NIU’s record falls to 1-5-0 on the season while Purdue starts the dual meet season at 1-0-0. Vatch said the reason for his team’s slow start is a combination between its youth and the expertise of its opponents.

“Inexperience is a big part of it (the losing record), then you look at the schedule,” he said. “Of our five losses, three have been to Big Ten teams who have quality squads. You’re not going to get better wrestling teams you can beat all the time. So far we just haven’t been up to the challenge.”

The Huskies opened their season with a 58-6 thrashing of Chicago State on December 17th. Then the going got tough with a 23-18 loss to Illinois State, a 30-6 defeat to a tough Ohio State team and a 26-12 setback at the hands of the Michigan Wolverines.

“When we wrestled Michigan, they were ranked 12th and we won four matches,” said Vatch. “We wrestled real well there.”

If Michigan was a peak for the Huskies, then a 37-9 loss to Ohio was a definite valley. Vatch called it “the most discouraging meet so far this season.”

A number of Huskies also wrestled in the very competitive Midlands Tournament over Christmas break, where Tim Cocco and Nate Allison both won one match.

The Huskie grapplers will now concentrate on a rematch at Illinois State this Wednesday. Vatch said his main goal for that match and the rest of his season will be improvement from his younger wrestlers.