NIU Wrestling Article 1/19/10

NIU's struggles continues

Publish Date:01/19/2010

By Patrick Tretina

NIU wrestling continued its slide with a 1-2 performance Saturday. The Huskies (7-6) continued their recent struggles with a loss to both Michigan State, 28-6, and Stanford, 22-18, at the much anticipated Spartan Duals. Despite a losing effort, the Huskies had two impressive undefeated performances from juniors Vince Castillo at the 141-pound weight class and Bryan Deutsch in the 157 pound-weight class. Castillo knocked off Findlay’s Chris Andrews by pin in just over four minutes and followed up with two win-by-decision’s over Stanford’s Bret Baumbach and Michigan State’s Dan Osterman. Deutsch kicked off his impressive day by pinning Findlay’s Michael Lybarger in 6:43 followed by a dominant 6-0 win over Stanford’s Michael Kent and 10-9 over Michigan State’s Anthony Jones. “Our guys wrestled well,” said NIU head coach Dave Grant. “Our young guys really stepped up.” Redshirt sophomore Zach Taylor did exactly that with a solid 9-5 win-by-decision over Findlay’s Jan Steven Ulinski after suffering a 9-0 loss to Ohio’s Quentin Keyes on Jan. 14. “It was a real gutsy performance by our boys,” Grant said. This past weekend’s road trip drops the Huskies wrestling team to fifth place (7-6) in the MAC, just behind rival Eastern Michigan. The Huskies will be looking for redemption when they take the mat again Friday, Jan. 22 and play host to No. 14 Kent State at the Convocation Center. Kent State is coming off a 47-0 blowout win against Ashland College.