Wrestling shined under the spotlights on Victor E. Court Thursday night, winning its first home dual of the season over Cleveland State, 25-6.

The win marks the first since Nov. 16 for the Huskies (3-4, 0-1 MAC), who dropped their first two home duals of the season two weekends ago. The 25 total points registered as the second-highest this season for NIU.

NIU looked solid from start to finish, winning eight of the 10 matches in the showcase event.

“Overall as a team effort, I thought we came out, started hard and finished hard in most cases,” said head coach Ryan Ludwig. “We have to stay within our realm of wrestling. The only times we got into trouble [were] when we started to wrestle out of our style…. We’re an aggressive, basic, hard-working team, and we need to stick to that.”

While the entire lineup held its own, the action really got underway when the heavyweights took the mat.

At 184, redshirt junior Caleb Busson trailed late in the third period against Xavier Dye in a see-sawing battle. Busson led 3-1 after two periods, but Dye escaped to start the period, then executed a nice takedown. Dye then hoped to ride Busson until the match ended, securing a victory and bringing Cleveland State to within

single digits.

With just seven seconds remaining, Busson executed a timely reversal, making the score 5-4 in his favor. Busson held on for the victory, giving the Huskies a 19-6 lead. The win was Busson’s first dual victory of the year.

At 197, sophomore Shawn Scott continued his dominance, controlling the match from start to finish. He took a 6-2 decision over Raymone Stone, pushing his dual record to 5-2 on the season.

At 285, senior Jared Torrence looked to avenge a previous loss to Riley Shaw.

Torrence looked vulnerable heading into the third period, trailing 1-0 in a very slow-paced battle. Torrence turned up his aggressiveness after a much-needed escape, posting two takedowns to take a thrilling 5-3 decision.

“I’ve been looking forward to this for a while, especially after last year,” Torrence said. “I couldn’t let that make me overanxious for the match. I still had to come out calm and ready to go. I knew what he was going to do and I knew what I had to do to win.”

Redshirt freshman Braun Marquez opened up the scoring for NIU with a 15-8 victory at 125, while senior Nick Smith made it 6-0 after a 9-3 decision at 133.

Senior Rob Jillard got the start at 149 and made the most of his opportunity, posting the only major decision of the night on his path to victory, 12-3.

The Huskies have less than two weeks before facing MAC foe Central Michigan (5-3, 1-1) in a 3 p.m. Dec. 21 dual at home. The Huskies will participate in the Midlands Championships during winter break. The Midlands will be held Dec. 29 and Dec. 30.

NIU will kick off the new calendar year with a Jan. 4 home dual against SIU-Edwardsville before hitting the road for two conference duals. The duals will be against Ohio (3-1, 0-1) on Jan. 10 and Eastern Michigan (6-1, 1-0) on Jan. 17.