Grimes wins weight class at Midlands

There couldn’t have been a better ending to 2006 for the NIU wrestling team. Mike Grimes captured NIU’s first ever individual title at the Midland Championships Dec. 30 in Evanston by beating Jake Patacsil of Purdue in the 149-pound championship bout.

Grimes, seeded sixth in the tournament, won five straight matches, including a 3-1 victory over Indiana’s Matt Coughlin, the fifth-ranked wrestler in the nation.

“It was a tough tournament and a tough road, but it was a fun tournament,” Grimes said. “I was able to beat the nation’s fifth-ranked wrestler in the semis and then had a challenging match in the championship that came down to the last 30 seconds against a tough opponent.”

Grimes’ performance helped the Huskies to a 10th place finish in a 56-team field.

The wrestling team’s winning ways continued as the wrestlers took their show on the road to the University of Buffalo. The Huskies dominated the Bulls 30-6 to open up MAC play, as nationally ranked wrestlers Grimes, Johnny Galloway, Pat Castillo and Duke Burk propelled NIU to victory.

“We had great performances by our four ranked guys,” said head coach Dave Grant. “When you have those guys going out and doing what they are capable of doing, we’re awfully tough to beat.”

— Brandon Mangia

Women’s basketball succeeds in conference

While the saying goes ‘it’s a man’s world,’ the NIU women’s basketball team may have a thing or two to say about it.

Unlike their male counterparts, the women continue to prove that they can be equally, if not more, entertaining.

The Huskies are currently riding a three game conference winning streak and have won five in a row at home.

After falling to the defending conference champion Eastern Michigan, they got back to the fundamentals and took their frustrations out on Central Michigan, Toledo and Western Michigan. Though the latter three round out the bottom of the MAC, the Huskies will take a win wherever they can get one.

“It was a very good conference win for us, especially coming off the Eastern Michigan game,” head coach Carol

Owens said of their win over CMU. “It was a gut check, and we had to get back to the basics of rebounding and playing sound defense.”

— Andy Pruski

Men’s Basketball slumps

In 1999, “Fight Club” hit the big screen and Brad Pitt and Edward Norton raised an army of devout followers trying to hit rock bottom.

While it is impossible to actually gauge such an emotional depth, the NIU men’s basketball team did post a 1-10 record over winter break.

A once promising 3-0 start has been marred by injuries, illness and overall

uneven play.

A nine-game losing streak featured narrow losses to Georgia Southern, Troy and Marist. More decisive defeats came from Michigan, Lamar, Stephen F. Austin and Bucknell.

NIU proved there is no place like home on Jan. 6 against Western Michigan. Senior guard Mike McKinney made a determined drive to the basket, split the WMU defense, and twirled in a layup for a 70-68 win.

NIU coach Rob Judson was in full throat, gesturing for the crowd to rise at the end of the game. The usually reserved coach ran onto the floor to celebrate with his squad and warned reporters afterwards about the dark cloud that seems to follow his team around.

“Please stay away from us, we don’t want you to get hurt,” Judson said with a smile. “But if you have any cartilage, we can use it. We’ve got more crutches on our bench than players.”

Junior forward Ben Rand and freshman point guard Cody Yelder are out with knee injuries, and senior point guard Ryan Paradise missed time with an illness.

NIU dropped two straight games by a combined three points since the last-second win.

—James Nokes