Minnesota rolls to second straight Big Ten title

Posted on 3:03 PM

Posted Sunday, March 4
by Matt Anderson
RADIO K SPORTS

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- One by one, the individual awards kept coming for Minnesota’s top-ranked wrestling team.

First it was Jayson Ness winning Big Ten freshman of the year. Then it was a coach of the year award for J Robinson. Cole Konrad came next, taking home Big Ten wrestler of the year honors.

The way the Big Ten season went, it was entirely appropriate. After steamrolling to an 8-0 conference dual record, Minnesota cruised to a Big Ten Championship on Sunday at the Breslin Center, finishing with 156 points. Wisconsin took second with 99.5 team points, and Iowa rounded out the top three, earning 91 points.

“We did some things that we wanted to do,” Robinson said. “We came here and pushed guys into the finals, and found out where we were nationally. We feel good about that, but we didn’t hit all of our goals, so we’ve got something left. And that’s good going into the national tournament because we can still improve and get better.”

The Gophers led the conference with four individual champions: redshirt freshman Jayson Ness at 125 pounds, sophomore Dustin Schlatter at 149, junior C.P. Schlatter at 157 and senior heavyweight Cole Konrad at heavyweight.

The two most impressive runs through the tournament came from Ness and Konrad. Ness pinned his first two opponents en route to the finals, then majored Charlie Falck of Iowa, the No. 2 seed at 125, 12-1 in the championship match.

“He just keeps getting better and better and better,” Robinson said. “You kind of wonder where his potential leads him this year, but right now, he’s wrestling with a lot of confidence. He’s got the heart of a youngster and the discipline of a veteran.”

Konrad was equally as impressive in waltzing to the conference heavyweight crown for the third consecutive season.

Konrad registered one forfeit win, one shutout victory by decision and two pins, including a fall over Penn State’s Aaron Anspach in the championship match. The win was Konrad’s 71st consecutive victory.

“I was looking for a pin,” Konrad said of the fall over Anspach. “He’s ranked third in the country, and I wanted to send a statement going into NCAAs. I think I did that.”

Minnesota also turned in a pair of impressive runs through the consolation bracket.

Sophomore Tyler Safratowich, seeded third at 165 pounds, lost his quarterfinal match on Saturday to Purdue’s Justin Fraga in overtime. But he stormed through the wrestlebacks, winning four matches, including a win over Fraga, to take third place.

Mack Reiter, the 2005 Big Ten Champion at 133, also won third place. After losing his quarterfinals match to Indiana’s Andrae Hernandez, the third-seeded junior won four matches in the consolation bracket, the last three by pin.

“It shows the team that sometimes things don’t go your way…and you’ve still got to battle back,” Reiter said. “I fought as hard as I could, and came away with three falls coming through the wrestlebacks. That was really good for the team, because I consider myself one of the leaders.”

Still, not everything went Minnesota’s way in Michigan. The Gophers qualified only nine of 10 wrestlers for nationals, as sophomore Yura Malamura went 0-2 at 197 and didn’t place.

Also, Manuel Rivera, undefeated coming into the championships and seeded first, lost two matches, first in the semifinals to Kyle Ruschell of Wisconsin, then in the consolation semifinals to Andy Simmons of Michigan State. Those two losses appeared to be caused, at least in part, by a left knee injury he suffered in the season’s last dual weekend in Wisconsin.

After wrestling his first four matches with a large wrap on his left leg, Rivera ditched the bandage for his fifth-place match against Cassio Pero, where he pinned the Illinois senior.

But even including those hiccups, it was still weekend show of dominance for Minnesota.

“We believe that we’re the best team in the country,” Reiter said, “and to go out and put up a really good number like that in the Big Ten tournament, that’s a pretty big margin between first and second place. We’re ready to go. We’re firing on all cylinders, and we’re really ready and excited to wrestle at nationals.”

Tradition costs Minnesota team points

Posted on 2:45 PM

Posted Sunday, March 4
by Matt Anderson
RADIO K SPORTS

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- It seemed like the No. 1 ranked Minnesota wrestling team did everything right at the Big Ten Championships. However, there was one thing that happened which irked coach J Robinson at the Breslin Center on Sunday.

It’s tradition at Minnesota for wrestlers competing in the championship matches at the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments to wear gold singlets. Every other wrestler in every other match wears maroon singlets.

That hasn’t ever been a problem — until Sunday.

Big Ten rules mandate that the teams competing at the championships have all their wrestlers wear the same singlets for each session. Previously, the championship bouts were considered a separate session from the consolation bracket, allowing Minnesota wrestlers to wear different colored singlets at the same time. This year though, the championship matches and consolation matches were considered the same session. That meant Minnesota was docked team points each time a wrestler appeared wearing gold.

“That’s kind of like the bureaucracy of the Big Ten,” Robinson said. “You can’t use the common sense of it. Instead of making it three rounds, or three sessions, can’t there be two sessions at the same time? Yeah. The third session, which is the consolation, and the fourth session, which is the finals.”


REITER’S KNEE LOOKING HEALED
It was an unlikely proposition.

Mack Reiter tore his ACL in October. Surely he couldn’t be at full strength heading into the NCAA Championships in March, could he?

Well, seeing the way he wrestled coming down the stretch at Big Tens, the junior 133 pounder sure seems to be near the top of his game.

After narrowly losing a 5-2 decision to Andrae Hernandez of Indiana in Saturday’s quarterfinals — Reiter said he though Hernandez should have been called for stalling when he tightened up with a 3-2 lead in the third — Reiter stormed through the wrestlebacks. He won his first match by a score of 7-0, then reeled off three straight pins to win third place. With as strongly he’s going, other 133 pounders probably won’t want to see Reiter at NCAAs.

“I’m feeling good,” Reiter said. “I’ve got a streak going, three falls in a row. My personal best is four, so I need two to break that. I’ll have to pin the first two guys at nationals.”


SAFRATOWICH GUTS WAY TO THIRD PLACE
For a while now, sophomore 165 pounder Tyler Safratowich has been overlooked.

He didn’t merit much hoopla as a recruit. He didn’t even get a start at 165 until the end of the Big Ten dual season. And then at the Big Ten Championships, he lost in the quarterfinals.

But he gutted his way through the consolation bracket this weekend, winning four wrestleback matches to take third place.

“It was great,” Reiter said. “The guy wrestled six matches in two days, and when you wrestle in the Big Ten tournament, pretty much every guy you wrestle is a two or a three-time state champion. So it’s like you’re wrestling in the state finals six times in two days.

“These guys are good and (Safratowich) wrestled hard. I was really impressed with him. He may have been the third seed coming in, but to wrestle to his seed, the guy earned it. He’s got some fire in him going into nationals.”

Rivera looking slowed

Posted on 8:47 AM

Posted Sunday, March 4
by Matt Anderson
RADIO K SPORTS

EAST LANSING, Mich. -- Before Saturday's fist session of the Big Ten Championships, nine Minnesota wrestlers were out on the arena floor going through warmups.

The one Gophers competitor not out prior to the match? Junior 141 pounder Manuel Rivera.

It's about about 10 minutes before the consolation bracket is set to resume three at the Breslin Center, and three of the four Minnesota wrestlers competing in wrestlebacks are out going through more intense warmups. Rivera is on the arena floor, and after a period of running and stretching, is now going trhoguh partnered warmups. However, his warmups are not as intense as usual. Rivera's warmup partner is not shooting in on him.

One has to believe that the left knee Rivera injured on Feb. 16 against Wisconsin is bothering him. He appeared to be slowed in his 10-8 quarterfinals win over eighth-seeded Justin Chrzanowski of Michigan and his 7-4 semifinals loss to fifth-seeded Kyle Ruschell of Wisconsin.

"He hasn't been on the mat a whole lot, and I'm sure that had something to do with (his loss to Ruschell)," Gophers coach J Robinson said. "But he's got another two weeks before the nationals and I think that's the important thing."

Big Ten title all but won for Minnesota

Posted on 8:33 PM

Posted Satuday, March 4
BY MATT ANDERSON
RADIO K SPORTS

EAST LANSING, Mich. — During the Big Ten dual meet season, Minnesota's top-ranked wrestling team made a habit out of building huge early leads and rolling over the competition.

That formula worked to the tune of an 8-0 conference dual record and at the Big Ten Championships, that same template looks to be working again.

The Gophers are in first place after one day of competition at the Breslin Center, ending Saturday with 121 team points. Wisconsin has 81 points and leads a tight race for second place.

But first place is practically guaranteed to be Minnesota’s. The Gophers sent five wrestlers through to the Sunday’s finals. Top-seeded Jayson Ness at 125 pounds, top-seeded Dustin Schlatter at 149, fourth-seeded C.P. Schlatter at 157, second-seeded Roger Kish at 185 and top-seeded heavyweight Cole Konrad will wrestle for a conference championship on Sunday.

“You’ve got to be happy for the five,” coach J Robinson said. “But we’re not there yet. We have to come back and wrestle hard tomorrow.”

Four other wrestlers — Mack Reiter at 133, Manuel Rivera at 141, Tyler Safratowich at 165 and Gabriel Dretsch at 174 — are will wrestle in the consolation semifinals Sunday and are qualified for the NCAA Championships. Only one Minnesota starter, 197 pounder Yura Malamura, is out of competition. Malamura will not qualify for NCAAs.

Highlighting the day for Minnesota was C.P. Schlatter’s 2-1 double overtime semifinal win over top-seeded Mark Poeta of Illinois. The wrestlers traded escapes in regulation and wrestled a scoreless overtime before Schlatter escaped in the first half of the tiebreaker to take a 2-1 lead. He secured the win when he rode Poeta out in the second half of the tiebreaker.

A little more than a month ago, Poeta defeated Schlatter 3-2 in a dual meet. Robinson said a lot’s changed for Schlatter since then.

“I think he was very aggressive the whole match,” Robinson said. “I think he’s got a lot more confidence. We went in a training cycle and put different training things together for him. It’s gone in to build more and more confidence because he has a lot more belief in his preparation.”

On the same mat two matches earlier, the lowlight of Saturday's evening session came for the Gophers. Rivera, previously undefeated on the season at 141, dropped a 7-4 decision to Kyle Ruschell of Wisconsin. Rivera had his left knee, injured in Minnesota's dual meet two weeks ago against Wisconsin, wrapped in tape.

Saturday was his first action since injuring the knee, and his quickness looked to be hindered by it. Robinson said the fact that Rivera hasn't been able to practice very much with the injury somewhat played into the loss.

Though the Badgers won that head-to-head matchup to help them in the race for second, there's still no practical chance they have to beat Minnesota for first place. Just like in the conference dual season, it's a little more than halfway through the competition and the outcome is all but guaranteed.

Gophers close home schedule with dominant victory

Posted on 9:48 PM

Posted Saturday, February 10
BY MATT ANDERSON
RADIO K SPORTS

It doesn't seem to be getting any harder for Minnesota's wrestling team.

Friday night's dual meet against Michigan State at the Sports Pavilion was the Gophers' sixth and final home dual of the season. The first five went easily enough -- winning fewer than seven of 10 matches in just one of the five and leaving all five meets with comfortable margins of victory.

The dual against the Spartans turned out to be easy even by the standards of the top-ranked Gophers.

Minnesota (17-1 overall, 6-0 Big Ten) defeated No. 20 Michigan State (3-7, 2-3) 35-4, winning nine of 10 matches. The Gophers got wins from Jayson Ness (125 pounds), Manuel Rivera (141), Dustin Schlatter (149), C.P. Schlatter (157), Tyler Safratowich (165), Gabe Dretsch (174), Roger Kish (184), Yura Malamura (197) and Cole Konrad (heavyweight).

"It was a good, dominating performance," coach J Robinson said. "I think it shows what happens when guys wrestle the way they want to. They pushed the pace, which they're capable of doing. It was a pretty awesome display of power."

Nowhere was that setting of the pace more evident than in the one of the night's two marquee matches.

Rivera, ranked second in the country at 141 and now 32-0 on the season, won 7-2 decision over fourth-ranked Andy Simmons. Rivera took a 2-0 lead with a takedown late in the second, then tacked on two third period takedowns to cement the win over the Spartans senior.

"As soon as I felt him get a little bit tired, I just jumped all over that opportunity," Rivera said. "I just picked up the pace when I felt him getting tired. It was a tough match, but once I felt him slowing down a little bit, I just kind of went for it."

Friday's dual featured one other matchup between top five wrestlers, a faceoff between No. 4 Ness and Michigan State's fifth-ranked Franklin Gomez at 125. Ness staked himself to a 4-2 first period lead with a pair of first period takedowns, then sealed the victory late with a third period takedown.

The only match of the night the Gophers lost was supposed to be another highlight match -- between junior Mack Reiter and Michigan State's second-ranked Nick Simmons at 133. However Reiter, who made his dual meet debut last weekend after missing more than three months with a torn ACL, was held out of the lineup.

"We're just deciding when and where we want to wrestle (Reiter)," Robinson said. "We're just trying to decide what's best for him. It's more important that when he wrestles he's ready to wrestle. He'll wrestle Sunday against Nebraska."

The night wrapped up with the final match of senior Cole Konrad's home career. The defending national champion, two-time Big Ten champion and three-time all-American went out with a flourish, pinning Michigan State's Alex O'Donnell 1:36 into the first period.

"It was good to go out at home that way," Konrad said.

"It was a good way to go out. I put a little bit of pressure on myself to come out and perform as best as I could, and it worked out alright."

The win, Konrad's school-record 64th in a row, was a fitting end to his Minnesota career -- not to mention an appropriate capper to the dual win over the Spartans.

Reiter's return continues tonight

Posted on 11:39 PM

Posted Friday, February 9
BY MATT ANDERSON
RADIO K SPORTS

It never looked right. Not this season.

Junior Mack Reiter, Minnesota’s two-time all-American wrestler and a former Big Ten champion at 133 pounds, was supposed to be helping the Gophers win dual meets and working his way into shape for another run at the 133 pound national championship.

But through January, rather than donning a maroon singlet for dual meets, Reiter was consigned to the bench in a shirt and tie, unable to compete because of a right anterior cruciate ligament tear suffered during an October practice.

Tonight, less than four months after suffering a potentially season-ending knee injury, everything will look right again at the Sports Pavilion when Reiter makes his home debut in Minnesota’s dual meet against Michigan State at 7 p.m.

Last week Reiter returned to the Gophers’ lineup, defeating Indiana’s Andrae Hernandez on Friday before dropping a decision to eighth-ranked Jimmy Kennedy of Illinois.

Still, as impressive as his comeback from the torn ACL has been, he still has work to do to get back to a level where he can compete for a national championship.

“He’s a little bit behind, but I think that he’s making a lot of progress,” coach J Robinson said. “It’s like that curve, where all of a sudden when you hit it, it’ll go. It takes a while to get back into the swing of things.”

According to Reiter, the ACL tear sapped some of the power from his right leg. With a lack of leg push, it’s now more difficult for Reiter to finish his shots.

Missing some of the strength he’s accustomed to in his right leg, Reiter has had to change his approach some. Rather than being able to drive up off of his right leg to gain takedowns from of his shots, he has to try some different techniques, such as crackdowns and underhooks.

“I’ve been working a lot with all the coaches — (assistant coach Joe Russell) and (head assistant coach Marty Morgan) and J and (assistant coach Brandon Eggum) — and figuring out how to adapt to that, because it’s something I’ll have to deal with,” Reiter said. “I won’t be able to do some of the things I used to be able to do, so I’m going to have to change some of my technique and adapt to it.”

According to junior 157-pounder C.P. Schlatter, who missed nearly two months of the season his redshirt freshman year after suffering a torn ACL the previous summer, the injury hurts a wrestler’s performance in more positions than the just the neutral.

“Bottom’s hard,” Schlatter said. “Bottom’s real hard. Your knee just doesn’t move right. It’s inflexible. It just doesn’t feel right, and (Reiter’s) struggled on bottom a little bit, and that’s what the difference in the match was (Sunday).”

The fact that Reiter is even able to consider what it’s going to take to get back to the nationally elite level before the Big Ten Championships in early March is a credit to his rehabilitation with trainer Rich Schlotfeldt.

Reiter tore the ACL during practice on October 19. After briefly considering wrestling this season on the injured knee without undergoing surgery, Reiter went under the knife on October 25.

One day later, his rehab with Schlodfeldt began. Over the next two months, it was the rehabilitation effort led by the trainer that enabled Reiter to make his quick recovery, he said.

“(Schlodfeldt) always said my body for some reason found a way to cheat the exercises he had me do, so he was real meticulous.” Reiter said. “He would watch me to make sure I was doing everything right so that I’d get the best recovery possible.”

Reiter started practicing again in early January, almost a month later, was back in dual action.

Before his match against Hernandez on Friday, Reiter said he was as nervous as he’d ever been before stepping to the mat. He was able to harness his nerves enough to take a 4-1 decision over the Indiana grappler. Two days later he lost to Kennedy. Reiter said he thought the loss was in part due to his lack of mat time this season.

And although it effected him in his loss to Kennedy, Reiter said he thinks his one-and-a-half month season could work to his advantage come the NCAA tournament.

“It’s a shortened season,” he said. “But I feel like I’ve said before, I can use that to my advantage, because a lot of these guys I’ll be wrestling, they’re tired, they’re sick of wrestling by now. They’re looking forward to it being over, they want it to be done, and I feel great. I feel fresh. My body’s ready to go and I’m still coming up and they’re starting to come back down.”

Mack Reiter interview transcript

Posted on 9:06 PM

Posted Thursday, February 8
BY MATT ANDERSON
RADIO K SPORTS

Q: First, can you talk a little bit about suffering the injury?
A: “It was October 19, I was wrestling with (Jayson) Ness. Right at the end of practice, we were doing one last 30 second go, we were doing overtime in a match, and I tried standing up, he tried bringing me down, and it was just kind of one of those accidents that just happens.”

Q: Could you tell the injury was pretty serious when it happened?
A: “I didn’t really think about it. It hurt pretty bad, but it was weird, because it hurt for all of like three or four minutes, and then all of a sudden it didn’t hurt anymore. It was kind of like, ‘Alright, what’s going on here.’ I had no idea what was going on. (Trainer Rich Schlodtfeldt) wanted me to go get an MRI done, and the thought never even came into my mind, it was like, ‘Alright, let’s do this for precaution.’”

Q: Prior to this, what was your most serious injury?
A: “Sprained ankle or something, I don’t know. I’ve never broken a bone, never done anything. This is just something new for me.”

Q: What went through your head when you were diagnosed with a torn ACL?
A: “My first thought after talking with Marty a little bit was that I would wrestle, that I’d wrestle on it, just like it was one of those things that I’d have to deal with. We thought about it a little more, then we decided to have the surgery.”

Q: When did the surgery occur?
A: “October 25.”

Q: And then when did the rehab begin?
A: “October 26. Rich brought me in. He came and picked me up at my house at about 9 in the morning, and I was just hurting. Because originally I had the block put in my leg so I couldn’t feel anything in it, and I felt great. Coming out of surgery, I was telling Rich, ‘This isn’t so bad.’ I was feeling good. Then he picks me up the next morning and is like, ‘How do you feel now?’ and I was in some serious pain, and he’s like, ‘Come on, let’s go do rehab,’ And I was like, ‘Do we have to start today,’ and he said yeah. So he brought me in and in hindsight, it was a great thing having him there pushing me like that, because I wouldn’t have been able to do it on my own.”

Q: How did Rich help?
A: “He was just on me a lot. He always said my body for some reason found a way to cheat the exercises he had me do, so he was real meticulous, and he would watch me to make sure I was doing everything right so that I’d get the best recovery possible.”

Q: How does your knee feel right now?
A: “It feels great as far as energywise, I don’t have any pain in it. But I’ll be wrestling, and I’ll notice certain things that I just can’t do that I used to be able to do. I’ve been working a lot with all the coaches — Joe and Marty and J and Eggum — and figuring out how to adapt to that, because it’s something I’ll have to deal with. I won’t be able to do some of the things I used to be able to do, so I’m going to have to change some of my technique and adapt to it.”

Q: What all can’t you do that you could before?
A: “I used to have a lot of power in my leg, so I’ve had to adjust getting in on shots where I can’t really drive up off it like I used to be able to. I’ll have to go to a crackdown or something like that to overcome some of the hinderances.”

Q: What was it like for you during your rehab, not being able to practice, not being able to participate with the rest of the team in competitions?
A: “The dual meets were the worst, sitting on the side. I like being there for the team and everything, but it’s just so hard to sit there on the side and not be able to wrestle. But at practice I tried to make myself as visible as I could, be around everybody. I did different things. We have Powerade after practice every day, so I started making that for the guys. I’d take requests; whatever they wanted, I’d make it for them, just trying to help out and do everything I could.”

Q: When did you rejoin practice?
A: “Right after Christmas break. I had gone home for a couple of days, and I came back, and I just decided that I would try and take a shot, because I hadn’t really even started drilling yet, and I was like, yeah, I’m going to try it and see how it feels. I end up doing it pretty good. Rich kind of worked with me a little bit, and Rich is pretty good because he knows a lot about wrestling too, so he’s great for a wrestling trainer. So he helped me a little bit to make sure my form was good, I wasn’t trying to cheat and get in a bad break or start a bad habit with my shots. Then I started wrestling, probably right after the first week of January.”

Q: What was it like this past weekend being back out there for a dual meet?
A: “I was really nervous. I’ve never been so nervous for a match as I was Friday night. I don’t know why. It was just the first dual meet, and I was real anxious to get out there. I felt that I did a good job of channeling the nerves and using that to my benefit and using the energy I had built up.”

Q: How much of Sunday’s loss to Jimmy Kennedy do you feel was due to your injury?
A: “He’s a good wrestler. I think if I had had a whole season of progress, I could have beaten the guy, but he’s definitely a good wrestler. I don’t want to take anything away from him, but I think by the end of the season, I should be able to beat all the guys. I know I can be a national champ.”

Q: Was it more of your knee acting up or more of just you needing to adapt how you wrestle?
A: “A little more of the second one. I feel okay, but I need to adapt to it. It’s going to take time for me to figure out certain things. When I’m in on a shot, I’m used to driving up or coming up on an underhook or something like that, whereas now I’ve got to figure different things out. It’ll take me a little bit to get the feeling down so that in a match situation, where you don’t have a second to think about it, you’ve got to go instantly, I’ll be able to go right into those moves.”

Q: Where is your stamina now as compared to where it would be if you had been wrestling from the start of the season?
A: “I feel like I’m in good shape. They weren’t easy on me at all when I was coming through the rehab, especially at the end of it. The coaches put me through a lot of workouts, Rich put me through a lot of hard workouts. I feel like I’m in good enough shape. I don’t think that’s an issue at all.”

Q: What about making weight twice in a weekend, or going to Big Tens and having to make weight twice?
A: “I think that this year I’ve done a lot better job controlling my weight. I feel a lot healthier, and I made weight five or six times now, and it’s not too bad anymore. Last year, I was having a little bit of trouble with it. It was more of an issue that it is this year. That’s one of the things where I feel like I’ve gotten older and realized that you’ve got to be real diligent about it.”

Q: Do you feel like you’re up against it timewise at all, with only two more dual weekends left before Big Tens?
A: “Yeah, a little bit. I didn’t start wrestling until basically last weekend really, and at that point, there’s only seven weeks left in the season. It’s a shortened season. But I feel like I’ve said before, I can use that to my advantage, because a lot of these guys I’ll be wrestling, you know, they’re tired, they’re sick of wrestling by now. They’re looking forward to it being over, they want it to be done, and I feel great. I feel fresh. My body’s ready to go and I’m still coming up and they’re starting to come back down.”

Q: Having Simmons on Friday, you’re kind of getting tossed into the fire pretty quickly now. Is it going to help you facing that tough a guy your second weekend back?
A: “It’s exciting, because then I’ll be able to gauge where I’m at. He’s ranked No. 1 — I need to figure out what I need to do. I’m ready to wrestle him and I think it’ll be a great match for me personally because I’ll be able to figure out where I need to go from here in the last six weeks.”

Wrestling lineup update

Posted on 8:15 PM

Posted Thursday, February 8
BY MATT ANDERSON
RADIO K SPORTS

Sophomore Minnesota wrestler Tyler Safratowich will make both starts this weekend at 165 pounds, coach J Robinson said. And although two starts on the second to last dual weekend of the season might lead one to believe Safratowich has wrapped up the starting spot ahead of junior Jeremy Larson, Robinson said that is not the case -- at least not yet.

"We're trying to find out who can win in competition," Robinson said. "Sometimes you have ranking matches and guys come out ahead but they can't compete. So we've got a couple more weeks before we have to decide. "

Safratowich made his first starts of the season at 165 last weekend, and scored a pair of wins, defeating No. 19 Max Dean of Indiana and Illinois's 13th-ranked Roger Smith-Bergsrud. Prior to the duals against Indiana and Illinois, Larson had made every dual meet start except one at 165. He had gone just 6-8 in duals, including an 0-6 record against ranked opponents.

Robinson said the decision between Safratowich, who entered the national rankings at No. 16 this week, and Larson could be made as soon as next week.


EIDENSCHINK LIKELY OUT
Robinson also said that freshman 197-pounder Brent Eidenschink, who strained his knee Sunday against Illinois, is not likely to see any action this weekend. The injury is not serious according to Robinson, but the staff did not want to put any undue stress on the injured knee. Sophomore Yura Malamura will start Friday and Sunday if Eidenschink, as expected, is not ready to wrestle.


ROBINSON SPEAKS OUT ABOUT MSHSL DECISION
The recent statewide shutdown of high school wrestling in Minnesota because of a skin herpes outbreak made national headlines. But the ban, which was lifted Tuesday, didn't necessarily merit the attention it got from national media outlets, nor did it warrant the shutdown by the Minnesota State High School League, Robinson said.

"The problem is everybody making it out to be this mystic disease that nobody has," Robinson said. "Well, half of the population in the United States has it (in the form of canker sores). It's just manifested in a different way. And so I think that it was a little overboard what the high school league did. I don't see why they would stop wrestling in the Northern part of the state where there's nobody that's come in contact. I think that's a little excessive.

"I think the high school association should have done a little bit more in telling the coaches what they could do to prevent it, rather than just, 'Here's this crisis, we're going to stop everything and make a crisis of it,' instead of saying, 'Hey, this is what we're going to do; we find by studies that if you take Valtrex, you'll cut your incidence rate back 90%.'

"On one hand, the high school board was good in that they were a little bit progressive. On the other hand, I think the high school league was a little bit negligent in not telling these coaches what they could do. I mean, getting ready to go to Big Ten tournament, all our guys go on Valtrex. Why? Because it cuts way back the chances of you getting it. They don't take it all year round, but you take it now."

Minnesota derails Purdue

Posted on 2:31 PM

Posted Sunday, January 28
BY MATT ANDERSON
RADIO K SPORTS

In its first two Big Ten dual meets, Minnesota's top-ranked wrestling team turned in dominant performances, winning eight of 10 individual matches in easy home wins over Penn State and Michigan.

Sunday's 32-9 win over Purdue at the Sports Pavilion followed that same early season script: Build an insurmountable early lead, then add to the margin with wins later in the match. The Gophers won seven of 10 matches on Sunday en route to an easy win over the Boilermakers.

"That's what teams like Minnesota do," Purdue coach Jessie Reyes said. "If you let them intimidate you, and if you let them keep putting pressure on you, hey, they're going to rack it up."

Nowhere was that intimidation factor more evident than in second-ranked 184 pound junior Roger Kish's 23-8 technical fall win over Nick Skinner.

Kish started the match with a takedown immediately after the opening whistle, then after an escape by Skinner, recorded another incredibly quick takedown to take a 4-1 lead less than 40 seconds into the match. In the third period, Kish recorded five takedowns and three-point near fall to net five team points for the Gophers.

"I like to score a lot of points," Kish said.

"It's nice when it happens, but sometimes it doesn't. But it's nice to push the pace a little bit."

The one match, again, where the pace was slow was at 149 pounds. Minnesota's top-ranked and undefeated sophomore Dustin Schlatter won a decision that was close on the scoreboard, but not as close in terms of actual performance. Schlatter won 3-2, but one point for No. 11 Jake Patacsil came on a Schlatter stall, and the other came when Patacsil rode the entire third period out to earn a riding time point. Schlatter earned the match's only takedown late in the second period.

The match was the fourth time in the past five contests that Schlatter scored fewer than four points in a victory.

"People are changing their tactics to wrestle him," Minnesota coach J Robinson said. "He's going to have to change his tactics and strategy a little bit, but that just goes the way it is. Before, people would just come to wrestle him, but now they're not, they're not wrestling, so he's got to adapt a little bit. But I think he'll be fine."

Even though his opponents haven't been allowing Schlatter to record dominant wins, it's still difficult to keep the Gophers team from putting up big dual meet victories.

"Minnesota's good; they're really good," Reyes said. "They're so balanced. I mean, from (125) on up, they're just solid. And that's the key. If you have a balanced team, you're going to be able to do some damage like they have."

Gophers avenge last season's loss and trounce Wolverines

Posted on 11:53 PM

Posted Saturday, January 27
BY MATT ANDERSON
RADIO K SPORTS

Last year, it all started unraveling at Michigan.

Minnesota's wrestling team headed into Ann Arbor at 19-0 on the dual season and ranked first in the nation. The Wolverines stunned the Gophers last February, and although Minnesota won the Big Ten championship two weeks later, the Gophers fell short of their ultimate goal, finishing second at the NCAA Championships in March.

This year, the result against Michigan was quite different. Friday at the Sports Pavilion, top-ranked Minnesota (13-1, 2-0 Big Ten) easily dispatched of No. 17 Michigan (1-4-1, 0-1), winning eight of 10 individual matches for a 29-6 victory.

"Last year, they kind of spoiled our perfect season," coach J Robinson said. "It's not the only thing, but I think things like that help you focus a little bit. It was good tonight. They fought with a lot of intensity."

Just like last Sunday's Big Ten opening cakewalk against Penn State, it was Jayson Ness who gave the Gophers a spark starting the dual meet. Last week, the redshirt freshman, ranked fourth nationally at 125 pounds, pinned No. 2 Mark McKnight to kickstart a 31-12 victory over the Nittany Lions. Friday, he had a considerably easier opponent in Michael Watts, and won by technical fall, posting a 20-3 victory.

That win gave Minnesota a 5-0 lead, and things took off from there for the Gophers, who won the next four matches to head into the intermission break with an 18-0 lead.

"It's like in football, or in basketball," Robinson said. "Emotion plays an important part...We have a guy come out and score four or five points, that gets the next guy in front of him excited, and then it starts rolling."

The meet's marquee match was at 149 pounds, where top-ranked Gophers sophomore Dustin Schlatter defeated No. 3 Josh Churella 2-1.

Neither wrestler scored a takedown, as Churella seemed to be backing away from Schlatter whenever it looked like the defending national champion might shoot. In the second period Schlatter started on top, and rode Churella for the entire two minutes. He held that riding time advantage through the third period, and when each wrestler was penalized a point for stalling, that riding time advantage proved to be the match's decisive point.

The Churella match was just the latest in a line of close, low-scoring victories for the undefeated Schlatter.

"Nobody's wrestling him," Robinson said. "What did Churella really do? He really didn't do a whole lot. When you leave your hand on a guy's head and you hit your knee and you reach for a leg, it's not a shot. But nobody'll shoot."

And with opposing wrestlers now strategizing to keep their matches against Schlatter to a point where one small slip-up could mean an upset, Schlatter said he needs to slightly rework his approach.

"It's definitely frustrating," he said. "But it's something someone in my position should expect. I need to work on my offense when guys aren't doing anything; when they're backing I still need to be able to score."

Although Schlatter's match was close, the dual wasn't. The dominant nature of the victory was all the more meaningful because of Michigan's derailment of Minnesota's perfect season last year.

"The loss last year really hit us hard," Schlatter said. "It was kind of shocking when it happened last year. This year, I think we kind of just rolled through it like we were expected to do, and I think everyone top to bottom was great."