Winter Break for the NIU wrestling team consisted of preparing for a hectic part of its schedule.

Though the Huskies (7-5) upset fifth-ranked Ohio State, they weren’t as fortunate against their other three ranked opponents. They lost to 13th-ranked Purdue by a 31-11 margin, 20th-ranked Indiana 28-11 and 16th-ranked Northern Iowa with a final of 21-15.

Northern Iowa

The Huskies held a 12-9 lead going into the final four matches, all against ranked opponents from Northern Iowa on Saturday.

Lowney won the first match with a 2-1 decision over sixth-ranked Eric Hauan. It was the second time in as many tries Lowney has upset Hauan over the past two seasons.

With a 15-9 lead, NIU fell apart as the final three wrestlers for Northern Iowa all scored major-decisions over NIU to round out the meet at 21-15.

It was a tough loss because Heizer would have been one of the last three wrestlers to take stage for NIU.

“Our guys really hustled,” Grant said. “Northern Iowa has a good team and the meet could have gone either way.”

Buckeye Duals

On Jan. 5, the Huskies welcomed back 174-pound Bill Lowney and 125-pound Marlon Felton, both NCAA Championship qualifiers last season.

They were both ineligible because they failed to meet NCAA Satisfactory Progress Academic Guidelines because they switched majors last year.

With Lowney and Felton back in the lineup, they would need to pick up the slack because the Huskies would be without seventh-ranked 184-pound Ben Heizer, who broke his jaw back home over the break.

NIU beat up on Tennessee-Chattanooga and Duke with finals of 39-3 and 34-9 before beating the fifth-ranked Buckeyes. After the three wins, it lost to Indiana.

The Huskies defeated Ohio State with a final of 20-20. They won because both teams had the same number of wins (6) and pins (1). The deciding factor was Scott Owen who won with an 18-1 technical fall, the only tech fall of the meet.

NIU’s J.D. Oliva had a 9-7 decision over OSU’s sixth-ranked Anton Talamantes.

Grant thought that Oliva’s match was the one that gave the Huskies the momentum they needed to win.

Owen was 4-0 on the day as Felton and Lowney were both 3-1.

“This is probably the biggest win of my coaching career at Northern Illinois,” Grant said. “The whole year, our goals have been to come together as a team and with this win, we’re starting to take shape.”

After coach Grant had perhaps the biggest win of his career over fifth-ranked Ohio State, NIU fell to 11th-ranked Northern Iowa on Saturday.

Purdue Duals

On Dec. 15, the Huskies were victorious against Wabash and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville with finals of 48-3 before losing to Purdue.

NIU’s Sam Hiatt, Josh Wooton and Ben Heizer won all three of their matches.

“We had some real positives today. Purdue is a fairly strong team, they don’t have many weaknesses,” Grant said. “Sam Hiatt looked pretty tough, Josh Wooton wrestled well and Ben Heizer did a nice job.”