Michigan (6-6-1, 1-0-1 Big Ten) twice found itself trailing by six points early in the dual. After the Hoosiers' sixth-ranked Angel Escobedo, the defending NCAA champion at 125 pounds, gave his team an immediate cushion with a pin in the first match, U-M knotted things up with back-to-back decisions in the following matches, but IU's Nick Walpole reestablished the six-point advantage with his pin at 149 pounds. The falls allowed for a deceptively close final score and overshadowed the fact that Michigan claimed three of the opening five contests and six total in the meet.
Junior/sophomore Aaron Hynes (Mt. Morris, Mich./Flint Kearsley HS) kept his team in contention with a 7-6 upset against 12th-ranked Kurt Kinser at 157 pounds, pulling U-M within three points at the halfway mark. Hynes dictated the early pace of the bout, scoring on a takedown apiece in the opening two periods and building more than two minutes of riding time that proved the difference in the match. Kinser rallied in the final frame, converting on a pair of takedowns of his own to even the score, but Hynes avoided turn attempts in the waning moments to take the victory after his riding-time point.
Michigan carried its momentum through the upperweights, where its ranked gauntlet picked up three straight wins -- two by major decision -- to essentially seal up the team victory. Fifth-year senior captain Steve Luke (Massillon, Ohio/Perry HS) controlled the 174-pound contest, using a combination of takedowns and penalty points to hang a 12-2 loss on 15th-ranked Trevor Perry. Luke, ranked No. 1 nationally, varied his leg attacks, converting on a pair of single legs in the first period before adding explosive double legs in the second and third frames. Deep on another single-leg shot in the third, Luke drove Perry across the mat, eliciting a fleeing call, and, adding a second-period stalling point and 2:58 in riding time, locked up his 11th bonus win of the season. He remains undefeated at 18-0 on the season.
Junior/sophomore Anthony Biondo (Clinton Twp., Mich./Chippewa Valley HS), ranked 12th at 184 pounds, halted a recent slump with a dominant 10-0 major decision against Nick Avery. Biondo scored on a first-period single leg and a second-period head shuck and held the advantage position for 6:22 of the seven-minute match. With Avery content to lie on the mat, the Wolverine wrestler drew four stalling calls to add four penalty points to earn the bonus point and give Michigan its first lead of the dual.
Fifth-year senior captain Tyrel Todd (Bozeman, Mont./Bozeman HS), ranked sixth at 197 pounds, extended the Wolverines' lead to five points in the subsequent bout, using four single-leg takedowns to upend Matt Powless 9-4. Todd pushed the pace late with the major decision within reach, but he could not convert in the closing seconds and was forced to settle for the three-point decision. The win improved Todd's record to 12-1 on the season.
Freshman Zac Stevens (Monroe, Mich./Monroe HS) and sophomore Kellen Russell (High Bridge, N.J./Blair Academy) earned impressive victories at the lowerweights to offset Escebedo's opening pin. Stevens battled to a 10-8 decision in a wild match against Matt Ortega at 133 pounds, using three takedowns -- one in each period -- and a third-period reversal to seal the victory. The U-M rookie struck first on a first-period single leg but trailed at period's end after allowing a late takedown out of an extended scramble. Stevens made the most out of the next scramble in the following period, finishing on a late single leg on the mat before riding out the final 13 seconds. He used a standing switch early in the third to earn a reversal and retake the lead, and he padded it with an ankle pick out of yet another scramble on the mat with less than 10 seconds remaining. Ortega reversed him seconds later, but it proved insignificant as Stevens held on to win.
Russell, ranked fifth at 141 pounds, controlled from start to finish against Scott Kelly en route to an 8-1 decision and his 12th consecutive win. The Wolverine wrestler gained the lead on a double leg midway through the first period and subsequently rode out the period to earn time advantage. He picked up an additional point after a pair of second-period stalling calls on Kelly and iced the match with a single leg in the closing moments of the bout.
The Wolverines will hit the road next weekend for a pair of Big Ten duals. U-M will head to Minneapolis, Minn., face Minnesota on Friday (Feb. 6) at 7 p.m. CST before wrapping up the weekend in East Lansing, Mich., with a 1 p.m. meeting Sunday (Feb. 8) against intrastate rival Michigan State.
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