BROOKINGS, S.D. – Two wrestling squads with long dual winning streaks will clash Friday night as South Dakota State hosts North Dakota State in the Jackrabbits’ regular-season finale.
The annual Border Bell matchup is set for a 7 p.m. start at Frost Arena. The six members of the Jackrabbit senior class will be honored prior to Friday’s dual.
Fans attending the dual will receive a commemorative glass. Tickets can be be ordered in advance online at JackrabbitTickets.com. The arena ticket booth opens at 6 p.m. Friday.
North Dakota State has won its last six duals and enters Friday’s match 9-3 overall and 5-1 against Big 12 Conference opponents. The Bison are slated to also wrestle Sunday at Iowa State.
SDSU, meanwhile, has won five duals in a row to improve to 12-5 overall and 6-2 versus Big 12 foes. The Jackrabbits have outscored the opposition by a combined 159-40 during their current winning streak.
Both teams are coming off home victories over then-21st-ranked Stanford. NDSU defeated the Cardinal, 28-13, on Feb. 15, while SDSU scored a 34-4 victory the next night. The Bison closed their weekend homestand with a 31-6 dual win over Air Force on Feb. 16.
The Jackrabbits and NDSU each received three votes in this week’s NWCA Division I Coaches’ Poll.
Friday’s dual can be viewed through FloWrestling.org (subscription required).
Both head coaches – South Dakota State’s Damion Hahn and NDSU’s Roger Kish – were All-America wrestlers at the University of Minnesota. Hahn was a four-time All-American from 2001-04 and won back-to-back NCAA titles at 197 pounds as a junior and senior. Kish was an All-American at 184 pounds for the Golden Gophers in both 2006 and 2007.
SERIES VERSUS NORTH DAKOTA STATE: South Dakota State and North Dakota State will meet for the 66th time in dual competition, when the two programs clash Friday night at Frost Arena. NDSU leads the all-time series between the two longtime rivals, 43-21-1, including a 12-5-1 advantage in the Division I era for both programs, which began at the start of the 2004-05 season.
The Jackrabbits had won four matchups in a row before NDSU posted a 31-10 victory on its home mat last February. The Bison claimed eight of 10 matches, highlighted by falls from Brent Fleetwood (125 pounds) and Lorenzo De La Riva (174), along with a technical fall by Andrew Fogarty in the 165-pound matchup.
Both of the Jackrabbits’ wins were of the bonus-point variety as Zach Carlson earned a technical fall over Michael Otomo in the dual’s opening bout at 184 pounds and Henry Pohlmeyer recorded a late pin versus Jaden Van Maanen in the 149-pound matchup.
North Dakota State 31, South Dakota State 10 (Feb. 15, 2019)
184: Zach Carlson (SDSU) tech. fall Michael Otomo (NDSU), 17-2 [7:00]
197: Cordell Eaton (NDSU) dec. Martin Mueller (SDSU), 3-1
285: Brandon Metz (NDSU) dec. Blake Wolters (SDSU), 8-7
125: #9 Brent Fleetwood (NDSU) def. Gregory Coapstick (SDSU), by fall 3:53
133: #17 Cam Sykora (NDSU) dec. Rylee Molitor (SDSU), 7-2
141: Sawyer Degen (NDSU) dec. Aric Williams (SDSU), 9-5
149: Henry Pohlmeyer (SDSU) def. Jaden Van Maanen (NDSU), by fall 6:48
157: Luke Weber (NDSU) dec. Colten Carlson (SDSU), 10-7
165: #17 Andrew Fogarty (NDSU) tech. fall Logan Peterson (SDSU), 16-0 [4:32]
174: Lorenzo De La Riva (NDSU) def. Samuel Grove (SDSU), by fall 6:45
Notes: Each team deducted one team point for unsportsmanlike conduct; rankings by FloWrestling
CARLSON COMES UP BIG IN DUALS: Senior 184-pounder Zach Carlson has been the Jackrabbits’ top performer in duals over the past two seasons. The Murdock, Minnesota, native has combined for a 23-7 dual record since becoming a full-time starter during the 2018-19 campaign. He led the squad with a 9-4 dual record as a junior and is a team-best 14-3 in duals so far this year.
Carlson’s 23 dual wins have resulted in 94 team points for the Jackrabbits over the past two seasons. He brings a streak of five consecutive bonus-point victories into Friday’s dual against North Dakota State – three technical falls and two major decisions. Carlson has scored at least 16 points in each of those five matches.
ANOTHER WINNING SEASON: South Dakota State secured its fifth winning season in the last six years with its 28-9 victory at Ohio on Feb. 9. The Jackrabbits have won 11 or more duals in each of their five winning seasons since the start of the 2014-15 campaign.
RABBITS RANKED: Five South Dakota State wrestlers appear in the NCAA Division I rankings compiled by a variety of media outlets.
Ranked throughout the season have been Henry Pohlmeyer at 149 pounds and Tanner Sloan at 197 pounds. A two-time NCAA qualifier and a senior from Johnston, Iowa, Pohlmeyer has been the big mover the past month, climbing to top-10 rankings by three organizations: WIN Magazine (eighth), FloWrestling (ninth) and TrackWrestling (10th). He also is ranked 13th by Intermat.
Sloan, a redshirt freshman from Alburnett, Iowa, was ranked in the top 10 by three media outlets earlier in the season and moved back into that position following his victory last week against Stanford’s Nathan Traxler. He rose to as high as ninth by WIN Magazine, along with rankings of 10th (Intermat) and 12th (FloWrestling, TrackWrestling).
At 184 pounds, Zach Carlson has moved into all four rankings, including holding the eighth spot the WIN Magazine rankings. A senior from Murdock, Minnesota, Carlson also is ranked 15th by TrackWrestling, 16th by Intermat and 17th by FloWrestling.
Also appearing in the rankings in the second half of the season are 125-pounder Danny Vega and 165-pounder Tanner Cook. Vega, a junior who previously competed at Iowa State, is ranked as high as 15th by Intermat. He also stands 16th in the WIN Magazine rankings, 17th by TrackWrestling and 25th by FloWrestling. He has a 12-3 mark in duals since entering the lineup Dec. 20 versus Minnesota.
Cook, a freshman from Ilion, New York, has solidified the 165-pound spot with a 17-3 overall record, including an 11-2 mark in duals since being inserted into the Jackrabbit lineup at the South Beach Duals in late December. Cook, who has a total of 12 wins by fall this season, is 23rd in the TrackWrestling rankings and 25th in the FloWrestling survey. His 10 pins against Division I competition ranked in a tie for fourth among D-I wrestlers this season through Feb. 12, while his average of 4.20 team points per match ranked in a tie for ninth in the D-I Most Dominant Wrestler standings.
As a team, the Jackrabbits are ranked 20th by WIN Magazine and 23rd by Intermat in the organizations’ dual rankings. SDSU also has received votes in the NWCA Division I Coaches’ Poll on a few different occasions this season, including garnering three votes in the Feb. 18 poll.
A LOOK AHEAD: SDSU will compete in the Big 12 Wrestling Championship March 7-8 at BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The two-day event serves as the qualifying tournament for the NCAA?Division I Wrestling Championships later in the month.
Following is the schedule for the 2020 Big 12 Wrestling Championship:
Saturday, March 7
11 a.m. – Preliminary matches and quarterfinals
5 p.m. – Consolation matches and semifinals
Sunday, March 8
11 a.m. – Consolation semifinals, placing matches (third, fifth, seventh) and true-place matches (if necessary)
6 p.m. – Championship matches
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