It’s been the theme of college sports this year.

In football, Stanford beat USC and in basketball, Gardner-Webb upset Kentucky.

And Friday night, the NIU wrestling team beat fifth-ranked Northwestern 22-19.

With a special lighting system brought in to Victor E. Court for the annual Showcase Meet, the 701 fans in attendance helped the Huskies to one of the biggest wins in the program’s history.

“This is a big one,” head coach Dave Grant said. “We beat Ohio State one year and Wisconsin two years ago, but this is a huge in-state rivalry and I’m really proud of the boys and their effort. You get in front of your home crowd and it makes your wrestle as hard as you can and not leave anything back.”

With two matches left and the Huskies clinging to a 19-16 lead, it was time for the Huskies’ 13th-ranked Duke Burk to take the mat against eighth-ranked Nick Hayes in a 174-pound clash. Last year, Duke’s brother, Danny, wrestled against Hayes. Burk watched the tape of that match and got a sense of what Hayes would do.

The extra studying proved vital as Burk earned a two-point takedown in the first period and hung on for a 3-1 upset win despite injuring his left knee in the final period.

“The adrenaline was rolling,” said Burk, who improved his record to 8-1 this season. “Coming into the match, we were only up three points. I see myself as a leader of the team so I figured I needed to get a big win for us.”

Considering the Wildcats won the final match of the night, Burk’s win proved to be the difference in the dual-meet.

Lost in the dramatics of Burk’s upset victory, two other Huskies’ – Jake Smith and 10th-ranked Pat Castillo – also earned wins while Dave Benner and Pat McLemore won by forfeit.

Smith, a 197-pound redshirt freshman, set the tone early, picking up a 5-4 win over Northwestern junior Carl Howe in first match of the night. Smith let a 3-1 lead slip away in the final period but bounced back with under 50 seconds left and earned a one-point escape and one-point on a stalling call to give the Huskies a crucial early lead.

“I was a little worried at first but I just had to calm myself down, keep wrestling and keep doing what I train for,” said Smith, referring to his mindset after Howe had tied the score. “I had some good scrambles in there. The kid was tough and I was able to pull it off at the end.”

The Huskie win caps off a one-month dual-meet stretch which saw NIU wrestle three teams ranked in the top five.

“This was an overall team effort,” Grant said. “The real swing was when Duke won. I got to say he’s a bit of the man right now.”