In the Hoosiers’ first home match in more than a month, IU dropped to 0-3 in the Big Ten after a 28-9 loss against No. 11 Minnesota.
The Hoosiers surrendered three technical fall losses to open the match. The losses put the team in a 15-0 hole IU was unable to dig itself out of.
Although the Hoosiers were unable to get their first Big Ten win of the season, 184-pound senior No. 6 Nate Jackson and 149-pound senior Chris Perez moved to 3-0 in Big Ten competition, and 174-pound freshman No. 17 Devin Skatzka picked up his first Big Ten win.
Perez is known for slowing matches down and making his opposition wrestle at his pace, which he did during his match. During the seven-minute match only six points were scored, and four of them went to Perez.
Perez picked up a takedown in the first period and an escape point in the third and earned a riding time bonus point to earn the 4-2 victory.
While Perez prefers to go at a slower pace, Skatzka prefers to go fast.
Skatzka picked up four takedowns and three escape points en route to an 11-8 decision victory against Minnesota’s Chris Pfarr.
Jackson said he, Perez and Skatzka all overcame adversity in their matches today.
“Devin has been working on finishing his matches a little better,” Jackson said. “Today he was met with that adversity, and he overcame it. Chris has been working on winning those close matches because he tends to wrestle a little closer. He is finding ways to finish on top.”
Jackson moved to 22-2 on the season with a win against Bobby Stevenson by a score of 10-4. He picked up four more takedowns to increase his total to 99 on the season. He’s surrendered just nine.
Although Jackson got the win, he said he wasn’t pleased with how he finished the match.
Jackson said he needs to hold himself more accountable with his diet and he is really feeling the grind of the season right now. The Illinois native said not finishing the match how he wanted is only somewhere to build and look forward to going forward.
“You know when you are cheating on your diet a little bit, or ‘I’ll do this,’ or ‘I’ll do that,’ or ‘I’ll get the weight off later,’” Jackson said. “It’s just about holding yourself to a higher standard right now because your goals are more important than the instant gratification everyone wants. Right now, for me, is to just make sure I am doing those right things.”
IU Coach Duane Goldman’s Hoosiers will look to continue to build and move forward next week as they prepare for two Big Ten matches. The first match will be at Northwestern on Friday, and IU will welcome Nebraska at 2:00 p.m. Sunday to University Gym for the second.
“Duane has a great quote — ‘Unless you push yourself and deserve to win, don’t be surprised when you fall short of your goals,’” Jackson said. “So that quote I am trying to integrate in my own life everyday. When I know I am doing those right things, I will deserve to win. I need to do those things if I want to win some big matches that are coming up.”
