LINCOLN — Robert Kokesh had waited long enough to make his home debut as a Nebraska wrestler. That night finally arrived on Saturday, and Husker fans sure liked the first impression he made.
The 165-pound redshirt freshman upset third-ranked Wyoming senior Shane Onufer 5-0, and three of his fellow freshmen pulled off wins to lead the Huskers' 19-15 victory over the No. 14 Cowboys at the NU Coliseum.
Still fresh on Kokesh's mind was his 6-2 loss to Onufer in last month's University of Nebraska at Kearney Holiday Inn Open. It's not easy to forget — Kokesh has lost only three of his 50 career college matches.
He made good use of that experience Saturday and had an answer for nearly every move Onufer made. After a scoreless first period, Kokesh managed to hold Onufer down and ride him for the entire two minutes of period two.
"I knew what he was going to do, knew what he was going to shoot," Kokesh said. "It was just wrestling smart, taking that match one period at a time."
He bided his time and saved his power for the final period, and that paid off. Kokesh took a quick lead on an escape, then made it 2-0 when Onufer was penalized for trying to flee from the mat to get out of a hold.
Kokesh doubled his lead in the match's final seconds on a hard takedown that brought the Coliseum crowd of 836 to its feet for a standing ovation. The 5-0 victory was a big step forward for a second-year wrestler charged with the task of replacing a two-time national champion.
"Filling in Jordan Burroughs' spot, those are some big shoes to fill," he said. "These coaches, they expect a lot out of me and they have faith in me to be good this year and compete for a national title. That's what I've got to do."
Kokesh's victory capped a run of four consecutive wins from Huskers who are new to this year's lineup.
True freshman Jake Sueflohn easily defeated Wyoming's McCade Ford 11-2 at 141, and redshirt freshman Brandon Wilbourn had no trouble with Brandon Richardson in an 11-5 win at 149. True freshman James Green followed them by holding on for a 6-5 win at 157.
Nebraska coach Mark Manning hopes their performances are a sign of things to come.
"That's a great trend to keep going," he said. "We've got a long way to go, though, but they fought pretty hard tonight."
NU's Tyler Koehn stepped up after the freshmen with a big victory of his own, a 6-3 decision in the 174-pound class against 18th-ranked Patrick Martinez.
Down 2-0 from an early Martinez takedown, Koehn rallied and put together the kind of match he'd frequently lost in his past two seasons in the starting lineup.
A junior who entered the night with a 32-32 career record, Koehn responded with escapes in the first and second period to tie it up, and he went up 4-2 when he threw Martinez down late in the second. He put the match away in the third period by shooting for Martinez's legs for another takedown.
"That was a get-over-the-hump match," Manning said. "He stayed aggressive late, and that was good because in the past he's lost matches like that by getting taken down. It's a good sign for Tyler Koehn."
His win put NU ahead 19-9 heading into the match of the night, one that played out in an all-too-familiar fashion for Josh Ihnen.
The Huskers' 184-pound junior took a 3-2 lead into final minutes of his rematch with No. 3 Joe LeBlanc, but LeBlanc scored a takedown with 30 seconds left to escape with a 4-3 win.
LeBlanc had knocked off Ihnen 7-5 last week at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, and Ihnen is now 0-5 in his career against the Cowboy senior.
"You've got to keep going, man," Manning said. "We preach it, but sometimes it's a hard lesson to learn. . I think our guy's better, but he hasn't proved it yet."
That's a lesson Manning hopes his freshmen remember, too.
"I think a couple of them only wrestled about five minutes tonight," he said. "They're trained good enough. They just have to get it upstairs and get it mentally together and know it's going to be a battle every time."
125 pounds: Kasey Garnhart, WYO, pinned Shawn Nagel, NU, 6:37. 133: Zach Zehner, WYO, dec. Ridge Kiley, NU, 4-3. 141: Jake Sueflohn, NU, dec. McCade Ford, WYO, 11-2. 149: Brandon Wilbourn, NU, dec. Brandon Richardson, WYO, 11-5. 157: James Green, NU, dec. Dakota Friesth, WYO, 6-5. 165: Robert Kokesh, NU, dec. Shane Onufer, WYO, 5-0. 174: Tyler Koehn, NU, dec. Patrick Martinez, WYO, 6-3. 184: Joe LeBlanc, WYO, dec. Josh Ihnen, NU, 4-3. 197: Alfonso Hernandez, WYO, dec. James Nakashima, NU, 4-2. HWT: Tucker Lane, NU, dec. Leland Pfeifer, WYO, 8-1.
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