Notes & Quotes: #8 Michigan 28, #17 Northwestern 9
1/7/2012 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Jan. 6, 2012
N O T E S
• The Big Ten Network will air tonight's dual meet on Tuesday (Jan. 10) at 4 p.m.
• With tonight's win, the Wolverines improved to 71-8-1 in the all-time series against Northwestern.
• Fifth-year senior Kellen Russell has earned bonus points in his last seven straight matches, dating back to the seventh-place contest at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, held Dec. 2-3. Over the stretch, Russell has earned six major decisions and one technical fall.
• Junior/sophomore Dan Yates, fifth-year senior Justin Zeerip and sophomore/freshman Max Huntley all earned their second season win over their respective Northwestern opponent. Yates defeated Harger 11-3, Zeerip previously beat Munster, 5-0, and Huntley beat Schoen, 5-1, at the Michigan State Open on Nov. 13.
Q U O T E S
Michigan Assistant Coach Sean Bormet
On Michigan's win ... "I thought the guys wrestled really well tonight. There were a couple positions where we let guys off the hook where we could have really buried them. We've got to work on continuing to press through those. We had several guys scored double digits in their matches, and that's the kind of offensive pace we want. I thought overall it was a good dual."
On the improvements throughout the lineup ... "I think overall most of our guys were wrestling at a pretty good clip tonight. We still have a lot of work to do and a lot of areas to improve. But I think there was more consistency tonight that we saw in our other previous dual meets. Up and down the lineup, overall, the body of work was pretty good. I think it's an indicator that the hard work we're putting it is paying off for our guys. They're buying into the things we're doing, and they're starting to see results from the things we're doing."
On Michigan's standout performers ... "I think even though Ben Apland's match was really close, he wrestled a good match against [Mike] McMullan. It was his best overall match of the year so far. He really put a lot of nice things together on his feet, and he rode tough on top. He missed a couple finishes; if he had gotten some of those on the edge, it would have been a major. I think Ben wrestled a really good match.
"I think Zac Stevens did a good job immediately getting after his opponent and taking the sting out of that first match where we gave up a pin. He took the sting out of that by really having a dominant match. Zac has some experience over his opponent, but still he went out there and immediately put the offense on and started dominating. That was an important swing of momentum for our team."
On the personal significance of Michigan's win ... "Coming to Chicago, there were a lot of people there excited to see Michigan and Northwestern -- a lot of people I know. They had a pretty nice crowd tonight for that. There were a lot of kids from Overtime there, and they were excited to see the match. I knew it was important for our guys to wrestle to their capability and press the action."
U-M Fifth-Year Senior Kellen Russell
On the Wolverines' dominant performance ... "We had a tough winter break and trained really hard over it, and guys were applying the stuff we worked on to their matches. That was really good to see. A lot of times, when guys get into really tight matches, they revert back to the old stuff they did before. Right now, guys are doing the stuff that's working. We've still got a lot to work on, but we're going out there and fighting. It's the hardest I've seen guys fight in a while. We had a couple of tough swing matches that we pulled out, and I think there were a couple more that we could have won. We really dominated, earned some big wins and won some closer matches. The reason we won those close matches was because guys were fighting hard the whole time, getting that riding point or getting that first takedown."
On his stretch of bonus wins ... "I've been working on opening up more the last couple of years, and finally this year, I'm starting to shoot and starting to move a little bit better. Every match, I'm trying to get a couple takedowns. I scored more points than I normally do in this match. I think last year I would have probably beat the kid, 3-1, so if felt good to go out there and score a bunch of takedowns and get a turn against a Big Ten kid. I'm starting to realize that if I shoot more, it's easier to score points and I might not go to overtime. I'm trying to cut down on my overtime matches and save them for the end."
