Northwestern
Purdue
Wrestling Falls to Purdue, 24-9
1/18/2002 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Jan. 18, 2002
West Lafayette, Ind. - No. 21 Purdue proved to be too much for the Northwestern wrestling squad to handle, as the Boilermakers defeated the Wildcats, 24-9, in both teams' Big Ten opener Friday night in West Lafayette. The loss drops the 'Cats record to 7-5 overall and 0-1 in the conference.
NU started strong, winning the first two matches and jumping out to an early 6-0 lead. Tommy Vargas (Highland, Calif./Pacific) won the opening match at 133 (4-2) and John Giacche (Flemington, N.J./Blair Academy) followed that up with a decisive win (14-8) at 141.
Purdue would take the next two matches to even the score at 6-6, but Ryan Kane's (Temecula, Calif./Temecula Valley) victory at 165 (4-2) put the 'Cats temporarily back in the lead. However, the Boilermakers would take the next match at 174 to tie the score at 9-9, and then rattled off wins in the next four matches to conclude the dual.
The 'Cats are in action again on Sunday when they take on intrastate rival Northern Illinois at 2 p.m. in DeKalb.
Purdue 24, Northwestern 9
133: Vargas (NU) def. Hernandez (PU) 4-2, Northwestern 3-0 141: Giacche (NU) def. Pursley (PU), 14-8, Northwestern 6-0 149: Jankowski (PU) def. Cumbee (NU), 8-4, Northwestern 6-3 157: Harper (PU) def. Kimberlin (NU), 6-4, 6-6 165: Kane (NU) def. Santiago(PU) , 4-2, Northwestern 9-6 174: Lange (PU) def. Erwinski (NU), 9-5, 9-9 184: Fitch (PU) def. A. Curran (NU), 6-2, Purdue 12-9 197: Bush (PU) def. B. Curran (NU, F 4:32, 18-9, Purdue 18-9 HWT: Vercelli (PU) def. Little (NU), 5-1, Purdue 21-9 125: Fleeger (PU) def. Potashnick (NU), 9-2, Purdue 24-9
