Feb. 11, 2005
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - In the last home dual of the season, the Purdue Boilermakers defeated the 11th-ranked Michigan State Spartans by a score of 20-13 in front of 697 fans in Mackey Arena. The win followed a send-off to two Purdue seniors and was the second in row for Purdue over the Spartans.
Purdue is now 8-10 overall and 2-4 in the Big Ten. Michigan State slipped to 7-3-1 and 4-1-1.
The Boilermakers started out the night with a big win at 157 pounds by freshman Colton Salazar over Spartan freshman Justin Mora. In Salazar's first conference win of the season, it was a constant barage of takedowns as the Boilermaker freshman racked up 10 takedowns and over three minutes of riding time to win by a technical fall score of 23-7.
"The freshmen got the momentum going with Colton's win at 157 pounds," head coach Jessie Reyes said, "and the freshmen kept the momentum going with Jake's win in the middle of the dual, Basically, it was the freshmen momentum that kept us going to come away with the win tonight."
Purdue would follow up the 157-pound win with a 5-4 decision at 165 pounds by sophomore John DeCeault (Tinley Park, Ill.) over freshman Bryan Harney. DeCeault took down Harney in the first period and built a 2:10 riding time advantage in the opening stanza, an advantage that would give the Boilermaker a one-point win.
Following a MSU win at 174 pounds, the Boilermakers quickly rebounded with three consecutive wins by 184-pounder Ben Wissel, 197-pounder Nate Moore, and heavyweight Jake O'Brien.
At 184 pounds, 14th-ranked junior Wissel (Richmond, Ind.) defeated 18th-ranked Spartan freshman Joe Williams by a 9-5 decision. Wissel came out strong with a quick takedown and would add two more takedown and build up over three minutes of riding time during the match.
After a tight 2-0 decision Moore (Indianapolis, Ind.), ranked 19th in the nation, freshman O'Brien (Indianapolis, Ind.) earned his first Big Ten win of the season in a tight 7-6 decision over senior Max Lossen. With the match tied 5-5 at the beginning of the third period, O'Brien scored the critical takedown 28 seconds into the period to grab the win, putting Purdue ahead 17-3.
Although falling at 125, 133, and 141 pounds, Purdue still held a 17-13 lead entering the final match of the evening, a 149-pound match-up between ninth-ranked Doug Withstandley (Jackson, N.J.) and 18th-ranked Darren McKnight.
Trailing by one point in the third period, Withstandley tied to the score at 4-4 when McKnight was hit for stalling. The Boilermaker junior wasted little time once the match went into an extra frame, scoring the winning takedown 20 seconds into overtime to win 6-4, remaining undefeated in conference action.
Prior to the dual, the wrestling program paid tribute to two seniors. Rene Hernandez (Hammond, Ind.) and Ben Sprunger (Bluffton, Ind.) were honored in a pre-match ceremony.
The Boilermakers will hit the mat again on Friday when they travel down to Bloomington to face Big Ten rival and 23rd-ranked Indiana at 7 p.m. in University Gymnasium. Purdue will then make the trek up to Ann Arbor to face the sixth-ranked Wolverines for a 1 p.m. Sunday dual.