QUICK HITS

• Cleveland State dropped a 24-6 dual to Northern Illinois
• Justin Patrick claimed a thrilling late win at 133 pounds
• Evan Cheek recorded his team-leading 31st win at 141 pounds
• The Vikings lost two bouts that went to overtime

MATCH RECAP

The Cleveland State University wrestling team dropped a 24-6 dual to visiting Northern Illinois in Mid-American Conference action Friday evening inside Woodling Gymnasium.

NIU did not claim any bonus-point wins but was able to run the table, with its lineup of six MAC ranked wrestlers, after losing two of the first three bouts.

Redshirt senior Justin Patrick got one of the Vikings' wins in thrilling fashion. Trailing, 3-2, for nearly the entire third period, Patrick, after he had continued to push the pace for a sustained stretch, secured the winning takedown with fewer than five seconds left in the bout.

The win for Patrick marked the third straight bout in which he scored the winning points in the final 10 seconds. He has now won seven of his last eight overall.

Redshirt senior Evan Cheek added a win at 141 pounds for CSU. He scored two near-fall points in the opening period, which proved to be the difference as he tallied a 4-2 victory. He improved to 31-4 on the season and is now 10-1 in duals.

The Vikings came close to winning a pair of bouts that went to overtime.

At 157 pounds, redshirt sophomore Brady Barnett nearly had a winning takedown in the final seconds of regulation. However, he would drop a 3-1 decision in the sudden-victory session.

Redshirt sophomore John Kelbly came close to pulling off an upset at heavyweight in a bout that required well over seven minutes. He nearly secured a winning takedown earlier in overtime before losing in the third extra minute of overtime via a stalling decision by the referee.

Cleveland State will close the regular season next weekend with a road dual Friday, Feb. 14, and a home matchup Sunday, Feb. 16.

Northern Illinois 24, Cleveland State 6
125: Bryce West (NIU) over Logan Heil (CSU) - 10-6 dec. | NIU leads, 3-0
133: Justin Patrick (CSU) over Caleb Brooks (NIU) - 4-3 dec. | Tied, 3-3
141: Evan Cheek (CSU) over Anthony Gibson (NIU) - 4-2 dec. | CSU leads, 6-3
149: McCoy Kent (NIU) over Gus Sutton (CSU) - 6-2 dec. | Tied, 6-6
157: Mason Kauffman (NIU) over Brady Barnett (CSU) - 3-1 SV | NIU leads, 9-6
165: Izzak Olejnik (NIU) over Riley Smucker (CSU) - 6-2 dec. | NIU leads, 12-6
174: Kenny Moore (NIU) over Chase Archangelo (CSU) - 7-3 dec. | NIU leads, 15-6
184: Brit Wilson (NIU) over DeAndre Nassar (CSU) - 10-4 dec. | NIU leads, 18-6
197: Gage Braun (NIU) over Ben Smith (CSU) - 8-6 dec. | NIU leads, 21-6
285: Max Ihry (NIU) over John Kelbly (CSU) - 4-3 SV-2 | NIU wins, 24-6