As weekends go, placing fifth at the National Duals Invitational sponsored by Paycom, staying healthy through five rugged matches and carting home a check for $50,000 wasn’t a bad one for Minnesota.

Aside from a 4 a.m. Monday wakeup call to get back to Minneapolis, Gophers coach Brandon Eggum thought things went rather well.

Minnesota beat Virginia Tech 19-17 but lost 29-6 to Ohio State, despite three closely contested bouts, and immediately bounced back with a 22-16 win over Northern Iowa. Day 2 saw the Gophers beat Missouri (15-14) and Tech again (25-10) for the fifth-place finish. There were no true wrestlebacks, so because the Gophers didn’t lose in the semis, they could place no higher than fifth.

“I thought it was great competition; I thought the guys wrestled really well,” Eggum said. “We knew Virginia Tech was gonna be a tight one and a tough one because we ran into a few of their guys in the Southeast Open. We had a nice win.

“And then we lost Ohio State, and that was a tough one. We lost the matches we'd hoped to win. … From a score standpoint, we got beat up a little bit, and that was something I know everybody was really down about.”

Eggum said that with little recovery time to collect their thoughts after Ohio State, the win over Northern Iowa was even more impressive. Then (on Sunday) the guys just got stronger each round and had a really good mindset.”

Eggum thought the Duals were somewhat similar to the national tournament. 

“It was nice to have that type of atmosphere and to wrestle that type of quality of opponents,” he said. “To be together as a team was a little different, but that made it enjoyable.”

Four Wins For Four Gophers

Lightweight Jore Volk, a Lakeville, Minnesota resident who won three Minnesota state titles and then went to Wyoming, opted to come home to the Gophers for his senior season. He went 4-for-5 at the Duals, losing only to Ohio State’s Nic Bouzakis in sudden victory and moving up to #3 in the Flo rankings in the process.

He was joined in that four-win category by Charlie Millard at 157, Andrew Sparks at 165 and Max McEnelly at 184.

“He’s wrestling great,” Eggum said about Volk. “He looks really solid in all three positions. I think he can even open up more, which has been one of the things he mentioned early in this preseason to us, that he wants to continue to work on being more open and attack more, because he has some really good attacks and shots.

“He’s been a great leader — a really good add for our team.”

Eggum cited Vance VomBaur’s mindset at 141. 

“Each match wasn't his best match, but he had a really good attitude,” he said. “I think he shows a lot about his where his heart is and it says a lot about him as a leader and as one of our captains.”

He also said Millard’s energy on the mat 157, as well as his hand-fighting and offense, was impressive.

A Loss That Might Help

Top-ranked 184-pounder Max McEnelly (now #3) was upended by Missouri star Aeoden Sinclair 6-3 and Eggum believes that might go a long way toward improving McEnelly’s focus.

“I thought he was wrestling a little bit tight out there. And I think sometimes that happens when you have as much success as he's had,” Eggum said about the All-American redshirt sophomore. “You win the World Championships, and come back in and you expect to win, and you maybe focus on that more than going out and just performing at his best abilities and just enjoying wrestling and having fun. 

“So we talked a little bit about that. And in some ways I said maybe that's the best thing for him is to not be thinking about trying to have an undefeated season … really just focus on getting better every week.

“He's just so efficient with scoring that he's won some at the end of a match, and sometimes that's the way it's going to have to be. But at the same time, even if he's attacking and loses a scramble or gives up a takedown on a counter, if he's just open and continues to attack, that's just overwhelming for people. It's really tough to wrestle against a guy that has a complete offensive mindset. I was proud of him for bouncing back.”

Lineup Still Liquid

Eggum said heavyweight Koy Hopke (2-1 at the Duals) wrestled well and noted that 149, 174 and heavyweight have ongoing battles for a starting spot. Drew Roberts is expected back in the lineup at 149, according to Eggum.

“We still have a few weights that we're trying to iron out,” Eggum said. “We tell guys all the time you have to continue to show up and wrestle. We're not so concerned with even who's winning in the practice room, it is really who comes out and competes. We're trying to make a statement here of saying it's not even about getting your hands raised, it's how you compete on the mat. We just want guys who are going to be aggressive, and in the end, that's going to help them be the best version of themselves.”

Off To A Good Start

The Gophers have the weekend off and host rival South Dakota State on Nov. 25. With SDSU, Little Rock and North Dakota State looming and then a month off until the Big Ten opener at Illinois on Jan. 10, the #11 Gophers have a strong chance of heading into January at 7-1.

“We’ll have time to recover and having guys healthy, but South Dakota State is going to be a really good dual,” Eggum said. “They have a lot of Minnesota guys on that team so it’s a big dual for them to come back for. We’re going to make sure our guys are getting up for that and excited for it as well. 

“I feel like we're in a good spot. We'll have a longer break here over Christmas than typical. Maybe it'll kind of help break up the season. The Big Ten dual meet season is going to be extremely tough. It's going to be a grind, but it might be nice to have that break in between as long as our guys are managing the little things right. If we wrestle well, we can pick up three wins. Obviously, that’s the goal.”