The Jump Around started early on Saturday for the Wisconsin Badgers. They kicked things off by winning 9 of 10 matches in their first dual against Tennessee Chattanooga and then following it up by winning 8 of 10 matches against Buffalo! The Badgers were off to a great start by going 17-3 in matches over their first two duals!
Unfortunately the fun ended there. In the final dual of the night that featured #11 Wisconsin vs #13 Iowa State, it saw Wisconsin winning only 2 of the 10 matches. The final result may appear lopsided, but if you look a little closer you would find that all but one of the losses were by decision. It was competitive and the Badgers were right there in each match, but ultimately we seemed to struggle in making adjustments to swing the matches in our favor.
It’s a great early season check and I see no reason to go back and completely change the game plan. A bunch of smart guys in Madison, they will surely be able to fix some of the technique or match strategy issues that might have made the difference in their matches.
However, let’s not let it take away from the highs from the weekend. One of those is the fact that our Wisconsin Badgers still finished 2-1 as a team! At heavyweight Trent Hilger (Thor) earned his 100th victory in his career as a Badger, an extremely impressive milestone in college wrestling. At 157 team Captain Garrett Model started off his season hot by going 3-0 this weekend.
The Badgers will have a little bit of time off and be back in action on November 19th in Ithaca New York as they take on Cornell.
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