University of Minnesota Athletics
Gophers Look to Extend Streak Versus Wildcats
2/4/2016 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
No. 17 Minnesota (7-7, 3-3) will look to rebound from a loss in Iowa City last Friday and extend its longest active winning streak over a Big Ten opponent when it heads to Evanston for a Friday night dual against Northwestern (1-9, 0-5).
A win would be the third in the last four matches for the Gophers. Prior to last weekend's loss to the rival Hawkeyes, Minnesota had closed out its home conference schedule with back-to-back wins over Rutgers and Purdue. Friday's match will be the second in a four-match road swing for the Gophers to close out their Big Ten season. A win in Evanston would once again put the Gophers above .500 on the season, both overall and in conference competition.
While Minnesota headed south to Iowa, the Wildcats spent their weekend in Michigan taking on both the Wolverines and the Spartans. The Cats dropped both of those duals, first a 39-6 defeat in Ann Arbor and then 19-15 loss in East Lansing, giving Michigan State its first win of the season. Those defeats extended Northwestern's losing streak to eight consecutive duals, a skid that began following the team's only victory of the season against Franklin and Marshall at Madison Square Garden in late November. It's been a tough go for Northwestern since that win 10 weeks ago. Heading into the Michigan State dual, Northwestern had been outscored 139-10 in its previous three duals and has lost its matches during the current losing streak by an average score of 33-12.
As mentioned, the Gophers will put their longest active winning streak within the league on the line Friday night, a 13-match run that stretches back two decades. Minnesota has a 13-match unbeaten streak against Penn State as well, but that includes a dual that ended in a tie. Northwestern last earned a win over Minnesota 20 years ago, a 25-19 victory in January 1996 at Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Gophers hold a 42-17-1 advantage in the all-time series.
Most recently, these two teams met last December at the Sports Pavilion and the Gophers captured a 21-19 victory. It was an odd dual that featured only seven actual matches, with Minnesota forfeiting at 125 pounds and Northwestern forfeiting at both 157 and 174. Save for a major decision for the Wildcats at 165 in the night's final contest, the rest of the dual's matches finished in decisions, three for each team.
Less than half of the grapplers who were on the mat for that dual will return for this year's contest. Of that group of nine wrestlers - four Gophers and five Wildcats - three have changed weights this season, with Nick Wanzek and Brett Pfarr bumping up for Minnesota and Mitch Sliga dropping down from 184 to 174 for the Northwestern. The roster turnover and weight changes leave little opportunities for rematches, and there will be just one on Friday night. That match, the 149-pound bout between No. 4 Jason Tsirtsis and No. 16 Jake Short, is also the only ranked-versus-ranked match on the card. Tsirtsis is 2-0 all-time against Short, defeating him 5-3 last winter in Minneapolis and 2-0 at the 2014 Midlands Championship during Short's redshirt season. The other nine matches scheduled for Friday night will be the first-ever meeting between the two opponents.
Friday night's dual will be streamed live on BTN Plus starting at 7 p.m. Central. As always, Gopher Wrestling will be providing its followers with mat-side updates throughout the dual on Twitter.
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