SIUE Loses 29-9 to Northern Illinois in Dual Wrestling Meet

EDWARDSVILLE - Colton McKiernan capped off Saturday's SIUE wrestling meet against Northern Illinois with a thriller.

Northern Illinois, 9-4 overall and 4-2 in the Mid-American Conference, would win the meet 29-9, but the Cougars walked away with the final individual victory.

McKiernan and Northern Illinois' Max Ihry went into overtime tied 1-1. McKiernan earned an extra point on an escape. Ihry picked up a point on a second stalling call, but McKiernan continued to wrestle, pulling off a takedown with two seconds left in overtime.

"When I get into overtime matches like that, it's just keeping setting pace, keep pressure on the guy, and keep going hard," said McKiernan.

SIUE Head Coach Jeremy Spates watched his team also picked up victories from Tyshawn Williams and Justin Ruffin.

For Ruffin, it was his 20th victory of the season, a 4-0 win over Mason Kauffman. Williams defeated McCoy Kent 5-2 at 149 pounds.

"This one we knew was going to be tough with a lot of close matches," added Spates.

SIUE, 2-11 overall and 0-8 in the MAC, is now idle until Wednesday, Feb. 12, when it plays host to Missouri in a 6 p.m. match in First Community Arena at the Vadalabene Center.

Northern Illinois 29 SIUE 9
125: Bryce West (Northern Illinois) over Matt Malavsky (SIUE) (Fall 1:14)
133: Caleb Brooks (Northern Illinois) over Jacob Blaha (SIUE) (MD 12-2)
141: Anthony Gibson (Northern Illinois) over Saul Ervin (SIUE) (Dec 6-2)
149: Tyshawn Williams (SIUE) over McCoy Kent (Northern Illinois) (Dec 5-2)
157: Justin Ruffin (SIUE) over Mason Kauffman (Northern Illinois) (Dec 4-0)
165: Izzak Olejnik (Northern Illinois) over Chase Diehl (SIUE) (MD 11-3)
174: Kenny Moore (Northern Illinois) over Kevin Gschwendtner (SIUE) (Dec 8-4)
184: Brit Wilson (Northern Illinois) over Austin Andres (SIUE) (Fall 2:41)
197: Gage Braun (Northern Illinois) over Aric Bohn (SIUE) (Dec 10-6)
285: Colton McKiernan (SIUE) over Max Ihry (Northern Illinois) (TB-1 4-2)