Golden Gopher wrestlers beat Wisconsin 21-15

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Minnesota Golden Gophers

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MINNEAPOLIS - It came down to the heavyweight match and there the University of Minnesota's Ben Berhow defeated Wisconsin's Eric Bugenhagen 3-2 to win the dual meet for the No. 4 ranked Gophers over the No. 3 ranked Badgers 21-15 Sunday afternoon.

The dual meet drew a sellout crowd to U's Sports Pavilion of 5,225 fans. Hundreds fans who came to the dual meet were turned away at the door.

The Golden Gophers were helped by a pin for Mike Thorn at 141 pounds, a major decision for David Zilberg at 149 and a technical fall for Cody Yohn at 165 pounds. The U had an 18-6 lead after six matches.

But the Badger came back in the upper weights led by wins from Ben Jordan at 174, Travis Rutt at 184 and Trevor Brandvold at 197. River Falls' Brandvold was back in the line-up after being out for several weeks with an injury. However, UW was missing defending NCAA champ Andrew Howe at 165 who is still out with a hamstring injury.

The dual meet score was 18-15 before the final match. Berhow got the only takedown and upset the No.11 ranked Bughenhagen after spinning out of Bugenhagen's single leg-hold to wind up behind Bugenhagen in the last seconds of the third period. Berhow was filling in for No. 8 ranked Tony Nelson.

UW drops to 9-2-1 overall and 0-1 in Big Ten duals. Minnesota is 13-3 overall and 4-0 in the conference. Minnesota is at Ohio State next Saturday while the Badgers host Michigan on Friday.

Tags: proam, wrestling, badgers, gophers