The good news is the 15th-ranked NIU wrestling team beat another Big Ten squad on Friday, but it lost its conference opener against Kent State on Sunday.

The Huskies’ (8-6, 0-1 MAC) trip to Evanston was successful, as they beat a 5-4 Northwestern team with a dominating final score of 27-6.

All three ranked wrestlers for NIU were victorious as 17th-ranked, 141-pound Josh Wooton had a 4-2 decision, eighth-ranked, 184-pound Ben Heizer had a 9-0 major decision and the second-ranked, 157-pound Scott Owen had a 19-4 technical fall.

“Overall, I’m pretty pleased,” Grant said. “We had a good night. I thought we could have been more offensive. We kept some matches closer than they needed to be. When you have a team that is trying to keep it close, you have to open it up more, and take some shots.”

Following the big win over a Big Ten opponent, the Huskies weren’t as fortunate against 24th-ranked Kent State, as they fell 18-14 in Kent, Ohio.

“Obviously it’s a big loss for us,” Grant said. “We knew that it was going to be a hard meet, and we felt that we were prepared. We had some opportunities to put the meet away, and we just didn’t capitalize.”

Owen and Heizer again were winners with final scores of 17-8 and 10-1, respectively.

Owen’s 17-8 major-decision was over 20th-ranked Mike Tolar. Owen has had Tolar’s number in every match they faced each other. Along with the 17-8 victory on Sunday, Owen has won with finals of 18-6 and 25-8 the previous two times they have met.

Wooton lost in sudden death overtime during his first conference match. His defeat came by the hands of Ryan Simmons.

Bill Lowney, a 174-pounder, won both of his matches last year against NU’s Jason Erwinski and KSU’s Ken Clark by one point each, but had the tables turned on him this year as he lost both matches with finals of 3-2.

Sam Hiatt, at 133 pounds, had a 7-5 decision over Drew Opfer. J.D. Oliva had a 9-4 decision over Ben Rings in their 197-pound bout.

“The guys that came up with the victories looked pretty tough,” Grant said. “Sam, J.D., Heizer and Owen all wrestled well. We just needed one more victory. Each time we had a chance to put the match away, they beat us instead of our guys stepping up.”