Taking on the two-time defending NCAA Champions might be intimidating to some teams, but the NIU wrestling team didn’t back down.

Even though NIU fell short against Minnesota 26-17, coach Dave Grant still was happy with his team’s effort.

“The kids fought hard, I am really proud of them,” Grant said. “They were wrestling one of the best teams in the country and we scored 17 points on them. A couple of the matches were close.”

Ninth-ranked, 184-pound Ben Heizer looked dominant against Casey Flaherty as he scored a technical fall with a final of 15-0. Heizer really wanted the opportunity to take on Damion Hahn, the No. 3 wrestler in his class.

“I would have loved to get the pin, but my goal is to go out everytime and break the guy that I am wrestling,” Heizer said. “To break somebody, there is no better feeling because you know you are dominating that person. I was disappointed that I didn’t get to wrestle Hahn, that’s who I wanted to go against. But when he gets back, we’ll dance.”

Freshmen Matt Kucala and Josh Wooten were successful in their NIU debuts.

Kucala pinned Andrew Domingues in the third period in their 125-pound match. Kucala is now 3-2 on the season with all three wins coming by way of pin.

Wooten responded with a 10-7 decision in his 141-pound match over Tommy Owen after Owen slapped him in his face in the first period. Wooten improved his record to 8-1.

J.D. Oliva was triumphant with an 8-4 decision over Eli Ross in their 197-pound class. His record now stands at 2-2.

The best match-up was in the 157-pound weight class where No.1 Luke Becker took on No.3 Scott Owen.

The match started out fast and physical as Owen lost both of his contacts in the first minute of the match. The match went back and forth and Owen eventually lost 9-4. Grant thought that the score was deceiving being a closer match that the final showed.

Even with his team losing to No. 1 Minnesota, he still was able to walk away with some positives.

“We were very aggressive,” Grant said. “Minnesota is known for having great conditioning and having the ability to push people around. Our guys didn’t put up with that, that’s why we did well because we stood in there and went toe-to-toe with them.”