'Cats Close Conference Duals Against Rutgers, Maryland

NORTHWESTERN WRESTLING: Weekend Dual Info
DATE	Opponent	Time (CT)	LOCATION	WATCH
Friday, Feb. 14	Rutgers	6 p.m.	Rutgers Athletic Center (Piscataway, NJ)	BTN+
Sunday, Feb. 16	Maryland	Noon	Xfinity Main Arena (College Park, MD)	BTN+
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Evanston, Ill. – No. 24 Northwestern will set out for the East Coast this weekend to tackle its final two duals in Big Ten competition. The Wildcats will stop in Piscataway on Friday to take on Rutgers before traveling to College Park for a Sunday showdown with Maryland.

Northwestern is coming off last weekend with matchups against Michigan State and #6 Ohio State under its belt, notably beating the Spartans 24-15 on Senior Night in its final home dual at Welsh-Ryan this season.

The nation's top ranked wrestler at 157 lbs, #1 Ryan Deakin, was characteristically dominant as he improved to 15-0 on the season after adding two major decisions against #24 Jake Tucker (Michigan State) and Elijah Cleary (OSU). He secured 12-4 and 11-2 victories the way he has all season, taking a lead early then breaking his opponent with a flurry of takedowns in the third period.

Shayne Oster is also coming off a strong weekend, including one on Sunday in which the senior staged comeback in the final minute of the third period to beat #13 Ethan Smith (Ohio State) after trailing by two with under a minute to go. Oster has now won five-consecutive bouts and is 6-1 in Big Ten action this season, with his lone setback coming to No. 1 Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State). Following last weekend, Oster rose five spots to #13 in FloWrestling's latest rankings.

Redshirt first-year Lucas Davison is now 9-1 in duals on the year and 6-1 in Big Ten play. The Chesterton, Indiana native earned a 12-2 major decision over Nick May (Michigan State) on Friday and then battled against #1 Kollin Moore (Ohio State) on Sunday before dropping a tight 14-9 decision. Davison's efforts also led to a significant jump in the latest rankings, as he moved four spots up to #9 in this week's latest poll.

Also coming off a strong weekend 125 lbs is #11 Michael DeAugustino, who won both of his matches last weekend to improve to 15-6 on the year, tied for the most wins among any Wildcat grappler. DeAugustino earned a 6-3 victory over Logan Griffin (Michigan State) during Friday's victory over the Spartans before earning a tight, 3-2, victory over Dylan Koontz (Ohio State) on Sunday.

The matches with Rutgers and Maryland will be the first for Northwestern since the 2017-18 season, and the Wildcats will look to repeat their 34-12 victory over Maryland from December of 2017.

The match with Rutgers is slated to start at 6 p.m. CT on Friday, Feb. 14 and the match with Maryland is set for noon CT on Sunday, Feb. 16. After these duals, Northwestern will finish out the regular season on the road at SIU-Edwardsville the following weekend.

*All team rankings come from the NWCA Coaches' Poll as of Feb. 11
*All individual rankings come from FloWrestling as of Feb. 10

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'Cats Close Conference Duals Against Rutgers, Maryland

NORTHWESTERN WRESTLING: Weekend Dual Info

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Players Mentioned

Lucas Davison

Ryan Deakin

Michael DeAugustino

Shayne Oster

Northwestern University Athletics