A run of four straight wins, including three bonus-point victories helped lift the No. 10 Wisconsin wrestling team to a 25-18 win over No. 7 Nebraska Sunday afternoon at the UW Field House.
The Badgers won six of 10 bouts en route to the upset win.
Eric Barnett (125 pounds), Seth Gross (133), Tristan Moran (141), Cole Martin (149), Evan Wick (165) and Trent Hillger (285) all triumphed for Wisconsin.
With the victory, the Badgers improved to 8-2 on the year and 1-2 in the Big Ten.
Wisconsin is now 2-0 at the UW Field House this season.
Nebraska (5-1, 0-1) won the takedown battle 19-10. Wisconsin now has a 63-22 deficit in the takedown department over its three Big Ten duals this season.
UW’s starters were 4-3 against ranked opponents on the day.
Here are a few quick highlights of Sunday’s proceedings:
Pin(s) to win
For the second straight home dual, Eric Barnett got the crowd going with a pin.
The true freshman stuck Alex Thomsen in 5:45 to give the Badgers an early 6-0 lead.
No. 12 Cole Martin later followed suit by pinning No. 16 Collin Purinton just 1:45 into their bout at 149 pounds.
Moran’s (still) the man
For the second time this weekend, No. 9 Tristan Moran scored an upset victory. His latest victim was No. 6 Chad Red Jr.
After falling into a 3-0 hole, Moran tallied a reversal and a pair of near fall points to end the second period with a 4-3 advantage.
An early escape pushed Moran’s edge to 5-3 in the third period. In the closing moments of the frame, he scored a takedown and four additional near fall points to put the win on ice.
During the match, Moran appeared to be feeling significant pain in his side. But he powered through to give UW a 13-0 lead in the dual.
Moran topped No. 2 Mitch McKee of Minnesota by decision on Friday.
Wick wins a big one
Sixth-ranked Evan Wick bested No. 3 Isaiah White via a 10-6 decision at 165 pounds.
White struck first with a quick takedown, but Wick bounced back with an escape and score of his own to hold a 3-2 lead after the opening period.
An escape by Wick was the only scoring in the second, giving the UW standout a 4-2 edge heading into the final two minutes.
Wick got four near fall to open things up. After amassing over one minute of riding time, Wick let White up for an escape and dove right back in for another takedown to capture a 10-3 lead.
After an escape, White scored his second takedown of the match a short time later, but time quickly expired.
With the victory, Wick now stands at 100 wins in his college career.
Dow makes an appearance
Redshirt freshman Tyler Dow got the nod at 184 pounds Sunday. It was his first start since Nov. 23 against Utah Valley.
However, he ran into a buzzsaw in No. 6 Taylor Venz. Venz won by technical fall 17-1.
Nate Woelfel Wrestling 
I believe you’ve got it wrong on Wick. He had a 10-3 lead (11-3 with riding time) and then wasn’t aware of the score and cut him to make it 10-4. Then he got taken down to finish 10-6 after the riding time got erased.
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Hey Brian, thanks for reading! Let me re-watch it and I’ll get back to you.
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Hey Brian, I just re-watched this. Wick had an 8-2 lead with a minute of RT when he cut him the first time. He then scored another takedown and cut him again with a 10-4 lead. I corrected the story to say he had a 10-3 lead with that second takedown.
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There seemed to be a lot of chirping between the coaches today. Is there some reason for that?
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Hey Troy, thanks for reading and thanks for the question. I don’t know if there was anything in particular. Coach Manning is … how should I put this? Vocal. And Bono isn’t afraid to stick up for his guys. Maybe it was just a combination of those two things.
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