Nebraska edges Minnesota 21-12 behind Taylor pin, key middle-weight decisions
Antrell Taylor’s pin at 157 supplied a six-point swing as Nebraska took a Big Ten road win at the Bierman Field Athletic Building in Minneapolis.
MINNEAPOLIS — Nebraska edged Minnesota 21-12 at the Bierman Field Athletic Building, picking up a key road victory in Big Ten play.
The decisive moment came at 157 pounds when No. 5 Antrell Taylor pinned No. 20 Charlie Millard, a fall that registered six team points and widened Nebraska’s margin. The bout featured a scoreless first period, exchanged escapes in the second and a late third-period takedown recorded at the clock, after which the result was recorded as a fall.
Nebraska built on that bonus-point swing with high-value decisions in the middle weights. No. 8 LJ Araujo beat No. 16 Andrew Sparks 9-2 at 165, using takedowns, escapes and a riding-time point to separate the pair. Christopher Minto added an 11-4 decision at 174 to extend Nebraska’s edge, and No. 15 Camden McDanel closed out his bout at 197 with a late takedown in a 7-2 decision.
Minnesota fought back in its top-10 matchup when No. 3 Max McEnelly secured a sudden-victory takedown to beat No. 9 Silas Allred 4-1 at 184, an overtime play that kept the dual competitive. The Golden Gophers also captured decisions at 125 and 141, but those wins were not enough to overcome Nebraska’s bonus point and the Cornhuskers’ string of mid-dual decisions.
At heavyweight, No. 4 AJ Ferrari edged No. 9 Koy Hopke 2-1 after a riding-time point in the first overtime, a low-scoring match that closed the dual. Earlier narrow decisions included Jacob Van Dee’s 1-0 win at 133 and Jore Volk’s 4-1 decision at 125, both of which factored into the back-and-forth scoring.
Nebraska’s team release noted Taylor’s fall was his third pin of the season and that the bonus outcome swung the dual in the visitors’ favor. School recaps also reported the result in Big Ten context, with the two programs’ records updated after the meet.
Taylor’s late takedown and subsequent fall, combined with Araujo’s bonus-margin decision and a pair of controlled decisions in the upper middle weights, supplied the margin Nebraska needed to leave Minneapolis with the road victory.