WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A trio of Purdue grapplers were victorious, but it wasn't enough as the No. 22 Boilermakers suffered a 26-9 loss to No. 16 Michigan inside Holloway Gymnasium Sunday. The Wolverines captured bonus points at three weights while moving to 6-5, 4-4 B1G. The Old Gold & Black evened their season record at 8-8 and dropped to 1-6 in conference duals.
Michigan received bonus points with major decisions at 125 and 197 and a fall at 157. The Wolverines held a 20-4 takedown advantage and scored first in eight of the 10 bouts.
"This sport at this level, everyone is pretty good," assistant coach Tyrel Todd said. "Seventy-five percent of this sport is mental. If we can make the adjustments we need to make mentally and get our confidence up where it needs to be, we will be successful.
"We need strong duals against Michigan State and Indiana for our fans as well as momentum into the B1G Championships. It is a winning style of wrestling to be attack-minded from the beginning. We need to get our confidence up going into the B1G Championships and then we will be in a good place. We have to peak."
A third-period reversal earned No. 11 Danny Sabatello a 7-5 decision over Zebulon Hilyard at 133 pounds. The Wolverine fired off the first whistle, taking Sabatello down, but he immediately escaped and was on the pursuit. Sabatello took Hilyard down twice in the opening stanza to build a 5-4 lead.
After deferring in the second, Sabatello took bottom and Hilyard rode the redshirt junior out, essentially making it a 5-5 match heading into the third. Hilyard looked to continue to build his riding time by taking top in the final period. Midway through, Sabatello was able to get to a sitting position, circle around and take control of Hilyard for the rest of the match.
The win lifted him to 22-5 in his redshirt junior campaign, while pushing his dual mark to 14-2 and 5-2 against B1G foes.
"It is extremely important to keep confident, especially in the B1G," Sabatello said. "This is a brutal conference and everyone knows that. Anytime that you can get a win against anyone it is huge. We have to get our guys motivated, confident and tough, and we will go into B1Gs and NCAAs on top."
In the ensuing match at 141, Nick Lawrence took an 8-7 decision from George Fisher to give Purdue a 6-4 lead in the dual. For the 18th time this season, Lawrence put the first points on the board with a quick takedown in the first period. Fisher escaped to start the second and took Lawrence down to take a 4-2 lead and the Boilermaker switched positions with Fisher to tie it 4-4. After a stalemate, Fisher jumped before the whistle for his first caution, which would prove to be the deciding factor in the match. The Wolverine escaped thereafter to take a 5-4 advantage into the final two minutes.
At the start of the third, Fisher moved ahead of the whistle while on top for his second caution. Lawrence escaped and a minute later Fisher took him down. Under 30 seconds remained and Lawrence again reversed the Wolverine to tie the match at 7-7. Fisher moved before the whistle a third time, awarding Lawrence the match-winning penalty point.
The redshirt senior, who was wrestling in his 100th match for the Old Gold & Black, moved to 18-12 on the year while winning his ninth dual contest.
A takedown in the first period and escape to start the third lifted Pat Robinson to a 3-2 decision over Garrett Sutton at 165 pounds. Both of the Michigan freshman's points came via escape. The win was the 13th in his final season for Purdue.
The Boilermakers will be back in action inside Holloway Gymnasium to host Michigan State Feb. 15 at 1 p.m. ET.
NO. 16 MICHIGAN 26, NO. 22 PURDUE 9
125 // Conor Youtsey (Michigan) maj. dec. Luke Welch (Purdue), 10-2
133 // No. 11 Danny Sabatello (Purdue) dec. Zebulon Hilyard (Michigan), 7-5
141 // Nick Lawrence (Purdue) dec. George Fisher (Michigan), 8-7
149 // No. 13 Alec Pantaleo (Michigan) dec. Brandon Nelsen (Purdue), 8-5
157 // No. 11 Brian Murphy (Michigan) pinned No. 10 Doug Welch (Purdue), 4:56
165 // Pat Robinson (Purdue) dec. Garrett Sutton (Michigan), 3-2
174 // Jake Salazar (Michigan) dec. Chad Welch (Purdue), 6-2
184 // No. 10 Domenic Abounader (Michigan) dec. Tanner Lynde (Purdue), 4-0
197 // No. 8 Max Huntley (Michigan) maj. dec. No. 11 Braden Atwood (Purdue), 8-0
285 // Chris Heald (Michigan) dec. Tyler Kral (Purdue), 7-3