Millikin faced North Central College on Tuesday, January 21, 2020 at 7 p.m. and took the loss for the night. It was a tough match, almost a rematch to when they faced off at the NWCA National Duals on the 10th. The team struggled only managing to get two wins out of ten losing 39-8 on the night.

“We had to use a lot of the same guys that we had to use last time as we have five starters out right now and we actually lost one for the season, Jake Tizsa,” said Ryan Birt, Head Wrestling Coach. “We have some guys banged up, but we put the best team out there we could, and the guys battled hard. We’re trying to get everyone healed up for the conference tournament, minus Jake, but other than that we’re happy with how the guys fought today. They changed some stuff. I think we grew we turned some things around, and I think where some of the guys in just a matter of eleven days have gotten better.”

It was a tough match-up, even with guys like Scott Bauer managed to pull out a loop of movements, Millikin was unable to come away with a win. Bradan Birt, junior, came away with a win via Tech Fall grabbing five points for Millikin, meanwhile AJ Fox, Sophomore, was unable to come away with a win, but he fought hard and grew more with that competition.

“I felt pretty good, I felt like my fakes were getting them jumping and stuff like that,” said AJ Fox, Sophomore. “I just have to go out there and take more shots actually get to it and have confidence when I actually take a shot, so that was big for me today. It just showed some improvement, but it also shows what else I can do. It shows how I can get better, and what I need to work on to get to where I need to be.”

North Central was able to get one up on them, but Millikin managed to fight back as hard as they could. They may not have come away with the win, not getting to turn around their loss, but they did come away with growth which is always important.

“I think I wrestled pretty sloppy, first match back in a couple of weeks, it showed but built some confidence going into my next match, but it was pretty sloppy though,” said Bradan Birt. “We only had two to three of our varsity guys in, not that I didn’t expect it to go that way, but I’m not upset because we fought and I know the second our varsity guys step in we’ll be ready to go and that’s a completely different dual. Back-up still did a great job.”

It was a tough competition, and the guys of Big Blue fought hard even with not having everyone they may normally have. They will be competing at home, Griswold Gym, on Friday, January 24th at 7 p.m. Come support the Big Blue as they take on the 4th ranked team in the country, Wabash College.