MADISON, Wis. – With only three duals remaining in the regular season, the No. 4 Wisconsin wrestling team was looking to get some momentum going into the post season as it hosted No. 2 Penn State Friday night in the UW Field House. The reigning NCAA champions proved to be too much for the Badgers as Wisconsin fell 29-10. 

At 133 pounds, No. 1 Seth Gross continued his stellar senior season, picking up another ranked win against Penn State's No. 4 Roman Bravo-Young. The battle remained close throughout the match with Gross pulling out the 6-5 decision.
 
Garrett Model made his return to the Badgers dual lineup in a big fashion. The Stoughton native took the mat against Bo Pipher and scored the 13-4 major decision and got the crowd on their feet before intermission.
 
Wisconsin's true freshman Eric Barnett came out strong at 125 pounds to start the night. Barnett wrestled against Brandon Meredith from Penn State, taking a 4-0 decision to stay undefeated at home.
 

Straight from the mat

"We knew going into the match we had to win all the toss ups and we didn't get 149 or we thought 184 we could get in there and that hurt us but other than that we're still fighting. We came out healthy and we've gotta have a short-term memory getting ready for Michigan State. Penn State is a very good team.

"We made history today for Coach (Bobby) Douglas. That was unbelievable to have the Penn State staff do that and go out before the match to honor him. (More than) 3,000 people cheering for him and its on the Big Ten Network, it's all over the place. What a great night, Bobby deserved it and he got his just due. I wish we could've done more."
    -    Head coach, Chris Bono

"Personally, I like to go out there and do what I'm good at and not really focus on (opponent style). We get to wrestle these guys two, three, four times throughout the year and you're going to be able to feel them out and feel what they're good at throughout the year. I just want to prove my wrestling, keep getting better each time out there. I don't think I had my best performance tonight but you gotta get tough sometimes to get the job done. I think the big thing for us moving forward is that we just gotta be tougher. I think one position is guys stand up, we do one mat return and then the second time we're letting them go. They rode us all night. They were mat returning us all day and you know, they mat return us twice and we give up and put our heads down a little bit."
    -    Redshirt senior, Seth Gross

"Earlier in the week, coach Bono said 'Be ready.' We don't know, with Drew (Scharenbrock) last week getting a head injury , he didn't know what the game plan was going to be so he just said be ready. I prepared all week as if I was gonna go and then a couple matches before he said that I was up. I've been blessed with the ability to be able to go as hard as I can for seven minutes, so I just try to keep that and just really limit the mistakes. Just try to not get myself into too big of a hole because I know that third period, I'm going to be able to score a few  points. If I don't start down six or seven points in the first period, it's a lot easier to enforce that will later throughout the entire match if I limit those mistakes."
    -    Redshirt sophomore, Garrett Model

Notables

• The Badgers had their highest attendance of the season with 3,073 fans in attendance.
• Before the dual, head coach Chris Bono honored his former head coach Bobby Douglas
• Barnett and Gross remain undefeated at home this season

Results

Attendance: 3,073
Wisconsin 10, Penn State 29
125: Eric Barnett (WIS) over Brandon Meredith (PSU) by dec. 4-0
133: No. 1 Seth Gross (WIS) over No. 3 Roman Bravo-Young (PSU) by dec. 6-5
141: No. 2 Nick Lee (PSU) over No. 4 Tristan Moran (WIS) by maj. dec. 14-1
149: Jarod Verkleeren (PSU) over No. 13 Cole Martin (WIS) by dec. 3-2
157: Garrett Model (WIS) over Bo Pipher (PSU) by maj. dec. 13-4
165: No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph (PSU) over No. 4 Evan Wick (WIS) by maj. dec. 8-0
174: No. 1 Mark Hall (PSU) over Jared Krattiger (WIS) by fall 4:16
184: No. 9 Aaron Brooks (PSU) over No. 22 Johnny Sebastian (WIS) by dec. 3-2
197: No. 18 Shakur Rasheed (PSU) over Taylor Watkins (WIS) by dec. 6-0
Hwt.: No. 15 Seth Nevills (PSU) over No. 4 Trent Hillger (WIS) by forfeit
 

Up next

Wisconsin hosts Michigan State on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. in the UW Field House. The event will be a Kid's Day sponsored by Kohls, featuring face painting and bath towel giveaways. Fans who attend the men's basketball game vs. Ohio State at noon on Sunday will be given free admission to the wrestling match by presenting their basketball ticket.