Issue date: 1/26/10 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Hunter Creel The SIUE Cougar wrestling team exchanged blows with South Dakota State University, and came away with a 23-23 tie at the Vadalabene Center Wednesday.

In a busy week for the SIUE Cougar wrestling squad, they hosted their first home meet of the season on Wednesday against South Dakota State University and took a road trip to Northwestern University on Friday.

At home, SIUE came away with a 23-23 tie against the Jack Rabbits. Wednesday's duel was the first time the Cougars played with home court advantage and was what SIUE sophomore Dillon Pousson, along with the rest off the team called "Mustache Appreciation Night," sporting new facial hair.

"It was nice to be home for once. Traveling four or more hours and losing weight is really hard on your body," Pousson said. "So anytime we have home meets, we get more time to relax and get our weight under control. It's also good to have our fans cheer us on."

At the home meet, Pousson and SIUE freshman Brendan Murphy both recorded falls in the first period of their respective matches. Murphy, at 133 pounds, took out Tyler Johnson of SDSU in 1:01 minutes. While Pousson, at 141 pounds, dropped SDSU's Dustin Walraven in 1:47 minutes.

Murphy also said it was nice to wrestle at home after 11 straight road duals to open the season.

"It was really fun. The whole team had a lot of kids supporting us," Murphy said. "And it was nice to be able to sit around and not have to be sitting on a bus all day."

SIUE sophomore Steve Ross and freshmen Robert Cooney and David Devine also grabbed wins for the Cougars in the dual. Devine won the final match of the duel 4-0 in the heavyweight division against Kevin Kelly of SDSU, giving SIUE the tie and avoiding defeat at home.

On Friday, the team traveled to Northwestern where they came up short in a 28-15 loss to the Wildcats.

Besides two forfeit victories, Devine was the only Cougar to win a match at the duel. Pousson and SIUE freshman Dustin Young were both handed forfeit wins at 141 pounds and 125 pounds, respectively.

Devine took out NU's Marcus Shrewsbury in a 6-1 win at the heavyweight level.

Ross came up short in his match against Robert Kellogg of NU.

Ross, who bumped up one weight class, lost his match Wednesday12-4, but said he wrestled well and agreed with his teammates about how nice it is to wrestle at home.

"It's always fun to get to wrestle in front of a home crowd and not have to travel," Ross said.

The Cougars host a matchup against the University of Central Missouri at 7 p.m. on Thursday in the Vadalabene Center.

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