Wisconsin wrestling: UW takes down Northern Iowa

The No. 8 Wisconsin Badgers wrestling team (11-2 overall, 6-2 Big Ten) traveled to face the No. 17 Northern Iowa Panthers on Thursday night in their final road match of the season. The Badgers will return home to Madison with a 24-10 victory after an impressive showing from a number of wrestlers.

Freshman Dean Hamiti picked up another major decision victory, his sixteenth bonus point win of the year, to push his season record to 18-1. As commenter 2CofC noted in the Blogopean Union comments from Friday morning, “Hamiti had three takedowns, a reversal, an escape and riding time,the opponent had two escapes when Hamiti let him up to take him down again” against the No. 12 wrestler in the country at 165.

Freshman Braxton Amos and veteran big man Trent Hillger also scored major decisions among Wisconsin’s seven victories in 10 overall matches. No. 32 freshman Joseph Zargo earned a second consecutive upset of a higher-ranked opponent on Thursday night as he took down No. 23 Cael Happel in a 9-4 decision.

Wisconsin’s final regular season match is on Sunday at noon CT against No. 11 Cornell at the UW Field House. It is Senior Day and all fans are encouraged to wear red to contribute to the Red Out. The match will be streamed on BTN+ for those of us who can’t attend in person.

RESULTS

133: No. 17 Kyle Biscoglia (UNI) over Ethan Rotondo (WIS) (Dec 7-1) 0-3
141: No. 32 Joseph Zargo (WIS) over No. 23 Cael Happel (UNI) (Dec 9-4) 3-3
149: No. 6 Austin Gomez (WIS) over Colin Realbuto (UNI) (Dec 9-6) 6-3
157: No. 29 Garrett Model (WIS) over Derek Holschlag (UNI) (Dec 14-8) 9-3
165: No. 6 Dean Hamiti (WIS) over No. 12 Austin Yant (UNI) (MD 10-2) 13-3
174: No. 19 Lance Runyon (UNI) over No. 30 Andrew McNally (WIS) (Dec 10-3) 13-6
184: No. 4 Parker Keckeisen (UNI) over No. 27 Chris Weiler (WIS) (MD 15-6) 13-10
197: No. 20 Braxton Amos (WIS) over John Gunderson (UNI) (MD 13-4) 17-10
285: No. 11 Trent Hillger (WIS) over Carter Isley (UNI) (MD 8-0) 21-10
125: No. 6 Eric Barnett (WIS) over No. 16 Brody Teske (UNI) (Dec 5-3) 24-10

Team rankings are NWCA for Feb. 15, 2022; Individual rankings are Intermat for Feb. 15, 2022.