Five B1G Takeaways from the Big Ten (2/14/24)

As if the twists and turns at 125 haven’t been enough craziness, the B1G Ten dual meet season has given us an extra scoop of that good stuff on top. 

Nebraska Cools Off Red Hot Michigan

A week ago at this time, we were all talking about how Michigan defended its home turf against the visiting Hawkeyes on Senior Night as they won 7 of 10 bouts. Flash forward and the Wolverines found themselves on the other end of a beating when they traveled to Lincoln, NE. Nebraska 1-upped the performance that Michigan put on a week prior by winning the first six bouts to take the 18-0 lead. In the end, the Huskers came away with the 25-7 win. Now, this weekend they will travel to State College, PA for their biggest test of the season against top-ranked PSU. 

Penn State as Powerful as Ever

We were all looking forward to the dual between PSU and Iowa. The history, the matchups, the attitudes, and the trash talk, especially the trash talk, always brings so much hype to this meeting. This year’s installment didn’t give us the trash talk bowl between three-time NCAA Champion Carter Starocci and true freshman Gabe Arnold that we wanted, but we did see the full weight of the Nittany Lions’ lineup as they took eight of the 10 bouts in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. They followed it up with an even more dominant performance at home against Rutgers in their OG school colors on Monday night with a 35-3 win where they rolled out a few backups to truly show just how powerful they are. 

Nittany Lions continue their awesome season

A stat popped up on Twitter over the weekend showcasing that to this point in the season, Hofstra and Lehigh are tied for most points scored on Penn State in a dual, with 10. After this weekend, with Penn State wrestling both Iowa and Rutgers, that stat remains the same. In fact, if you add up Rutgers and Iowa’s scores, it only equals 9 total points (Iowa scored 6, Rutgers 3). I’m at the point now where I’m just going to try to appreciate what we’re seeing. There is a lot that people can complain about with regard to transfer portals and such, but I don’t imagine It’ll be fun to look back at this run by Penn State and try to explain to people why I was a hater. At the end of the day, the wrestlers all have to get the job done, and the staff and athletes continue to do so at the highest level. Beau Bartlett got the biggest win of the night by holding onto his number-one ranking by beating Real Woods in a battle of the top two ranked wrestlers. Penn State hosts Nebraska this Sunday afternoon in their next competition, while Iowa will host their senior night while competing against Wisconsin.

Points a plenty in Maryland vs Michigan State

It’s wild to think that this coaching staff at Maryland hadn’t had a dual meet win in the B1G until late last season. This year they’ve added to that total with a win over Northwestern, as well as this win over the Spartans on Sunday afternoon. This dual didn’t follow the traditional format. After the first two weights, the Terrapins were up 11-0. MSU forfeited 125, followed by Braxton Brown getting a technical fall at 133. MSU rebounded well with an upset win at 141 with Jordan Hamdan controlling the match. He got a reversal in second which resulted in riding out the period, and sealed the deal with a takedown in the third. If bonus points and overtime are your thing though, then you liked this dual. We had OT at 157 and 174, with MSU winning the first, and Maryland winning the second. We also had technical falls at 149, 184, and 197. Up next the Spartans host Ohio State this Friday night, with Maryland traveling to Rutgers Friday night as well. 

50th Wisconsin Dual win for Bono on Senior Night

How cool is it that Chris Bono got his 50th Dual win with Wisconsin a couple of days before his 50th birthday? Happy Birthday, Coach! It didn’t come easy though, as Wisconsin split the matches 5-5 with the Fighting Illini, but bonus point wins secured the victory. Wisconsin’s leaders carried the torch for the team, with Eric Barnett securing an 8-0 major decision to start things off, and Dean Hamiti getting the fall at 165 to help them regain the lead. Illinois took two of the next three to retake the lead going into the final match at Heavyweight, but Wisconsin came through with a 12-6 decision from Gannon Rosenfeld to get the walk-off win at home. This group of six seniors got to have a nice send-off in their final home dual of the season. Wisconsin travels to Minnesota to take on the Golden Gophers next Friday in what is usually an awesome back-and-forth dual on Friday night. Meanwhile, Illinois will travel to West Lafayette to take on the Boilermakers, also on Friday night.