Hoosiers lose at No.5 Minnesota

Despite wins in the final two matches of the evening, the IU wrestling team fell at No. 5 Minnesota on Friday 25-14, to drop to 0-2 in the Big Ten.

“We knew what we were up against,” IU wrestling coach Duane Goldman said. “We wrestled well, probably our best meet of the year.”

The Hoosiers found themselves in an early 14-0 hole after dropping the first three matches. Underdogs in all three, the team allowed bonus points at 125 pounds and 141 pounds.

At 133 pounds, the only match of the night without a ranked wrestler, junior Matt Ortega led until the end of regulation when the Gophers’ David Thorn tied the score at five apiece. Thorn won with a takedown in overtime.

IU also narrowly lost at 165 pounds, where freshman Ryan LeBlanc was unable to escape from the bottom in the third period to even the score and prevent his foe, No. 7 Cody Yohn, from clinching the riding time point. LeBlanc fell 2-0.

“When you have a close match, a ‘could-have, should-have, would-have’ mentality kicks in,” Goldman said. “Hopefully, we can make up the ground by the Big Ten Tournament. It’s better to win then than win now.”

The Hoosiers’ other four losses each yielded bonus points for the favored Gophers, allowing them to clinch the meet by the end of the eighth match at 184 pounds, when the score stood at 25-7. IU’s only points up to that face-off came from a decision by senior Kurt Kinser at 149 pounds and senior Paul Young’s major decision at 157 pounds.

Young was considered questionable to go before the match due to a minor injury but showed no sign of pain once he stepped on the mat.

“The main thing that cost us was giving them some bonus points,” Goldman said. “We probably still would have lost on bonus points (had we won at 133 pound or 165 pounds). They had some returning All-Americans against some of our freshmen. (They) were a little outmatched. It was hard for us to overcome.”

IU closed the score to the final margin with a major decision by junior Matt Powless, his nation-leading 12th of the season, and a 3-1 upset win in overtime by senior heavyweight Ricky Alcala, ranked 19th nationally, over No. 7 Tony Nelson.

“I don’t think anything happened that cost us the duel,” Goldman said. “They’re ranked (fifth) in the country and have a great tradition. We wrestled a good duel, not well enough to win and that’s our goal.”