Wrestling looked to follow up its strong performance from the Huskie Duals last weekend at the NIU Duals Saturday.

This weekend, the Huskies (5-1) battled their way to a record of 2-1 against Calumet College of St. Joseph, Loras College and No. 23 nationally ranked Purdue.

In the Huskies opening dual, they earned an easy victory over the Crimson Wave of Calumet College of St. Joseph, 57-0. The Crimson Wave found themselves shorthanded as only one wrestler was eligible to compete. In that one match, NIU red shirt freshman Thorian Twyner defeated Anthony Hawkins at 133 pounds, 5-0.

“That kid [Hawkins] is the best wrestler on their team,” said NIU head coach Ryan Ludwig in a news conference. “Thorian battled a bit of a slow start, got his motor running and ended up winning a solid match. We were happy about that.”

NIU faced off against Loras in the second dual and earned the victory 41-0.

Sophomore Derek Elmore got the Huskies off to a strong start, pinning Stephen Kettnner of Loras College 1:23 into the match. The pin was Elmore’s seventh of the season.

The Huskies took complete control of the match when junior Rob Jillard and freshman Andrew Morse won back to back decisions. Jillard defeated Loras’ Dave Skrzypiec at 149 pounds, 16-1, while Morse dominated Loras’ Chris Lewis at 157 pounds, 15-0.

In the Huskies’ finale, they lost their first dual of the season. They were shut out by the Boilermakers of Purdue, 37-0. This was the first time the Huskies were shut out in two years.

Elmore got off to a good start against Camden Eppert at 125, but Eppert closed the first period with a reversal and added a takedown in the second period to pull out a 4-2 victory.

That set the tone for the matches that followed as the Huskies were outmatched by the Boilermakers.

In the heavyweight match, Jared Torrence gave the Huskies their best chance to end the shuout, but he fell to Alex White in a 2-1 overtime decision.

“Purdue came out with a lot of hustle and put us on our heels in most cases,” Ludwig said in a news conference. “We need to work on that. Our guys are not pleased and will be working hard to make adjustments as we take back to our training.”