BROOKINGS No. 10 ranked South Dakota State extended its dual win streak to six on Friday night as the Jackrabbits beat Air Force 32-9.
SDSU improved to 9-2 overall and 3-0 in Big 12 play and Air Force dropped to 2-5 overall and 0-4 in conference play.
The Jacks won the first five matches of the dual. No. 18 ranked Tanner Jordan kicked things off for SDSU in the 125-pound weight class and he narrowly beat Tucker Owens in a 5-3 decision. Logan Graf then won a 4-3 decision over Brenden Barnes at 133 to put the Jacks up 6-0.
No. 25 ranked Clay Carlson took the mat next for SDSU at 141. He got off to a bit of a slow start but was able to come away with a 10-7 decision over Garrett Kuchan. No. 21 ranked Alek Martin was up next for the Jacks at 149 and he won a 9-1 major decision over Joe Fernau.
Alek is workman-like, said SDSU head coach Damion Hahn. He goes out there and does his job. He wasnt feeling great today before the dual, but he fought through it and majored the kid. So that was nice to see him go out there and take care of business, Hahn said.
No. 15 ranked Cael Swensen was the final Jackrabbit to take the mat before the intermission and he won by technical fall over Brooks Gable. It was a 17-2 victory for Swensen and the fourth time that he won by technical fall this season. He has now won six straight matches.
Swensen said theres been a lot more opportunities to get a lot of points since the Jacks entered Big 12 play.
Some of our coaches have been preaching to go out and have urgency and score points [right away]. I think at the beginning of the year we were a bit slower and a little more cautious. Now, I have more of an opportunity to score points when Im not wrestling the No. 2 guy in the country. I have an opportunity to open up and score more points and I think thats going to help me in the future when I see more ranked guys, Swensen said.
Tanner Cook suffered the first loss for Jacks as he lost a 5-0 decision to No. 14 ranked Giano Petrucelli in the 165-pound weight class. No. 4 ranked Cade DeVos extended the lead for the Jacks as he won a 14-4 major decision over Gage Musser at 174.
No. 13 ranked Bennett Berge took the mat next for SDSU at 184. He pulled an upset in dominating fashion, beating No. 7 ranked Sam Wolf 8-0 for a major decision that put SDSU up 26-3.
Hahn was excited for Berge to get the dominating win over a guy that was ranked higher than him.
That was the highlight of the night. You talk about being dominant, that was dominant for five of the seven minutes. He gets a first period take down and rides him out. We go into the second and we go down because thats where Bennett needs to work. I thought he did a great job at times of keeping his hips underneath him, Hahn said.
No. 5 ranked Tanner Sloan took care of business on Friday night as he pinned Calvin Sund in two minutes and 12 seconds at 197. Heavyweight Luke Rasmussen was the last wrestler to take the mat for SDSU and he was pinned by No. 2 ranked Wyatt Hendrickson in 2:01 to make the final 32-9.
Overall I thought [this dual] was good, Hahn said. Good for where our guys are at right now. Its January. The biggest thing is Big 12s and nationals and theres time. Were working. Were working to get better on our positions [in the rankings].
The Jacks will hit the road for four-straight duals next. Theyll wrestle at Wyoming on Thursday at 7 p.m. and then go to Utah Valley on Saturday at 7 p.m. The final two road duals of the season will be against ranked opponents as SDSU wrestles at No. 18 Oklahoma on Feb. 9 and at No. 5 Oklahoma State on Feb. 10.
During this win streak Hahn said his team has done a good job of working hard and not getting too high on themselves and they need to keep that mindset as they go on the road.It was nice to get a couple wins at home and now we hit the road. We have to keep the ball rolling and keep the momentum high heading into this road stretch. I like where were at right now. We got some bangers coming up on the road. So, we have to keep the [workman-like] mentality. These guys, I dont want to say are riding high right now, but we almost need to switch to this is what Im supposed to do. And thats what theyre doing, Hahn said.
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