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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports

Hoosiers look for more wins as Big Ten season begins

Nate Jackson has a 174 lbs match with Josh Snook from Maryland Friday Jan. 15 at University Gym. Jackson who had defeated the top ranker Bo Nickal from Penn State, defeated Snook again.

As of late, the Hoosier wrestlers have been competing more to IU Coach Duane Goldman’s liking.

Heading into a three-match weekend, Goldman expects the good performances to continue as the Big Ten season gets under way.

“We need to do what we have been doing recently,” Goldman said. “Make sure we are aggressive, make sure we are wrestling hard and to put points on the board.”

IU will look to keep up the aggression when they face No. 11 Wisconsin on Friday night in University Gym before heading to Ypsilanti, Michigan, to take part in its third double dual of the season against Eastern Michigan and Cleveland State on Sunday.

As the Big Ten season gets underway in Bloomington, IU has put in a lot of work to prepare.

“There’s been a bunch of hard work we have put in,” sophomore Cole Weaver said. “We are all excited to have our first Big Ten dual at home against Wisconsin. It should be fun. There is a lot of hype going into it.”

Not only is Wisconsin ranked nationally, but they also have six nationally ranked individual wrestlers.

Goldman said his wrestlers know how the Badgers are ranked and the Hoosiers have two choices. They can step on the mat or not. He said his men need to compete, wrestle hard and get points.

After the Wisconsin match, IU will travel north to take on Eastern Michigan and Cleveland State.

In the all-time series, IU leads Eastern Michigan 12-0 and trails Cleveland State by a small margin, 7-6.

Nate Jackson, ranked No. 6, looks to improve to 13-0 on the season for IU this weekend. Jackson is 10-0 with 45 takedowns while only surrendering one.

Goldman said he is happy with how Jackson has performed this season but was adamant about things only getting tougher from here.

“The competition is going to start to pick up,” he said. “He has big matches ahead. He needs those. We look forward to him having matches where he’s going to have to pick up his own level.”

As the competition picks up for Jackson, it will for the rest of the team as well. Goldman said he wants to see constant improvement this weekend and as the season progresses, win or lose.

“Wrestling is a tough game,” Goldman said. “It comes down to those individuals. It’s not like the team going out and getting it together. It’s 10 guys that have to go out and get it. We want to see our 10 guys compete hard, improve and win matches. For the guys that win, they need to keep getting better. The guys that don’t, they need to keep getting better, too.”

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