MADISON, Wis. – The Wisconsin wrestling team (2-6, 1-5) competed in its third-straight dual that was decided in the final match, as the Badgers were narrowly beat, 17-16, by No. 21 Minnesota (9-7, 5-3) on Sunday at the UW Field House.
 
"Good things are happening but there are things we need to work on as a team, head coach Barry Davis said. "A couple guys we need to get back to just wrestling. We're building momentum but there's still work to be done."
 
The result marked UW's closest score of the season, trumping Friday night's 18-15 win at No. 12 Rutgers. Wisconsin and Minnesota each won five matches, as the dual featured four lead changes and a tie.
 
With Wisconsin up, 16-14, entering the 141-pound grapple, both teams just needed a win by decision to take the dual.
 
Luke Rowh battled No. 7 Tommy Thorn to a 0-0 stalemate through the first three minutes of competition.
 
After choosing to start the second period on the bottom, Thorn quickly earned an escape and later added a takedown to take a 3-0 lead.
 
The Minnesota wrestler tacked on a takedown in the third and was awarded a riding time point, as he sealed the Gophers' ninth victory of the season.
 
Arguably Wisconsin's most impressive single-match performance of the 2015-16 season came in the first match of the dual at 149 pounds.
 
Andrew Crone, facing off with No. 16 Jake Short, trailed, 2-1, after the first period and 5-1 after the second, but rebounded in the last two minutes to force sudden victory.
 
During the third period, Crone narrowed the score to 5-4 by picking up an escape and takedown. Short, holding a clear advantage in riding time, responded with an escape of his own with just 45 seconds remaining in the match.
 
Crone got within a point again thanks to a penalty point and swiftly gained his first lead of the match by taking down Short with only seven seconds left on the scoreboard. Luckily for Short, his riding time point shifted the match to sudden victory.
 
The Badgers' 149-pounder needed only 11 seconds to gather his first win over a ranked opponent this season, as he dropped Short for a takedown.
 
"It was a good win," Davis said, "and it shows that a guy like (Andrew) Crone, who was struggling at the beginning of the year—now he's healthy and wrestling well and he's got to keep it going."
 
"It felt good," Crone said. "First match of the dual just wanted to get the ball rolling for the team. I've been doing pretty well, wrestling really well. I feel like I'm pushing myself in practice and really pushing the pace and it was just a big win."
 
At 184 pounds, Ryan Christensen and Chris Pfarr also dueled into an overtime period.
 
Despite forfeiting a two-point lead with five seconds remaining in the third period, Christensen was able to outmaneuver Chris Pfarr with a takedown 26 seconds into sudden victory to win, 6-4.
 
Third-ranked 165-pounder Isaac Jordan furthered his perfect record with a 13-4 major decision triumph over Brad Dolezal.
 
Wisconsin's lone unbeaten wrestler had five takedowns in the match and allowed just four escapes.
 
Jordan is now 18-0 on the season, amassing a 19-match win streak that dates back to 2015 NCAA tournament when he defeated Stanford's Jim Wilson to claim his second All-America honor.
 
Johnny Jimenez registered a dominant victory at 125 pounds. He began the match by taking down Skyler Petry 31 seconds into the first and riding him for the remainder of the period, which gave the Badgers' wrestler 2:29 of riding time to work with for the next two rounds.
 
Jimenez maintained his lead to finish on top, 9-3.
 
At 133 pounds, Ryan Taylor solidified his first back-to-back wins of the season, following a third-period pin on Friday at Rutgers.
 
The seventh-ranked wrestler led the entire match, allowing Sam Brancale to pick up just three escapes. Taylor foiled any chance Brancale had at a comeback by recording a takedown with 12 seconds left in the match, finishing off a 7-3 result.
 
Brock Horwath battled the ninth-ranked heavyweight, Michael Kroells, to a 3-3 through two rounds but could not muster a response in the third period, as he fell, 7-3.
 
TJ Ruschell shot out to a 7-2 lead after the first period of the 157-pound match thanks to a takedown, reversal and escape. Brandon Kingsley chipped away throughout the next two periods, though, finally grabbing the lead with 38 seconds left in the match.
 
The Golden Gophers grappler tacked on four nearfall points and a riding time point to win, 13-7.
 
In the other two matches, Ricky Robertson (174) lost to Nick Wanzek, 5-2, and Nic Veling (197) was beat by technical fall, 17-2, by No. 3 Brett Pfarr.
 
Next up, Wisconsin matches up with Ohio State on Friday, Feb. 12 at 6 p.m. in Columbus, Ohio, before making up a rescheduled dual with Maryland on Sunday, Feb. 14 at 10:30 a.m. in College Park, Maryland.

125: Jimenez (WIS) wins by Dec. over Petry (MINN), 9-3
133: Taylor (WIS) wins by Dec. over Bancale (MINN), 7-3
141: Thorn (MINN) wins by Dec. over Rowh (WIS), 6-0
149: Crone (WIS) wins by Dec. over Short (MINN), 9-7 (SV-1)
157: Kingsley (MINN) wins by Dec. over Ruschell (WIS), 13-7
165: Jordan (WIS) wins by MD over Dolezal (MINN), 13-4
174: Wanzek (MINN) wins by Dec. over Robertson (WIS), 5-2
184: Christensen (WIS) wins by Dec. over Pfarr (MINN), 6-4 (SV-1)
197: Pfarr (MINN) wins by TF over Veling (WIS), 17-2
Hwt.: Kroells (MINN) wins by Dec. over Horwath (WIS), 7-3