The Huskers' explosiveness has been on display throughout the early part of this season. Of Nebraska's 43 individual dual wins, 24 have been bonus-point triumphs.
Against Wyoming, Nebraska built a 15-point lead after four matches, thanks in part to two bonus-point wins. It started with Paul Donahoe's 20-7 major decision victory over Nick Ramirez at 125 pounds. After Patrick Aleksanyan's 8-6 overtime victory over Cory VomBaur, Dominick Moyer gave NU its second bonus-point win with a 19-2 technical fall win over Brandon Gifford at 141 pounds. Robert Sanders made a strong bid for his own major decision victory, but fell just shy in a 14-7 win over Garrett Desmond.
The Huskers would add another four-match winning streak after a setback at 157 pounds. Stephen Dwyer would get Nebraska back on the winning track in a big way with a pin of Kyle Morrow with 37 seconds remaining in their match at 165 pounds. Marc Harwood added a 9-3 win over Bryan Bernal at 174 pounds, then Nebraska put the dual out of reach with back-to-back bonus-point victories. It started with Levi Wofford's 14-4 major decision win over Preston Pavich at 184 pounds. Wofford took control of the match in the second period, when he notched four takedowns. At 197 pounds, Craig Brester pinned Chet Slavin 52 seconds into their match after an early takedown put Brester in the drivers' seat of the battle from the beginning.
With the win, Mark Manning became just the third coach in school history with 90 dual wins. He needed only 123 duals to reach the milestone, eight fewer than Bob Fehrs, the first coach in Husker history to win 90, and nine fewer than Tim Neumann, who holds the school record in dual wins with 199.
Donahoe gave Nebraska a strong start against the Lopers with a second-period win by fall over Trevor Charbonneau. Donahoe continues to be a force for Nebraska in dual matches, earning the Huskers bonus points in five of his six dual outings.
After a loss at 133 pounds, Moyer defeated Jeff Rutledge 3-0 at 141 pounds. Moyer escaped 10 seconds into the second period to gain a one-point lead, then rode Rutledge the duration of the third period to earn the victory.
Back-to-back losses at 149 and 157 pounds gave UNK a momentary 12-9 lead, but Nebraska answered with four straight bonus-point victories to earn the dual win. Dwyer put the Huskers back ahead for good with a 13-4 major decision win over Keenan McCurdy at 165 pounds. Dwyer posted six points in the last minute of the match to seal the win and give Nebraska a one-point edge with four matches remaining.
At 174 pounds, Harwood followed with a win by fall over Taylor May in a hotly contested match that entered the third period with Harwood holding a 2-1 lead before Harwood escaped early in the period, then earned two takedowns in the last minute. Wofford continued the Husker hot streak with a third-period pin of Dan Hospodka at 184 pounds. Brester closed the dual for NU with a 22-4 win by technical fall over Preston Pavich. With the dual decided, Nebraska dropped the heavyweight match.
The win completes Nebraska's first semester competition. For the fifth time in Manning's seven years at NU, the Huskers enter the holiday break undefeated. In fact, Nebraska is 42-3 under Manning in the months of November and December.
The Huskers (6-0) are next in action on Saturday, Jan. 5 against Oregon State at 7 p.m. at the NU Coliseum in Lincoln, Neb.
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