No. 1 Minnesota Overwhelms Spartans, 36-3
For the second straight night, No. 1 Minnesota put up 36 points and nine match wins in a home dual, defeating Michigan State 36-3 on Friday night at the Sports Pavilion only 24 hours removed from knocking off Grand Canyon. The victory improves the Gophers to 4-0 on the season and 1-0 in the Big Ten, extending the team’s winning streak in Big Ten home openers to seven, and its win streak in the series against Michigan State to eight.
Three highly ranked Gopher wrestlers – No. 2 Chris Dardanes (133), No. 3 Nick Dardanes (141) and No. 1 Scott Schiller (197) – all returned to the lineup for the conference opener and each reminded fans why they are considered some of the nation’s best at their respective weight classes. Chris Dardanes handled No. 16 Javier Gasca 10-4 in the night’s lone matchup between ranked opponents. After watching his brother return to action with a victory, Nick stepped onto the mat in the next match and pinned Garth Yenter at the last second, literally, as 0:01 showed on the first period clock when the fall was called. Later in the dual, Schiller scored a fall of his own, pinning Nick McDiarmid at 4:36. In each of his three victories this season, Schiller has pinned his opponent.
The Dardanes matches immediately followed the Gophers only loss on the night, a hard-fought 7-5 decision that went against Jordan Bremer at 125. Leading by six after the pin at 141, the Maroon and Gold never looked back. Seth Lange made his season dual debut next at 149 and won a convincing 7-2 decision. No. 1 Dylan Ness earned a major decision, 9-1, at 157. No. 15 Nick Wanzek trailed 3-2 after the second period of the next match, but scored three points in the third period and added a bonus point for riding time to win an exciting 5-3 decision and keep his career dual record perfect at 4-0. No. 1 Logan Storley stretched his streak of scoring bonus points in ever match he’s wrestled this season to eight by defeating Nick Proctor by tech fall, 16-0, at 5:26. At 184, No. 14 Brett Pfarr needed two brief blood time stoppages but took his match 6-2. No. 20 Michael Kroells wrapped up the dual with a 7-2 win at 285.
After competing four times in seven days, the Gophers will have a few days off to prepare for their next dual, a top 10 matchup against No. 9 Oklahoma State next Saturday at the Sports Pavilion. The match will be streamed on BTN Plus and updates from throughout the meet will be provided on the Gopher Wrestling Twitter feed.
Minnesota 36, Michigan State 3
125 Mitch Rogaliner (Michigan State) dec. Jordan Bremer (Minnesota) 7-5
133 #2 Christopher Dardanes (Minnesota) dec. #16 Javier Gasca III (Michigan State) 10-4
141 #3 Nick Dardanes (Minnesota) fall Garth Yenter (Michigan State) 2:59
149 Seth Lange (Minnesota) dec. Nicholas Trimble (Michigan State) 7-2
157 #1 Dylan Ness (Minnesota) maj. dec. Roger Wildmo (Michigan State) 9-1
165 #15 Nicholas Wanzek (Minnesota) dec. Ryan Watts (Michigan State) 5-3
174 #1 Logan Storley (Minnesota) tech fall Nick Proctor (Michigan State) 16-0, 5:29
184 #14 Brett Pfarr (Minnesota) dec. John Rizqallah (Michigan State) 6-2
197 #1 Scott Schiller (Minnesota) fall Nick McDiarmid (Michigan State) 4:36
285 #20 Michael Kroells (Minnesota) dec. Luke Jones (Michigan State) 7-2