LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Bellarmine University wrestling team will make its home debut tomorrow night, November 21, hosting the Northern Illinois Huskies in Knights Hall.
Friday night's dual is scheduled for 6 pm E.T. and will be broadcast live on ESPN+. Fans can also follow results on TrackWrestling.
"It's good to be back home. We love wrestling in Knights Hall," said Bellarmine head coach
Ned Shuck. "I'm excited to see our guys' improvements on the positions we've been working on."
Bellarmine and Northern Illinois are meeting for the third time in series history and for the first time since 2021. This will be the first match between the Knights and Huskies on either school's home court as both prior matchups came at neutral site events. In the last meeting on November 21, 2021, NIU topped Bellarmine 33-5. Northern Illinois also won the first ever meeting 46-0 on January 10, 2021.
The Knights sent a group to compete at the Findlay Open last weekend with redshirt sophomore
Jack Ring earning top honors for Bellarmine, claiming second place in the 184-pound weight class. Ring won four straight matches, before falling in sudden victory in the finals.
Grad student
Daulton Mayer is the lone ranked wrestler for Bellarmine and is ranked in three different national polls. His highest ranking comes from Intermat at #27, followed by a #28 nod from The College Wrestling Report and #32 from FloWrestling.
Friday night will be Bellarmine's first home dual of the season but second match of the year after the Knights opened their dual schedule at Iowa on November 6, falling 40-0 to the Hawkeyes.
Northern Illinois enters the contest 1-1, getting a 21-12 win over American University before taking a 28-9 loss to Purdue at the Boilermaker Duals last weekend. The Huskies kicked off their 2025-26 season at the Michigan State Open. Redshirt junior Markel Baker highlighted the NIU effort with a first-place title in the 133-pound weight class. Freshman Tyler Turzinski (157) and junior Sean Carroll (285) took second in their respective weight classes. Baker is 6-0 to start the year and 2-0 in dual action. Three Huskies are ranked in national polls in #15/14/15 Blake West, #22/13/23 Baker and #30/33/25 Devon Dawson (rankings from Intermat/WrestleStat/TCWR).
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