Skip to content
Sports

No. 14 Rutgers wrestling earns 1st Big Ten win against No. 21 Indiana

Senior 174-pounder Jackson Turley earned a ranked win in the Rutgers wrestling team's home victory against Indiana. – Photo by Ben Solomon / Scarletknights.com

The Rutgers wrestling team began Big Ten competition against Indiana on Friday night at Jersey Mike’s Arena on Livingston campus. The Scarlet Knights (8-1, 1-0) defeated the Hoosiers (3-1, 0-1) 30-11 and won 7 of their 10 bouts.

No. 14 Rutgers won the first bout of the contest, as No. 13 junior 125-pounder Dean Peterson pinned Blaine Frazier, rebounding from his upset defeat on Sunday.

No. 8 junior 133-pounder Dylan Shawver dominated in his bout against Cayden Rooks. Shawver had five takedowns and landed a technical fall, defeating Rooks 22-7 to put the Knights up 11-0.

In his first dual meet of the season, freshman 125-pounder Max Hermes struggled against No. 23 Dan Fongaro in the 141-pound matchup, suffering a 20-3 decision and losing by technical fall.

Coming off of a ranked win against Rider, junior 149-pounder Michael Cetta fell to No. 14 Graham Rooks in an 8-2 decision. Cetta kept the bout a 1-point contest after two periods of wrestling but Rooks was ultimately able to pull away with the win.

Rutgers would bounce back, as junior 157-pounder Al DeSantis earned a shutout major decision victory over Zack Rotkvich to make the score 15-8 heading into the intermission.

No. 21 Indiana came out of the locker room on the front foot, as No. 23 Tyler Lillard got a 4-1 decision win over junior 165-pounder Anthony White.

In the first ranked bout of the night, No. 27 senior 174-pounder Jackson Turley emerged victorious against No. 9 Donnell Washington and secured a technical fall. Turley began the bout with a near-fall and landed two takedowns to extend the Knights’ lead to 20-11.

After the match, Turley spoke on what led to the big win.

“I know exactly what's coming when it comes to him,” Turley said. “We just did a really good job preparing and I was ready.”

The Hoosiers would continue to struggle as Roman Rogotzke lost to No. 21 sophomore 184-pounder Brian Soldano in a 15-5 major decision.

No. 8 junior 197-pounder John Poznanski and No. 7 graduate student 285-pounder Yaraslau Slavikouski sealed the dual win for Rutgers with victories over Gabe Sollars and Nick Willham, respectively.

Overall, the Knights outscored Indiana 90-48 and landed 18 takedowns.

Rutgers will look to continue its strong start to conference play against Purdue. The match will be in West Lafayette, Indiana, and will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

“Great, great team effort. Up and down the lineup, some huge wins,” said head coach Scott Goodale.


For more updates on the Rutgers wrestling team, follow @TargumSports on X.

To view more of Matthew Mangam's work, follow @matthewmangam on X.


Related Articles


Join our newsletterSubscribe