Editor’s note:This story was updated at 10:30 a.m. Monday (01-22-24) with the results from Sunday’s competition against California Baptist.
BROOKINGS No. 10 ranked South Dakota State wrestling improved its dual win streak to four on Friday night as the Jackrabbits took care of business against Northern Colorado with a 29-16 victory over the Bears.
The Jackrabbits dropped four matches in the dual but in the six matches they won, five of them came by technical fall. Alek Martin, Cael Swensen, Cade DeVos, Bennett Berge and Tanner Sloan had the technical falls and SDSU head coach Damion Hahn said he was pleased with them but wished all of his wrestlers had that kind of performance.
Ill be honest, I thought we could win all 10 [matches]. I think we have the cast of characters to do that and for one reason or another that did not happen. Five technical falls, thats a lot of points out there. In those matches, those guys lit it up, and thats fun, thats what people come to see. Picking up those five technical falls, I thought those guys wrestled really well. They got on their offense and did not stop. They just kept putting the points on the board, Hahn said.
SDSU dropped the first two matches of the dual. No. 17 ranked Tanner Jordan kicked things off in the 125-pound weight class and he lost a 14-6 major decision to No. 16 Stevo Poulin. No. 16 Derrick Cardinal then took the mat for the Jacks at 133 and he lost a 6-2 decision to No. 26 Dominick Serrano and SDSU fell behind 7-0.
Hahn said he thought his first two wrestlers came out a little flat.
Coming out of the gate right away at 125, thats a guy weve wrestled against in the past and weve struggled with and it fit the bill tonight. [Jordan] struggled a little bit, getting to some of his positions to score and we dropped that.
Then you go into Derrick, and Derrick has wrestled extremely well, and I thought he looked flat tonight. Thats not what we want ultimately, but he has to keep moving and keep himself in the fight. Thats a match that I think Derrick wins nine times out of ten, Hahn said.
Sixth year senior and returning All-American Clay Carlson was up next for the Jacks at 141. He had knee surgery earlier in the season and is still trying to get back into full form. On Friday night he looked more like himself as he won a 14-3 major decision and that cut the UNC lead to 7-4.
Carlson said as of right now he feels like his conditioning is back to how it was before the surgery and now its just about getting back to how he wrestled before.
The plan for me right now is to score as many points as I can and make myself as tired as I can. The whole plan after I had surgery was to get myself back into competition shape. We knew it was going to take time and effort and it wasnt going to be easy. So, every time I step on the mat its a time to prepare myself for the postseason. I think my conditioning is there and I just need my wrestling to catch up still. Sometimes my shots just seem like theyre a half second too late, Carlson said.
SDSU would then get back-to-back technical falls before the intermission and that gave the Jacks a 14-7 lead. No. 20 Alek Martin got the first technical fall of the night as he beat Killian Schultz 15-0 at 149. No. 15 Cael Swensen followed Martin with an 18-1 victory over Cameron Lucero at 157.
Out of the intermission it was SDSUs Tanner Cook against Derek Matthews at 165. Cook looked like he had a chance at a pin but it was Matthews who came up with the pin one minute into the match. That cut the Jackrabbit lead to 14-13 with four matches remaining.
Hahn said he felt the call for the pin came a little quick.
We go into the break and come out with Cook and they get into a situation. [Matthews] tries to throw [Cook], we catch him on his back, but we get rolled through and the official calls a pin real quick. I didnt even think he had both shoulders on the mat, but hey, he must have seen something I didnt, Hahn said.
SDSU then rattled off three-straight technical falls and put the match away. No. 4 Cade DeVos got the first one as he beat Travis Mastrogiovanni 16-0 at 174. No. 13 Bennet Berge was up next at 184 and he beat Andrew Donahue 18-3. Tanner Sloan, who was an NCAA Runner-Up finisher at 197 last season, is ranked No. 5 this year and beat Xavier Vasquez 16-0 to make it 29-13 SDSU.
Heavyweight was the final match of the night and Brookings native Luke Rasmussen took the mat for the Jacks. He dropped a 14-7 decision to Xavier Doolin to make the final 29-16.
SDSU improved to 7-2 in duals on the season and 1-0 in the Big 12. The Jacks No. 10 ranking is the highest ranking as a team in school history. The momentum they have built up might come in handy later in the season as SDSU will have to go to Oklahoma and No. 5 Oklahoma State in February. They will also host No. 2 Missouri on Feb. 18.
Hahn said those duals will be a good test for his team and hes looking forward to it because he wants to see where his team stands in the national landscape.
I think the remainder of the dual meet season, we have some hammers coming up, Hahn said. We have Oklahoma State, we have Missouri, and thats a great test. Thats a great test because theyre in a position that we want to be in. Theyre top-five programs and if we want to keep doing what I think we can do you have to beat the best.
We go out and look for tough competition because that is going to prepare [us] for the rest of the year. I think for this team, they can go down as one of the best teams in South Dakota State wrestling history. Im not sure where the ceiling is. I dont think theyll stop until they accomplish what they want to accomplish.
Sunday
SDSU 39, California Baptist 3
The Jacks won nine of the 10 matches on Sunday and cruised to the victory.
Jordan kicked things off at 125 and won a 7-3 decision over No. 28 Elijiah Griffin. Logan Graf was then up next for SDSU at 133 and he won a 10-1 major decision over Mitchell Neiner. Carlson was back in action at 141 and he won an 8-2 decision over Darren Green to make it 10-0.
Martin then wrestled Dayne Morton at 149 and he won a 5-1 decision. Swensen took the mat at 157 again and won a 15-2 major decision over Chaz Hallmark. Cook took the lone loss for the Jacks as he lost a 4-2 decision against Drayden Morton at 165 to make it 17-3 SDSU through six matches.
DeVos had another technical fall on Sunday as he beat Justin Phillips 23-4 at 174. Berge then pinned Nathan Haas in 46 seconds at 184. Sloan had another technical fall as well as he beat Eli Sheeran 17-1 at 197. Rasmussen bounced back on Sunday with a pin of Chris Island in 2:59. That made the final 39-3.
SDSU improved to 8-2 in duals on the season and 2-0 in the Big 12. The Jacks No. 10 ranking is the highest ranking as a team in school history. The momentum they have built up might come in handy later in the season as SDSU will have to go to Oklahoma and No. 5 Oklahoma State in February. They will also host No. 2 Missouri on Feb. 18.
Hahn said those duals will be a good test for his team and hes looking forward to it because he wants to see where his team stands in the national landscape.
I think the remainder of the dual meet season, we have some hammers coming up, Hahn said. We have Oklahoma State, we have Missouri, and thats a great test. Thats a great test because theyre in a position that we want to be in. Theyre top-five programs and if we want to keep doing what I think we can do you have to beat the best.
We go out and look for tough competition because that is going to prepare [us] for the rest of the year. I think for this team, they can go down as one of the best teams in South Dakota State wrestling history. Im not sure where the ceiling is. I dont think theyll stop until they accomplish what they want to accomplish.
Leave a Reply