Wisconsin wrestling team is on the rise again, and they'll learn a lot this week about where they stand with matchup vs. Penn State
MADISON – Chris Bono and his wrestlers should soon learn where they stand in the Big Ten pecking order this season.
The Badgers are 6-1 in dual meets and ranked No. 11 according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association, opens its Big Ten schedule at 8 p.m. Friday at the Field House.
The opponent: No. 1 Penn State, which has won five NCAA championships in the last seven seasons and nine in the last 12 seasons.
“Matches like this, to have the No. 1 team in the country, on a Friday night, on the Big Ten Network, doesn’t get any bigger or any better,” said Bono, in his fifth season at UW. “They’re the machine. They’re winning year in and year out.
“They’ve got multiple national champions on their team, multiple No. 1-ranked guys on their team.”
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Bono, who took over the UW program in 2018 after a successful, six-year run at South Dakota State, learned in his first season in Madison how much ground the Badgers had to make up on the rest of the Big Ten.
“We got our butts kicked for a while,” he said. “So, we knew where we were in the pecking order.”
UW’s dual record in Bono’s first three seasons was a combined 21-18. The Badgers finished seventh, ninth and 12th in the Big Ten tournament in those seasons.
Last season, UW finished 12-2 in duals, eighth in the Big Ten tournament and 14th at the NCAAs with 38.5 points.
The Big Ten this season features six teams in the top 11 of the NWCA poll: No. 1 Penn State, No. 2 Iowa, No. 5 Michigan, No. 7 Ohio State, No. 9 Minnesota and UW at No. 11.
“The Big Ten is the best conference in the country,” Bono said.
Bono's 2019-2020 team finished 11-6 in duals and qualified five wrestlers for the NCAA meet. That meet was canceled, however, because of COVID-19.
“We had a really good tournament team,” he said. “We were ranked as high as No. 2 or No. 3, but they were all fifth- or sixth-year transfers. It was a quick fix. It wasn’t what I wanted to do. It just happened to fall into our lap.
“I want to build this thing brick by brick and get better every single year and that’s the path we’re on right now.
“The foundation of the program is there. We’re building this thing and it’s going to be sustainable for however long we’re doing this (here).
“I really believe with the kids we have, with the recruits we have, with the support that we have from the administration, we’re going to keep getting better every year.”
The gap that still exists between UW and Penn State – the top of the Big Ten – should be on display Friday.
“We’re excited,” Bono said. “This is an opportunity. You may never get the chance to wrestle the No. 1 team in the country so we’re going to go out there and let it fly.”
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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Improving Wisconsin wrestling team will be tested vs. No. 1 Penn State
