Northwestern University Athletics
No. 18 Northwestern Hosts No. 11 Wisconsin Friday
1/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
EVANSTON, Ill. - 18th-ranked Northwestern (8-2) hosts its first home Big Ten dual meet of the 2014-15 season when the No. 11 Wisconsin Badgers (5-1) come to Evanston on Friday, Jan. 9.
The Wildcats welcome the Badgers to Welsh-Ryan Arena fresh off a third-place finish at the 52nd annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships. NU's Jason Tsirtsis won an individual title at 149 lbs. and the `Cats claimed runner-up spots with Pierce Harger at 165 and Mike McMullan at 285.
Friday's meet is expected to feature four matchups between ranked opponents with two pairing top-10 wrestlers against one another.
At 285 lbs., second-ranked Mike McMullan (15-1) will face off with No. 5 Connor Medbery (19-1). The lone loss for each wrestler came against Iowa's Bobby Telford at Midlands. McMullan and Medbery last met at the 2014 NCAA Championships, where McMullan won a 3-2 decision.
No. 7 Pierce Harger (17-2) is expected to meet Wisconsin's highest-ranked wrestler in Isaac Jordan (13-1). The seventh-ranked Harger and third-ranked Jordan will compete at 165 lbs.
Dominick Malone (15-8) cracked the top-20 this week and will face a ranked foe in No. 14 Ryan Taylor (14-3). The 197 lb. match features No. 12 Alex Polizzi (18-4) and No. 10 Timmy McCall (16-3).
With his Midlands title, Jason Tsirtsis remains undefeated at 21-0 and ranked No. 1 in the nation at 149 lbs. He takes his 37-match winning streak up against Rylan Lubeck (7-6).
The Badgers are riding a four-match winning streak into Evanston and have won all three of their conference duals to date. Most recently, Wisconsin won 23-14 at Nebraska on Dec. 13. Northwestern has won two of the last three duals against Wisconsin.
The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and will be available to stream online via BTN Plus on BTN2Go. Updates throughout the match will be provided on Twitter at @NU_SportsLIVE.
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