Wrestling had its first dual meets of the season when NIU hosted the Huskie Duals on Saturday.

NIU (3-0) swept all three of its opponents, beating Tiffin University 36-3, South Dakota State University 26-12 and Indiana University 19-13. The victory over the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State was the Huskies program’s 500th dual meet victory in history. The victory over Indiana was NIU’s first over a Big Ten opponent since 2009, when it beat Northwestern 24-13.

Getting off to a good start was key in all three duals for the Huskies. The leader of that charge was sophomore Derek Elmore at 125 pounds, who pinned his first two opponents in the first period, earning six team points with each victory. Elmore capped off his day with a 15-3 decision. The major decision put NIU ahead 4-0 early against the Hoosiers.

Coach Ryan Ludwig said Elmore’s presence was big at the start of each dual on Saturday.

“Well, Derek Elmore was a huge spark for us today,” Ludwig said. “He ignited the whole team. He’s a very electric wrestler and he wrestled within the means of what you want, where [he was in the] positions he wanted to be today. He wrestled very aggressively. I was proud to see him get to his shots and finished those solidly and I think he did a great job today to lead the lineup.”

Elmore, who leads the lineup for the Huskies, said he tries to help make sure the team always gets off to good starts.

“Knowing I’m the first person, I really want to go out there and get the first win because I know that will get the team rolling and once we start rolling we’re hard to stop,” Elmore said.

The Huskies went undefeated in four other weight classes on Saturday. At 141 pounds, sophomore Tyler Argue and redshirt freshman Ethan Davis went 3-0. Argue defeated Tiffin University’s Lawrence Blackful III 9-1, while Davis pinned Ben Gillette from South Dakota State and defeated Indiana’s Eric Roach 6-3.

At 174 pounds, redshirt junior Matt Mougin went 3-0 and at 184 pounds freshman Bryan Loughlin also finished the day unblemished. Finally, 197 pound freshman Shawn Scott continued his strong start to the season, going undefeated in three matches.

Ludwig said it is nice to be able to sweep a weekend of dual meets.

“It feels good, you know, anytime you can go undefeated on the day it feels great,” Ludwig said. “You know we talked about going out there and competing as hard as we could and wrestling our style match for seven minutes and that’s what we did. You know we preach that every day and it’s good that the guys believe in that and then they see when that actually happens they get their hand raised at the end of matches.”