Monarchs.
"The highlight of the night was Kevin Beazley's win over a top-10 opponent," Martin continued. "We had three freshmen execute their game plans tonight in Madrigal, Agee and Hilliard. Seldon Wright scored bonus points, and he is starting to understand that when he opens up he can dominate people. Saavedra imposed his will on his opponent and that was important since they were once workout partners in high school. Dechow wrestled solid in all his positions and especially looked good on top."
Results:
125: Brock Hudkins (NOIL) over Steven Simpson (OLDO) (Dec 4-3)
133: Alex Madrigal (OLDO) over Alijah Jeffery (NOIL) (Dec 6-2)
141: Emilio Saavedra (OLDO) over Angel Velasquez (NOIL) (Dec 3-2)
149: No. 12 Steve Bleise (NOIL) over Michael Hayes (OLDO) (Dec 9-3)
157: Caden McWhirter (NOIL) over Austin Eads (OLDO) (Dec 6-0)
165: No. 15 Seldon Wright (OLDO) over Andrew Scott (NOIL) (MD 17-8)
174: Antonio Agee (OLDO) over Shaun`Qae McMurtry (NOIL) (Dec 3-1)
184: No. 13 Jack Dechow (OLDO) over Bryce Gorman (NOIL) (Dec 6-1)
197: No. 9 Kevin Beazley (OLDO) over No. 10 Shawn Scott (NOIL) (Dec 3-2)
285: Will Hilliard (OLDO) over Caleb Gossett (NOIL) (Dec 12-7)
Up Next
ODU returns home to the Ted Constant Center on Tuesday, Dec. 20 at 7 p.m. for a home dual meet against No. 12 NC State.
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