The Hoosiers opened the meet with a pair of crucial victories, picking up bonus points in each of the matches. No. 9 Angel Escobedo improved to 24-2 with a 21-6 technical fall over Purdue's Brandon Tucker with five takedowns in the third period. Andrae Hernandez followed with another bonus point at 133 after grasping a 12-1 major decision over Sean Schmaltz.
The Boilers followed with a pair of one-point victories at 141 and 149, recovering from late deficits in each match to earn six dual points. In the most anticipated match of the meet, No. 11 Jake Patacsil used a third-period escape to force overtime, then used another escape in the first tiebreak period to best No. 7 Matt Coughlin 3-2, making the score 9-6.
No. 7 Brandon Becker returned from injury and earned bonus points for the Hoosiers at 157, tallying a pair of takedowns in the final minute and earning a point for riding time to take a 9-1 victory over Purdue's Jacob Murphy. In another highly entertaining bout, Justin Fraga used a late takedown to upend IU's Max Dean at 165 in a 6-5 victory.
Trevor Perry rebounded from a loss at Eastern Illinois to post an 8-3 decision over Purdue's Jason Martin at 174, and the Hoosiers clinched the meet victory in the 184-pound bout. No. 12 Marc Bennett held a decisive lead late in the third over Nick Skinner, then turned his opponent with just 23 seconds remaining to register his fifth fall of the season and move to 26-4.
At 197, true freshman Nathan Everhart more than held his own against No. 14 Nathan Moore of Purdue. Moore took a 1-0 lead with a second-period escape, and held the lead heading into the third. Everhart chose down and earned an escape in the final minute, but not until Moore had registered over a minute of riding time, and the nationally-ranked Moore took a 2-1 decision.
Josh Buuck finished off the Hoosier victory with a 9-3 victory over Purdue's David Pisarcik, making the score 25-12 in favor of the home squad. Buuck dominated the match, and nearly earned bonus points with a takedown in the final 10 seconds, but the official ruled that the wrestlers were out of bounds before the takedown occurred. Buuck moved to 7-2 on the year and 2-0 in dual meets.
The Hoosiers are back in action on Sunday, Jan. 21, with a crucial Big Ten dual at No. 16 Illinois. The match is slated to begin at 2 p.m. EST in Champaign, Ill.
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