Jan. 18, 2001
The Purdue wrestling team, opening the Big Ten portion of its schedule, dropped a close match to Indiana which went all the way to the wire, 20-17.
"I thought we did a really nice job," head coach Jessie Reyes said. "We were really aggressive tonight, and I think we can be even more aggressive."
The Boilermakers got off to a solid start, as Ryan Lange picked up his 20th win of the season, defeating Jack Wade 14-5. Lange leads the team with a record of 20-5.
Jared Williams had a tough task, in competing with 5th-ranked Viktor Sveda at 184. Williams, wrestling in his second competition of the season, dropped a 14-1 major decision to Sveda.
The Boilermakers almost picked up an impressive win at 197 from Jon Bush, but the buzzer ran out as Bush gave Indiana's Brett Becks all he could handle, losing a close 5-4 match. It was only Bush's third loss of the year against 13 wins.
Purdue then won its next three matches. Jake Vercelli, ranked 20th at heavyweight, improved to 13-5 on the year with a victory over Michael Dixon. The win marked Vercelli's second consecutive win over Dixon.
Jason Silverstein, ranked 15th at 125, improved to 14-3 following a victory over 16th-ranked Greg Schaefer. Evan Robinson, ranked 10th at 133, improved his record to 15-2 following his victory. Robinson has won his last nine matches.
At 141, Paul Sacquitne was pinned by Coyte Cooper with 1:31 left in the third period. Sacquitne is now 2-9 on the season. At 149, Dan Jankowski, competing at his alma mater Mater Dei High School, dropped a 15-5 decision to Gabe Cook. Jankowski still holds a winning-record at 8-6.
Clovis Crane gave the Boilermakers a nice jolt at 157, following a 12-0 victory over Alex LaPointe. Crane's victory gave Purdue a 17-16 lead heading into the final match at 165, between Kirk Moore and Kevin Stanley. Stanley, who placed 5th at 157 in the Big Ten Championships last season, now competes at 165 and defeated Moore 13-5 in what was a closely-contested match.
The Boilermakers (6-2, 0-1) travel to Columbus, Ohio, to take on the Ohio State Buckeyes on Sunday, Jan. 21 at 12 p.m. They return home on Friday, Jan. 26 to take on the Iowa Hawkeyes at 7 p.m.