Today marks the second half of this weekend’s dual meet; the opponent is the Purdue Boilermakers. Today is the endowment meet put on by the wrestling program and all proceeds from admission will go to the wrestling scholarship fund, benefitting student athletes. This afternoon’s match is scheduled to start at 2 p.m. and the first matchup will be Minnesota’s Dustin Schlatter and Purdue’s Colton Salazar.
The Gopher’s have jumped out to an early lead. Dustin Schlatter won by major decision, 11-1, and Cody Yohn looked very impressive with several takedowns in the first period. Two solid periods followed and Yohn was also able to secure an 11-1 victory by major decision. With #8 Scott Glasser on deck, the Gopher’s are leading 8-0. 2:37: Glasser was handed a victory by forfeit, bringing Kaleb Young to the mat. Kaleb completed the first period against Purdue’s Nick Corpe knotted at zero. The second period ended similarly, with two Young escapes sandwhiching a Corpe takedown, 2-2. Corpe got an escape with 25 seconds to go and won by decision, 3-2. Gophers up 14-3 2:53: Things got tense when Sonny Yohn, leading 3-1, was driven out of bounds by Purdue’s Logan Brown. The crowd has been heavily behind Sonny both matches this weekend and coach Robinson predicted a break out would come before the Big Ten tournament. Brown is ranked 11th in the nation in his weight class and Sonny upset him, winning by decision, 5-3. Could this be the breakout Robinson prognosticated? At intermission the Gophers lead 17-3. 3:22:Emerging from intermission, the Gopher’s led with Ben Berhow. Wasting no time, Berhow secured a victory by fall in the first period over freshman Adam Wells. Zach Sanders followed that up with a hard-fought match against Purdue’s Quiroga. Sanders was injured with 39 seconds remaining in the third period. It appeared with was favoring his left ankle as he began to limp around. Valiantly, Sanders returned and defeated Quiroga 10-6 after three periods, pushing the Gopher’s lead to 26-3. 3:32: Red shirt freshman Thane Antczak is heading into overtime with Purdue’s Akif Eren. Thane has looked impressive this weekend, but sports a 9-9 overall record. Thane dropped his match in the tie-breaker periods following the first overtime. 4:02:Minnesota’s Mike Thorn was leading his match for the better part of three periods but was taken down with less than 30 seconds to go in the third period by Purdue’s Juan Archuleta. The two battled into the sudden victory period where Archuleta triumphed. The final match of the afternoon was 18th ranked Mario Mason squaring off against Nick Bertucci. Mason led 2-1 after one period and followed that up with a strong second period, finishing that leading 8-3. Mason continued to exhibit his control into the third period and eventually won by major decision, 16-4. The Gopher’s pleased the crowd that attended their endowment meet by obtaining a team victory of 30-9.