MADISON, Wis. – It was an emotional day at the Field House as Wisconsin honored the memory of UW wrestler Eli Stickley, who passed away in a car accident this summer, in front of a record crowd of 4,165 people. Athletic Director Barry Alvarez presented Stickley's family with the Eli's Impact Scholarship Award, which will be awarded to a Wisconsin wrestler every year in Eli's honor.

On the mat, it was a tough outing for No. 16 Wisconsin (8-6, 3-6 B1G), as they lost 35-2 to the No. 3 Iowa Hawkeyes (13-0, 8-0 B1G).

Wisconsin entered the final match of the day without a win, but freshman Trent Hillger sent the team out on a high note. The No. 6-ranked wrestler at heavyweight faced All-American No. 8 Sam Stoll. The match was deadlocked throughout, as neither wrestler earned a point through the first two periods. Stoll chose bottom to start the third looking for a point, but Hillger was ready for the challenge. The freshman rode out the entire two-minute period to secure a riding time point and the victory.

Multiple ranked matchups narrowly went Iowa's way. At 149 pounds, UW junior Cole Martin took Iowa's Pat Lugo to overtime, but Lugo scored a takedown just before the buzzer to secure the victory. In the most anticipated match of the day, Wisconsin's No. 3 Evan Wick also went to overtime against No. 2 Alex Marinelli at 165 pounds. Marinelli got the best of Wick in overtime with a takedown in the first sudden victory period.

Junior Mason Reinhardt nearly had an upset victory for the Badgers over No. 14 Cash Wilcke at 184 pounds, but Wilcke secured a last-minute takedown to win 6-4.

Wisconsin lost by major decision at 133, 141, 157 and 197 pounds. Iowa also picked up a technical fall win at 174 pounds, and a fall at 125 pounds.

Up next, Wisconsin has their final dual of the season on Feb. 24 against SIUE at 12 p.m at the UW Field House.

Straight from the mat
Head coach Chris Bono

On the team's performance:
"We took a good butt kicking today but in the grand scheme of things there were a couple of matches where it was a tough situation and if we had won, the score could have been a little closer than what it was. But it's good, right now it's time to rebound and see how we go heading into next week. I'm excited. This will start our process as we continue getting ready for the Big Ten tournament. The next two and a half weeks will be a really important training phase for us."

On what he liked out of the guys tonight:
"A lot of them did a great job. They are still hustling and their effort is still unbelievable. This is going to be a part of the process of building championship team over the next couple of years. We will look back on this in the next couple of years and say that was what we needed at the time to make sure we continued down the right path, to grow this program, and be able to get where they are right now."

On the crowd:
"I think it's great. Thank you to our fans that came out. I'm sure that the snow storm affected a couple more people. It was one of the largest attendances we ever had. I think the future is bright and I think we are going to be packing that thing in the next couple of years as our team gets better and we build some depth. But I know our kids are very appreciative of it, our coaching staff is appreciative of it."

On Eli's scholarship:
"They just started it and it's great. Our administration is awesome here. People can contribute to it and it will be given to one of our scholarship athletes every year. It is a big thing and it is just one way we can keep Eli's memory around this program. Every year, someone is going to get that Eli Stickley Scholarship."

Sophomore Evan Wick

On Eli Stickley:
"Losing Eli was tough but it was great to honor him. He was such a great person and very passionate to other people. He worked hard to be passionate about other people. It didn't just fall upon him, his family raised him to be that way and he worked hard to be a very passionate person and a very caring person. I think that was good for everyone. That was definitely a great experience to honor Eli."

On preparing for Big Tens:
"I think we are going to stay as consistent as possible. I mean everything the coaches are doing now, they are doing to make us the best that we can be. There isn't going to be a different game plan to make us the best. We aren't going to switch our game up. What we are doing right now, we are going to be doing up to Big Ten's, NCAA's, next year, the year after that. The coaches have a really good formula and we are going to stick to it. Regardless of the wins and losses, the coaches are confident in what we are doing. I think the score didn't show it but we had a lot of hard fought matches there. I think we really showed that we can fight and we are developing."
 
Freshman Trent Hillger

On Eli Stickley:
"No one deserves it more than Eli. He cared about all of us way more than he cared about himself. It was an emotional start to the night but it was a good start. We needed to celebrate together a great human being."

On wrestling Iowa:
"They are great competitors; they are ranked third in the nation for a reason. They are incredible wrestlers. That is their mentality, they go out and they punch you in the mouth and they are going to see if you fight back. Tonight, we didn't fight back as much as we have in the past. It's exciting. I like being in those environments."

Results
Attendance: 4,165
Wisconsin 2, Iowa 35
125 – No. 2 Spencer Lee (IA) over Ethan Rotondo (UW) by fall 0:57
133 – No. 3 Austin DeSanto (IA) over Jens Lantz (UW) by maj. dec. 21-8
141 – Vince Turk (IA) over Michael Cullen (UW) by maj. dec. 11-1
149 – No. 16 Pat Lugo (IA) over No. 11 Cole Martin (UW) SV-1 3-1
157 – No. 7 Kaleb Young (IA) over Garrett Model (UW) by maj. dec. 11-2
165 – No. 2 Alex Marinelli (IA) over No. 3 Evan Wick (UW) by SV-1 6-4
174 – Mitch Bowman (IA) over Anders Lantz (UW) by tech. fall 27-9
184 – No. 14 Cash Wilcke (IA) over Mason Reinhardt (UW) by dec. 6-4
197 – No. 4 Jacob Warner (IA) over Beau Breske (UW) by maj. dec. 9-0
HWT – No. 6 Trent Hillger (UW) over No. 8 Sam Stoll (IA) by dec. 1-0
*Both teams penalized one point for unsportsmanlike conduct