UWP's Andy Casper earns this pin at 141

Despite having nine of the 10 wrestlers making their Williams Fieldhouse debuts, UW-Platteville shut out Knox College 44-0 Tuesday night in the Pioneers' home opener.

An assortment of injuries and illnesses have sidelined many of the Pioneer starters, but Coach Chris Walter's team showed its depth with the first shutout since a 41-0 win over Concordia (Wis.) on Jan. 22, 2000.

"I told the guys when you're at practice, you're competing to start and take advantage of the opportunity to start when you get it," Walter said. "I thought the guys came out--and it really was the first time for most of them--and they did really well."

Only sophomore Andrew Skog had ever started in a dual before, and he earned a forfeit at 125. Classmate Chris Spaude then edged Edel Vaca 3-2 in overtime at 133.

"Winning the overtime match at 133 was big because I think he was their best wrestler," Walter said. "Spaude went pretty hard. Getting pins at 141 and 149 were huge, going into a forfeit at 157."

Andy Casper returned to the team after not wrestling since the 2005-06 season. He earned his pin at 141 in 3:45 over Tim Yee.

"It felt pretty good," he said. "I wanted to move my feet, be aggressive and keep shooting."

Junior Ryan Borman, a first-year Pioneer wrestler, made quick work of Dugan O'Connor at 149, pinning him in 57 seconds.

After Alex LeRoy won by forfeit at 157, the Pioneers won the final five matches. Erik Sutliff (174) and Adam Mossner (285) won by major decisions, while Matt McGill (165), A.J. Feldman (184) and Matt Scott (197) earned decisions.

The Pioneers improved to 1-1 on the young season, while the Prairie Fire fell to 0-2.

"I was thinking today, 'wow, nine new faces in the starting lineup'," Walter said. "I'd rather have that than forfeiting weight classes like what happened in our last dual (a 25-15 loss at UW-Oshkosh after forfeiting twice). Are we a better team than we were two weeks ago? Yes, because we can put a full lineup out there. Not too many teams can put their whole second string out there and expect these kinds of results, other than the Augsburgs, Wartburgs and La Crosses. So I was pretty happy."

The Pioneers will face fifth-ranked UW-La Crosse Thursday at 7 p.m. in Williams Fieldhouse.

"It will definitely be a jump in competition, and there will be a lot of different things happening Thursday," Walter said. "It will be interesting to see."

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