WRESTLING The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, February 9, 1998 - 7B M' wrestlers split weekend matches . v ' 9 ,. f By Jordan Field Daily Sports Writer You win some, you lose some. The No. 13 Michigan wrestling team learned this lesson firsthand over the weekend as the Wolverines whipped rival Ohio State, 31-3, on Friday, but fell to No. 1I1 Purdue, 18-15, on Saturday night. The two matches were Michigan's first home meets of the season. The Wolverines spent every weekend in January on the road. "It would have been great to win both," Michigan coach Dale Bahr said. "But I'll tell you, it's nice to be home. I don't ever want to have a January like that again." The Wolverines came out firing early against Ohio State and dominated the entire dual meet. Michigan only dropped one match to the Buckeyes in front of an excited Cliff Keen Arena crowd. "It's really great to come out here and compete at home,' Bahr said. "I think the fans had fun and the kids wrestled better because of it. I think everybody on the Michigan side had fun tonight." The country's best wrestler at 177 pounds, Ohio State junior Mitch Clark, was out with the flu, leav- ing the Buckeyes with just one ranked wrestler - No. 12 Jeff Bucher at 134. But even he couldn't put points on the board for the Buckeyes after being upset by Michigan's 20th-ranked Damion Logan. Logan's victory was his fourth in a row. The Wolverines claimed two other milestones during the match. Michigan senior captain Jeff Catrabone pinned his man at 167 for his 150th career victory, while fellow Wolverine Bill Lacure earned his 100th career victory while wrestling at 150. For Lacure, an Ohio native, it was especially meaningful to reach No. 100 against Ohio State. "I was watching for number 100 at the beginning of the year, but I kind of lost track of it," Lacure said. "But man, it sure is great to get it against Ohio State. I hate Ohio State, and to get any win against them is sweet, but No. 100 is something I'll always remem- ber." Joe DeGain, at 177, and Ryan Balcom, at 190, also earned big wins for the Wolverines. Balcom, an Ann Arbor native, competed for the first time at home and earned a 5-3 overtime victory against Ohio State's Bo James. "I am especially happy about Joe DeGain's perfor- mance," Bahr said. "At one point during his match there was a caution for the other guy and Joe came over to me. Usually I'd have advice or something to tell him. But this time I just smiled and said to him, 'This is fun, isn't it.?' "He smiled back at me and that smile made the whole match for me.' But the winning ways didn't continue the next night for the Wolverines. Purdue's lineup featured seven ranked wrestlers. The difference in the match came down to just one tiny second. With the Wolverines leading 7-6, No. 3 Lacure met No. 11, Purdue's Mickey Griffin, in the 150 weight class. After one period, Griffin held a 2-1 lead, but Lacure tied it with an escape in the second period. Then, in the third, Griffin appeared to be stalling, but the referee didn't make a call despite yells from the crowd and Michigan's bench. With time running down, Lacure's riding time was growl ing toward a minute. Griffin slipped out of Lacure's hold with an escAp4 and stopped Lacure's riding time at 59 seconds. IHad Lacure held on for one more second, his point would have tied the match at three-apiece, and would have likely sent the match into overtime. But with that one-second difference, Griffin upset Lacure and put the Boilermakers ahead, 9-7. "The whole match was really decided at 150," Bahr said. "Bill is a great competitor and we expects ed him to win that match. But they say sports ark won by the little things, and Purdue won this match by a little thing - one second." The loss was Lacure's first since Jan. 9. But that loss came at 158 - the loss to Griffin was at 150 Lacure's last loss at 150 this season came at the hands of No. 2 Eric Seibert of Illinois, back irk December. "You can say that we had 10 guys wrestle and we lost this match together," said Bahr. "But Bill should have won that match, and he knows it. We've been struggling at 158, 177 and 190 so we couldn't expo wins from those classes. But from Bill -- a fifth-year senior and All-American - we expected him to win. When he lost there, I felt we lost the match." The Wolverines will try to get back to their win- ning ways this weekend at Minnesota against the No.' 3 Golden Gophers, and will close out the dual-meet season at home against Indiana on the Feb. 20. LOUIS BROWN/Daily an's wrestling team soundly beat Ohio State Friday before dropping a close n to Purdue on Saturday. Wolverines begin long climb Logan's five-match winning streak sparks resurgence for Blue van Braunstein y Sports Wrter Making a comeback is never easy, but the, Michigan wrestling team is doing its best. ,, The Wolverines began the season ranked fourth in the nation, but the trau- ma caused by the December death of -teammate Jeffrey Reese in December - combined with injuries to starters Bill Lacure and Teya Hill - led to some expected defeats and a drop in the kings. But now, the No. 13 Wolverines are slowly climbing back up the ladder. Victories over Ohio State and two close losses to ninth-ranked Michigan State and tenth-ranked Purdue has the team on the verge of regaining its early season form. By winning his last five matches, freshman Damion Logan has helped cat- alyze the team's turnaround. "After that incident in December. thing has been tough for the whole team," Logan said. "But there is a lot of t),pltt on this team, and we're starting to get, back into the swing of things. Schedule AIr times EST Saturday Feb. 20 Mar. 7-8 at Minn. INDIANA at Big Tens, 7:30 pm. 730 pm Penn State all day. Everyone is back in shape and we're excited about winning again. We just have to open it up now." Although he struggled at the start of the season, Logan is now giving the Wolverines confidence in the 134-pound weight class. His 17-9 record is the fourth-best on the team, and his five con- ference wins in dual meets only rank behind captains Jeff Catrabone and Airron Richardson. Logan began his run on Jan. 23 with a one-point decision over Northwestern's Scott Schatzman, who is currently ranked sixth in the nation. Logan's victo- ry avenged his earlier loss to Schatzman in the finals of the Michigan State Open. Logan defeated Tony Seibert of Illinois and No. 18 Isaac Miller of Michigan State before dispatching No. 12 Jeff Bucher of Ohio State. On Saturday night, Logan capped off his weekend with a decision over Purdue's Eric Kerkhof for his fifth-straight victory. "Logan has really been on a roll lately," Michigan coach Dale Bahr said. "If he continues to perform well, he could posi- tion himself to be an All-American as a freshman. He has been wrestling well enough to be seeded in the top three or four in the Big Ten tournament, which would place him in the top 12 in the country." All this is music to Logan's ears. "My confidence is back" he said. "I have a goal to be an All-American. I'm not going to waste this whole year down the tubes and then say, 'I wish I would have done it' The year is too long. There is too much brutal beating. "I'm going to come out of this season with something in my hand:' Logan will have another chance to prove himself this weekend when the Wolverines take on third-ranked Minnesota on Friday. The Gophers have a stacked lineup, featuring No. 5 Troy Marr at 134 pounds. Logan said the Wolverines are still only about 70 percent and will need a few upsets to get the victory. 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