Team struggling in tough Big Ten, drops dual meets

In Sunday’s dual meet against Northwestern, the MSU wrestling team won four of the 10 matches, but came up short in a 25-15 loss to the No. 11 Wildcats.

It was the same story earlier in the weekend, as the Spartans lost 23-15 to No. 7 Ohio State despite four individual wins.

The verdict?

The Spartans are close — but not close enough.

“We’re winning four and five matches against all the best teams, but what we have to do is win five or six matches from all the best teams,” said MSU head coach Tom Minkel. “We’re a match or two away, and we have to stay focused on that, rather than the fact that we lost.”

In Sunday’s meet MSU fell behind 6-0 after an opening pin on junior Tim Hammer at 149 pounds, but freshman John Fulger and junior Rex Kendle put together consecutive wins to tie up the meet at 6-6.

After a loss in the 174-pound weight class, sophomore Nick Palmieri picked up a 10-3 victory to draw the Spartans to within one at 10-9.

The Wildcats rattled off three straight wins following Palmieri’s win, including a victory by No. 2 Mike Tamillow over MSU’s No. 15-ranked senior Joe Williams at 197 pounds, to take a 21-9 lead with two matches remaining.

Sophomore Franklin Gomez, No. 4 in the 133-pound weight class, recorded his first pin of the season to move the score to 21-15, but Northwestern took the final match to secure the win.

“I think our job at this point is to try to stay positive and keep making progress,” Minkel said. “It’s tough, we just can’t get everybody hitting on the cylinders at the same time, but our goal is to not cave in and give up, but keep making progress.”

Kendle, who earned his first win in three tries this season against Northwestern’s Dominic Marella, said the team is making progress — it’s just hard to see.

“We wrestle in the Big Ten, and the Big Ten is the toughest wrestling conference in the nation,” Kendle said of the conference, which has nine teams in the Top 25. “So day in and day out we’re wrestling the best in the country. There’s no week off, there’s no bye week to wrestle (lesser) opponents and try to tune things up — it’s the best of the best every week.”

When looking at MSU’s record, which stands at 3-11-0 overall and 0-6-0 in the conference, Minkel said it’s important to remember that who the Spartans are wrestling has just as much of an impact on their record as how they wrestle.

“We’re not far away,” Minkel said. “It’s not only our team right now, but it’s the level of competition that we’re facing. It’s tough when you’re facing this level of competition day in and day out with a team that’s not developed yet.”

The Spartans next take the mat at 7 p.m. Friday when they travel to Penn State to take on the No. 10 Nittany Lions.