Shane KoobSportswriter

Aggression. That’s been one of the key points head wrestling coach Jason Liles has been preaching to his team all year. On Jan. 21 at Frost Arena, the Jacks came out aggressive, but fell just short of picking up a win versus Northern Colorado.

“Much better performance tonight. I think our kids got to the point where, they’re so young and so nervous that they’re going to make mistakes, and weren’t as aggressive as they need to be. Hopefully we can build on this aggressiveness,” Liles said.

The night did feature a pin by junior David Michaud in two minutes and 48 seconds. The victory gives the 174-pounder an 8-5 overall record and 1-1 record in Western Wrestling Conference action.

“I just came out, tried to wrestle smarter and not give up easy take-downs like I did last week. (I) battled everywhere, and it worked out for me” Michaud said.

The match started out at the 141-pound weight class, and after two losses, the Jacks found themselves in a familiar hole. Junior Nick Flynn would try and change that.

The 157-pounder had a nice battle with Northern Colorado’s Tanner Weiks. Flynn recorded a take-down in the first period, and Weiks notched an escape to put the score at 2-1 after the first period. In the second period, the only scoring came from a Weiks escape. The match remained tied throughout most of the third period as well, until Flynn escaped for a point with 40 seconds to go in the match. With the 3-2 victory, Flynn now stands at 8-12 on the season, and 1-1 in WWC action.

“This whole week in practice, we worked really hard on doing the little things right. Whether that be simple wrist control, working up off bottom…all those together are going to win us matches” Flynn said.

The duel ended with three straight forfeits, including victories by forfeit for sophomore Aaron Pickrel at 125 pounds and senior Kevin Kelly at 285 pounds. The forfeits actually gave the Jacks a temporary 21-20 lead, but due to Northern Colorado’s last victory by forfeit, the Jacks ended the night on the wrong end of a 26-21 final score.

With two tough home losses in back-to-back weeks, the Jacks hit the road as they take on Wyoming (Jan. 28) and Air Force (Jan. 29), both WWC members, before heading back to Frost Arena to face another conference foe and rival North Dakota State at 7 p.m. at Frost Arena.

“We have a young team this year, but we have a lot of hard workers. This freshman class keeps putting in the time, and I think you’re going to see SDSU wrestling start to turn the corner real soon” Flynn said.

#1.1918890:1028767839.png:wrest-Nething-ELAND.png:John Nething III controls UNI?s John Simon in the Jan. 21 dual. Nething dropped a 12-5 decision against UNC.:Submitted Photo by Eric Landwher