No. 14 Rutgers wrestling continues winning streak against Purdue
The Rutgers wrestling team traveled to West Lafayette, Indiana, to face off against Purdue on Sunday afternoon. The Scarlet Knights (9-1, 2-0) defeated the Boilermakers (5-4, 0-1) 26-13 and remain undefeated in Big Ten competition.
Here are three takeaways from the dominant win.
Bonus points galore
No. 14 Rutgers earned four bonus-point wins against Purdue.
The dual started with the heavyweights. No. 7 graduate student 285-pounder Yaraslau Slavikouski worked a 14-2 major decision win over Tristan Ruhlman to continue his undefeated record in dual meets.
No. 8 junior 133-pounder Dylan Shawver impressed with a 20-5 win against Jacob Macatangay, landing a technical fall and giving the Knights a 9-3 lead after three bouts.
Coming off his strongest win of the season, No. 27 senior 174-pounder Jackson Turley pinned Brody Baumann after 25 seconds of wrestling.
Head coach Scott Goodale has had plenty of praise for Turley this season.
“He’s (Turley) much better now, his training's much better, everything’s much better,” Goodale said after the win against Indiana. “Maybe it’s experience, he’s doing a good job."
No. 8 junior 197-pounder John Poznanski put the dual out of reach in his 18-3 technical fall win over Ben Vanadia. Poznanski has landed more than five bonus point wins this season and remains undefeated.
Dean Peterson shows fight in ranked matchup
No. 13 junior 125-pounder Dean Peterson suffered his first defeat of the season against Rider a week ago when he was upset by Tyler Klinsky. Peterson would bounce back a few days later against the Hoosiers (3-2, 0-2) when he pinned his opponent.
In Sunday's dual, Peterson faced his toughest opponent this season in No. 2 Matt Ramos. Last season, Ramos was the runner-up at the NCAA Championships for his weight class and had an overall record of 35-5.
The bout between Peterson and Ramos remained scoreless after the first period. Peterson recorded an escape in the second period, but it was not enough, as he suffered a 4-1 decision defeat.
Peterson does not let his defeats take a toll on him, though, as he focuses on moving on quickly.
“Over my wrestling career, I’ve kind of gotten better on having short-term memory and forgetting those losses and kind of just bouncing back and focusing on the match that is ahead of me,” Peterson said after his win against Indiana. “You dwell on those losses, you get stuck and you’re a week behind.”
Mitch Moore and Andrew Clark remain out
No. 11 graduate student 141-pounder Mitch Moore and junior 157-pounder Andrew Clark, who are both injured, missed their second consecutive dual when Rutgers took on the Boilermakers.
Redshirt junior 133-pounder Devon Britton filled in for Moore and lost a 4-1 decision to Greyson Clark.
Junior 157-pounder Al DeSantis started in place of Clark and suffered a 12-4 major decision defeat to Joey Blaze.
With a tough upcoming schedule, the Knights will need Moore and Clark to return quickly to find success.
Rutgers will look to stay perfect in conference play when it takes on Michigan State and Michigan this coming weekend. The match against the Spartans (7-1, 0-1) will begin at 6:30 p.m. on Friday and the contest against the Wolverines (4-1, 2-0) will start at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
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