MADISON — TJ Ruschell’s win over Jared Scharenbrock in the final match of the evening lifted the White squad to a 18-17 win in the annual Red/White Dual at the UW Fieldhouse on Saturday.
Ruschell scored a 15-4 major decision over Scharenbrock to give his squad the one-point victory.
However, Ruschell conceded that picking up the dual meet win in an exhibition setting wasn’t the first thing on his mind.
“In a dual, I’d definitely think about it, but I didn’t really think about it today,” Ruschell said. “I just went out there and wrestled. In a real dual, I’d try to score more points, I’d try to get that tech fall, but today once I had enough cushion I just kind of took a breather.”
Ruschell found himself trailing 2-0 after the opening period, but exploded for 15 points in the final four minutes to earn the decisive victory.
“That’s when I score most of my points, to be honest,” Ruschell said. “I like to get in that third period. That’s when I feel like I score most of my points. I figure it out, I guess. It takes me a little bit to get going which is something I have to work on. ”
Things turned in Ruschell’s favor once and for all when Scharenbrock selected the top position to start the third period and Ruschell promptly scored a reversal.
The match marked the second bout of the day for Scharenbrock, who topped Santonio Cathery by technical fall in the opening match of the dual to advance to take on Ruschell.
However, UW head coach Barry Davis wasn’t about to blame fatigue for Scharenbrock’s demise.
“I don’t know about that. He has to be smart and keep wrestling in certain situations,” Davis said. “When you get on top, you have to know where you’re at, get behind the arms and stay tough there. I think TJ wrestled a good match and Scharenbrock got loose.”
Up until the final match, the Red team was in control for the majority of the dual. Scharenbrock’s win gave Red a 5-0 lead after the opening bout, before Johnny Jimenez put the White team on the board with a 1-0 decision over Michael Cullen at 125 pounds.
Eli Stickley extended the Red lead to 8-3 with a 3-1 decision over Cole Martin at 141 pounds, while Andrew Crone kept things rolling with a 6-5 win over 2014 NCAA qualifier Rylan Lubeck in the 149-pound bout.
White then cut the score to 11-9 courtesy of Ricky Robertson’s 3-1 win over Mason Reinhardt in an exhibition match, followed by Jake Stilling’s 3-1 win over Ryan Christensen at 184.
Eric Peissig and Hunter Ritter each tallied wins for the Red squad at 197 pounds.
At heavyweight, Brock Horwath picked up five points for the White team with a 15-0 tech fall over Ben Stone.
Ruschell then secured the victory with the win in the evening’s final match.
“It’s always tough to wrestle a teammate because a teammate is like your brother,” Ruschell said. “It’s just hard to wrestle them. You know everything they do. They know everything you do. But good competition makes both sides better. That’s what we’ve got going now at Wisconsin. We have a good team going.”
From a big picture standpoint, Davis was pleased with Saturday’s proceedings.
Overall, it was good. A lot of guys did some good things,” Davis said. “We just have to move on from there.”
The veteran head man also saw room for improvement.
“A lot of bottom stuff, bottom level changing, right now and changing speeds in the match,” Davis said. “In order to score, you have to change speeds and we really didn’t do that today.”
The Badgers, who are ranked No.13 by FloWrestling and No.15 by InterMat, open the season with a home dual against UW-Whitewater on Nov.12.
“You only get what, what, six matches, eight matches in front of the home crowd,” Davis said. “You have to make it count.”
White 18, Red 17
125: Johnny Jimenez won by decision over Michael Cullen, 1-0
141: Eli Stickley won by decision over Cole Martin, 3-1
149: Andrew Crone won by decision over Rylan Lubeck, 6-5
157: Jared Scharenbrock won by technical fall over Santonio Cathery, 18-0
157: TJ Ruschell won by major decision over Jared Scharenbrock, 15-4
174/184: Ricky Robertson won by decision over Mason Reinhardt, 3-1
184: Jake Stilling won by decision over Ryan Christensen, 3-1
197: Hunter Ritter won by decision over David Chadd, 6-3
197: Eric Peissig won by decision over Nic Veling, 3-1
Hwt.: Brock Horwath won by technical fall over Ben Stone, 15-0
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