Rev Audio: Minnesota-Michigan State
Minnesota-Michigan State Match Breakdown (Wrestling 411)
Minnesota-Michigan State Photo Gallery (The Guillotine)
All-American Jayson Ness won the feature match of the afternoon over top-ranked Franklin Gomez at 133 pounds, and the Gophers (11-4, 1-0) cruised to a win in their Big Ten opener over Michigan State (5-4, 0-2) at the Sports Pavilion on Sunday.
Ness and Gomez traded reversals in the opening period before the Minnesota junior secured his win over previously unbeaten Gomez with a third period escape to secure the 6-5 decision victory. Ness' win over Gomez improved his all-time record in Big Ten duals to a perfect 17-0.
Mike Thorn recorded his tenth pin of the season at 141 pounds and No. 9 Minnesota got major decision wins from Zach Sanders (125 pounds), Gordon Bierschenk (197 pounds) and Ben Berhow (Hwt) to stretch the final margin to 30-6.
Sanders opened the meet with a dominating 15-5 win over the Spartans' Eric Olanowski at 125 pounds. The win was a team-leading 27th of the season for the Wabasha, Minn. native and was his sixth by major decision. The redshirt freshman is now a perfect 15-0 in Minnesota dual meets this season.
Following the big win by Ness, Thorn's second period pin over the Spartans' Collin Dozier pushed the Minnesota lead to 13-0. Michigan State was able to narrow their deficit to within 13-6 through the 157-pound match, but the Gophers won the final five bouts to stretch their lead to the final 24-point margin.
No. 16 Scott Glasser got the ball rolling for the Gophers with his 8-4 decision win over Rex Kindle at 165 pounds. Glasser's win in his Big Ten dual debut improved his 2008-09 record to 17-9.
At 174 pounds, junior Matt Everson cranked out a narrow 4-3 victory over the Spartans' Ian Hinton. Redshirt freshman Sonny Yohn followed with another close win at 184 pounds - a 6-3 triumph over Nick Palmieri.
The Gophers will hit the road to take on Penn State and Ohio State next weekend before returning to the Twin Cities to host Michigan (Feb. 6) and Northwestern (Feb. 8) in two weeks at the Sports Pavilion. Tickets for both duals are still available and can be purchased by calling 1-800-U-GOPHER or by contacting the Gopher Ticket Office at 612-624-8080.
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