PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 18 Rutgers wrestling (6-7, 2-6) picked up four individual victories – including a decision over a consensus top-10 opponent from No .11
Richie Lewis (165) – but the Scarlet Knights dropped a 20-12 dual to No. 21 Minnesota (6-6, 3-4) Friday night at the RAC.
No. 11
Eleazar DeLuca (149),
Joseph Grello (174) and No. 12
Nicholas Gravina (184) also earned victories in front of the 3,588 fans in attendance, as RU celebrated Senior Night at the RAC. DeLuca, Lewis,
Scott DelVecchio (133),
Anthony Messner (197) and
Razohnn Gross (HWT) were all honored prior to the dual with the Golden Gophers.
"We've been wrestling well. I thought tonight we wrestled really well in spots," said head coach
Scott Goodale. "But, you know, we struggled in others. It's hard to win dual meets when you don't win those toss-ups."
The highlight of the night came courtesy of Lewis, who faced No. 8 Nick Wanzek. With Wanzek up 1-0 to start the third period, Lewis escaped to tie the match. Lewis continued to work shots on Wanzek and landed a takedown with 19 seconds left in the match for a 3-1 lead, riding Wanzek out for the final decision.
The win marked Lewis' fourth over a ranked foe in 2017-18 and his 40
th-career victory in a Rutgers singlet. Lewis has now defeated the No. 8 (Wanzek), then-No. 11 (Isaiah White, Nebraska), then No. 11 (Te'Shan Campbell, Ohio State) and then-No. 13 (Anthony Valencia, Arizona State) wrestlers in his weight class this season.
With the match starting at heavyweight, Minnesota started with four consecutive victories before DeLuca got the crowd on its feet in his match with Miles Patton. Trailing Patton 4-3 with 1:25 left in the match, DeLuca landed an inside throw for the takedown and a 5-4 lead. DeLuca would add riding time for the 6-4 final.
Grello won his fourth match in six chances, as he started his bout with former NCAA qualifier Chris Pfarr with a takedown and four near-fall points for a quick 6-0 lead. Two more takedowns for Grello would follow in the third period, as the Bergen Catholic product muscled a 12-7 decision for his 13
th win of the season.
Looking for bonus points, Gravina attacked early and often on Brandon Krone. Krone was hit with three consecutive stall calls to start the match to give Gravina a 3-0 lead after two periods. Gravina landed two takedowns in the final two minutes, with his last one securing an 8-2 decision, his fourth win in his last five outings.
Rutgers closes out its dual campaign next weekend, when it travels to Wisconsin next Friday (Feb. 16) before it heads down Route 27 for its dual with Princeton on Sunday (Feb. 18).
No. 21 Minnesota (6-6, 3-4) 20, No. 18 Rutgers (6-7, 2-6) 12
Dual started at 285 pounds
Location: The RAC, Piscataway, N.J.
Attendance: 3,588
HWT: Rylee Streifel (MINN) decision
Razohnn Gross (RU), 2-0 | MINN 3, RU 0
125: No. 6/8/8 Ethan Lizak (MINN) tech fall
Luke Ecklof (RU), 16-0 | MINN 8, RU 0
133: No. 12/13/20 Mitch Mckee (MINN) decision No. 20/16/16
Scott DelVecchio (RU), 8-6 | MINN 11, RU 0
141: No. 14/11/13 Tommy Thorn (MINN) decision
Michael Van Brill (RU), 7-0 | MINN 14, RU 0
149: No. 11/11/10
Eleazar DeLuca (RU) decision Miles Patton (MINN), 6-4 | MINN 14, RU 3
157: No. 17/NR/NR Jake Short (MINN) decision NR/20/19
John Van Brill (RU), 4-3 | MINN 17, RU 3
165: No. 11/11/11
Richie Lewis (RU) decision No. 8/7/9 Nick Wanzek (RU), 3-1 | MINN 17, RU 6
174: Joseph Grello (RU) decision Chris Pfarr (MINN), 12-7 | MINN 17, RU 9
184: No. 12/13/12
Nicholas Gravina (RU) decision Brandon Krone (MINN), 8-2 | MINN 17, RU 12
197: Dylan Anderson (MINN) decision
Anthony Messner (RU), 11-4 | Minnesota wins, 20-12
Rankings (-/-/-): InterMat / FloWrestling/The Open Mat
NR denotes not ranked
Scott Goodale Quotes
On the team's performance as a whole tonight: "We've been wrestling well. I thought tonight we wrestled really well in spots. But, you know, struggled in others. We needed to win at heavyweight and 33 are big swing matches there and even Van Brill, meaning Johnny, those were really, really tight matches with a lot on the line from Big Ten seeding implications. We just didn't win those. It's hard to win dual meets when you don't win those toss-ups. Of course, with Nick not being around that's a big swing for us. Obviously, we feel good about that. But, that's our lineup, that's what we put out there and we just didn't get it done."
On Nick Suriano's status: "Nick is really suffering from the flu right now. We've got some guys struggling right now. You saw what happened with Illinois, we were kind of short-handed. Again, no excuses. It's going around. We struggled all week preparation wise because of it. It's part of the sport. You've got to get healthy. We'll do that going forward. That's kind of where we're at with Nick. Just to piggy-back that a little bit, it's important for our fans, we will try to win every single gosh darn match that we wrestle. We don't sit guys out to protect seeds or do anything. We want to wrestle every single match. There's reasons we didn't wrestle guys against Illinois. We were hurt, we were banged up. Some guys are struggling with some illness. So, we don't ever protect seeds. We wrestle and we try to win every single dual meet we can and that's always been our approach. So, that's why we didn't wrestle against Illinois and that's why you didn't see Nick tonight."
On the seniors of the team, what this class has meant to the program: "It's been a really big…based on what happens with Ashnault and Gravina, if Gravina will get a sixth year, those guys all came in together. It's a pretty special group. They've had some great moments out at the RAC, they've won some huge matches, they've really put this program on the map. There's no question about it. They've been great to this program and they've won some big spots. Like Scotty said earlier in the week (DelVecchio), there is a lot more to do right now. It won't be complete until Cleveland."
On Richie's performance: "I was happy he won. That's a huge win. It seems like every guy in this conference is a top 10 guy. At some point they're going to put him in the top 10, I would think. So, he's doing a good job wrestling solid, knocking them off. That was a big win. He's had a great year and that really really helps him from a seeding perspective in the Big Ten. He went from a 7 seed, probably, to a 4 or 5 based on the Wisconsin kid."
On having this week off: "It's great to have a weekend off. We're going to give our guys some time off out of the room. That's what we need. It's been a lot of Friday-Sundays, a lot of travel. Again, we never make excuses, that's the schedule. We've just got to get real healthy. We had some guys wrestle tonight who were really struggling, like I said, from a preparation standpoint all week long. But, some of them gutted it out for us so we're happy about that."
On Gravina going for big throws: "Yes, because he's very unselfish. He's thinking about the team the whole time. Just be smart and get out of there. Every day with night, right? That's a crapshoot. We need to keep him healthy, knock on wood. He was good tonight. That's a really good kid he beat. That kid has been hot. I was worried about that match. There's a lot of problems with him when he's on top and he picked top and got a lot of riding time. Nick kept husting and kept getting to his feet. Good things happen when you do that."
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