"We took another step forward tonight," said Head Coach Jack Maughan. "We finished a little better tonight than we did last night (against #23 Northern Iowa). It's nice to be on a little more of a level playing field."
The Bears (2-9-1) won the first five bouts to build a 16-0 lead. Junior Tony Mustari, ranked 18th in the nation, got the team off to a good start with a major decision victory over Matt Sencenbaugh at 19-7. He recorded his first takedown just 18 seconds in and added six more takedowns, one reversal and one two-point near fall for the victory.
Freshman Casey Cruz had to fight back at 133 pounds. He went down 4-1 in the second period, but tallied a pair of reversals to take the 5-4 decision.
Junior Kenny Hashimoto shook off a little more rust, winning his first match of the second in just two tries, posting an 8-3 victory over Cameron Teitelman. He led 4-1 after the first period with two takedowns, extending the lead to the eventual score of 8-3.
At 149 pounds, freshman Mitchell Polkowske continued to dominate, winning his 22nd match of the year. He led throughout the bout, winning by a 9-3 decision.
Sophomore Justin Gaethje needed a little extra time, but eventually pulled out a thrilling 5-3 victory in overtime. Lucas Espericueta got the only two points in the first period with a takedown and Gaethje scored one in the second stanza with an escape. Espericueta added another point with an escape with 1:29 on the clock in the third period and with just three ticks left, Gaethje got a takedown to knot the score. He recorded another takedown with 12 seconds remaining in the one minute overtime period for the win.
Daniel Prater, a senior on the team who originally was wrestling at 149 pounds has moved up to 165 pounds this past week, a jump in two weight classes. He dropped a 13-3 major decision to Nick Amuchastegui.
"Prater has a huge heart," said Maughan. "We're telling him to get as big as he can. He's willing to do whatever he can to help the team. Wrestling at 165 as a 149-er is no easy task."
There was no scoring in the first period of the 174 pound bout, but freshman Brandon Kammerzell got on the board with an escape just nine seconds into the second stanza and held on for a 4-1 victory.
Senior Ryan Johnson trailed Jake Johnson at 184 pounds, 2-0, but recorded an escape with just under a minute to go in the first period and then tallied a reversal midway through the second period for the 3-2 win.
The second weight class Stanford won was at 197 pounds as Luke Feist defeated Patrick Carey in a 5-1 decision.
Justin Tuell was the second Bear of the evening to win a 3-2 decision doing so with an early takedown and a late escape to give the Bears the 25-7 team victory.
Northern Colorado heads north next weekend to take on South Dakota State and North Dakota State in Western Wrestling Conference action.
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