Much like the Illinois match on Sunday, an early bout at 125 didn’t go Rutgers’ way and it set a negative trend that the Knights had a hard time reversing.
With Nick Suriano still out of the lineup from the flu, the onus of facing Minnesota’s No. 6/8/8 Ethan Lizak fell to true freshman Luke Ecklof. While the forfeit against Illinois gave up six points, Ecklof didn’t fare much better suffering a tech fall. It was the second of four straight losses to open the match. The Gophers built a 14-0 lead that Rutgers never overcame, dropping below .