Vinny Alber started UWP's scoring with a pin

UW-Platteville beat 18th-ranked Loras 23-12 Friday night in a match decided almost as much by the Pioneers who lost as those who won.

The Pioneers won six of the 10 individual matches, but none of the four who lost gave up anything more than three points via a decision, no small task against a talented Duhawk squad.

"Every single person wrestled well," said Ryan Higgins, who won his match at 149. "I was happy with it. Everyone looked good."

The Pioneers broke an eight-match losing streak to Loras, dating back to the 1998-99 season opener.

"I was more looking at how we came out and wrestled against tough competition, and I thought we wrestled real well and got after it," Pioneer Coach Chris Walter said.

UWP started strong right off the bat. The Duhawks led off with 18-15 Mark Beatty at 125 and 20-18 Jordan Loy at 133, but the Pioneers' Andrew Skog and Spencer Peterson went head-to-head with them, losing by just 4-3 and 6-4, respectively.

Carsten Carlsen won 10-0 at 165

"I was worried about their 125 and 133-pounders picking up bonus points," Walter said. "Loy beat Spencer by a fall in January, so look how far he's come since just then."

Vinny Alber needed just 54 seconds to pin Scott Frank at 141, and just like that, the match was tied 6-6. The freshman Alber picked up his 27th win and 10th pin.

"Vinny really swung the pendulum our way, and we kept the momentum up until 174," Walter said.

Higgins followed with a dominating performance against Chris Bishop at 149, winning 15-6 and giving the Pioneers a 10-6 lead.

In the match of the night, Jesse Milks, ranked fifth in the country at 157, stopped sixth-ranked Erik Hanson 6-5 with a takedown in the final seconds. Hanson kept Milks tied up around the head and neck area for most of the match before Milks turned the tide at the end. He just beat the clock in getting the takedown for the victory.

"Jesse wrestled in his area of strength for two and a half periods, but then he started creating movements and taking shots," Walter said. "He took a shot, got the call and the takedown."

Milks, who improved to 27-5, said, "I figured it was going to be a real tough match. I could have wrestled better, but I'll take it. A win's a win."

Carsten Carlsen continued the Pioneer winning ways with a 10-0 rout of Scott Soukup at 165, making the team score 17-6.

Loras won the next two matches, again by close counts, as Brandon Bauer edged Cory Zuberbier 3-1 at 174, and Jay Figgins earned his 119th career win by nipping Brad Zellner 4-1.

With the Pioneer lead cut to 17-12, Mike Jackowski clinched the match with a 4-1 win over Alex Grafft at 197. Cody Weber finished the night with a 4-0 victory over Jeremy Klein at 285.

"This was a big one," Milks said. "We really wrestled well as a team, and this is the time you want to do it, at the end of the season."

The Pioneers improved to 5-5 with the neighborhood victory.

"When I was a freshman, coach said this is like a high school rivalry because we're so close," Higgins said. "It's always been a tough dual meet, but they kept coming out on top. Beating them is cool, but we're focused on the end of the year."

Several Pioneers will wrestle in the Loras Open Saturday. The last dual meet is set for Feb. 15 at UW-Whitewater. The Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championships are Feb. 24 at Lawrence, and the NCAA III nationals are March 7-8 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"It's another step in the progression scale," Walter said. "Since the Eau Claire match (Jan. 8), we've made a lot of gains: third at North Central, first at Manchester, dominating Lawrence and beating a good team here that's been ranked all year. Now we have to take another step when we wrestle Whitewater."

UW-Platteville 23, Loras 12

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