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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

IU plays host to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville

IU will be at home for the first time this season as it approaches Big Ten play when Southern Illinois-Edwardsville comes into town Saturday to take on the Hoosiers at 1 p.m. in the University Gym.

Wrestling at home brings extra excitement for wrestler Nate Jackson and the rest of the team.

“Friends and family are going to be in town,” Jackson said. “It’s a sense of urgency for me, it’s always a plus when you can bring people here.”

SIUE has failed to win a duel match in three attempts on the young season, losing to Illinois, Missouri and Arizona State. IU will look to make it four attempts.

IU defeated SIUE last season by a score of 28-12, winning seven of the 10 matches, including two pins.

True freshman Elijah Oliver has two podium finishes on the young season but improvements still need to be made.

“He just needs to keep learning the game,” IU Coach Duane Goldman said. “The opponents are going to keep getting tougher and tougher as the year goes on and there will be challenges presented every time.”

Goldman said he has lots of talent and speed, something he saw when recruiting him, but that he will continue to get tested more and more as the team approaches Big Ten play next weekend in Minneapolis.

Jackson, who won his match against SIUE last season, is coming off a first place finish at the Keystone Classic last weekend and looks to continue his momentum into this weekend.

“I am getting back into national form, trying to be consistent,” Jackson said. “Early in the year went as expected, but we’re getting in the heart of the season and I’m trying to push hard so I can be prepared.”

The biggest challenge for duel matches is the one-hour weigh-in. These weigh-ins show how the wrestlers are doing with cutting their weight.

Jackson stressed that these one-hour weigh-ins will determine how well the team is doing at cutting weight. He said if they aren’t cutting weight correctly it will show this weekend.

The team has done lots of traveling early on in the season, and being home will bring a different experience for the freshmen.

“It’s always nice to be home,” Goldman said. “We’ve been on the road a couple of times. We have a lot of freshmen — it’ll be their first time wrestling here as well, and hopefully they’ll wrestle hard and have some success.”

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