Coach Dave Grant said of the day's events, "We had a good day, our team wrestled pretty tough today. Pat (Castillo) was dominant, the Burk brothers had a good day and Dave Benner had a big win for us in the Northern Iowa match."
Old Dominion
It was an impressive opening match for NIU's Pat Castillo, ranked as high as 18th nationally, as he recorded a technical fall against ODU's Kyle Hutter at the 5:26 mark of the match giving Castillo a 20-5 win. The victory gave the Huskies an early 4-0 lead over Old Dominion.
NIU quickly gave up their lead as NIU's Gralan Early and Justin Metcalfe were not able to come up with wins in back-to-back matches. Early went down by major decision giving ODU a 7-4 lead.
Mike Grimes, ranked as high as 8th nationally, recorded a major over ODU's Joey Metzler by a score of 14-4. The major decision was enough to put the Huskies back in the overall lead with a score of 8-7.
After NIU's Kalen Knull's close 2-1 loss, the Huskies went on a roll by winning four of the last five matches against Old Dominion. Johnny Galloway, ranked as high as 9th nationally, led the way with a pin of ODU's Nick Pullano. Then, Danny and Duke Burk dominated their opponents, as each recorded major decision victories giving the Huskies an overwhelming 23-10 lead.
Nick McClone could not keep the momentum going as he lost a major decision to David Mendoza of ODU. But, in the final match NIU's David Benner picked up a 7-4 decision over Matt Pellar, giving NIU a 26-14 overall win against Old Dominion.
Northern Iowa
Following a short break the Huskies took the mat looking for their second win of the day against a tough Northern Iowa team, and Pat Castillo started strong once again, recording his second technical fall of the day with a 25-10 win over UNI's Grant Ruge to give the Huskies a 4-0 lead.
Gralan Early came up short in a high scoring match (18-11) against UNI's Kyle Anson swinging the momentum back to the Panthers, but the Huskies still held a 4-3 overall advantage.
The Huskies increased their lead to 8-3 after Justin Metcalf dismantled Mike Whisler of Northern Iowa en route to a 10-2 major decision.
Three straight Northern Iowa wins followed, including Mike Grimes coming up short in overtime and Johnny Galloway's last second 5-2 loss to 4th ranked Nick Baima placing the Huskies in a 14-8 hole. Then, it was time for the Burk brothers to shine.
Danny Burk put the Huskies back into contention with a 6-3 decision over UNI's Alex Dolly. The decision closed the gap to just three points with Danny's younger brother Duke about to take the mat.
Duke Burk did not disappoint as he took care of business with a 4-2 decision against UNI's Dallas Mitchell to tie the overall score at 14-14 with only two matches left.
NIU's Nick McClone had a chance to put the Huskies back in the lead but couldn't get the win. Consequently, the Huskies were down 17-14 going into the final match of the day.
The pressure lay squarely on the broad shoulders of NIU's Dave Benner as he strode to the mat for the final match of the day. Lose, and NIU loses the match, win and go home with at least a tie. Benner proved to be up in the challenge as he came up with a huge 5-1 victory over Tyler Rhodes of UNI to allow the Huskies to finish with a 17-17 tie.
The Huskies return to action on Friday February, 9th to take on 5th ranked Central Michigan in the Convocation Center at 7:05 p.m. CST.
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