David Michaud

The SDSU wrestling team tallied a 1-4 record at the Hoosier Duals on Nov. 28 at the University of Indiana.

SDSU started the day off with a dual against Liberty University, out of Virginia. The dual was SDSU’s closest of the day as Liberty would take the win 27-17. SDSU won four out of 10 matches in this dual, including the first and last, as 125-pounder Aaron Pickrel started it off with a 10-1 win and heavyweight Jeremy Swier finished the dual with a win 13-2.

Unfortunately for the Jacks, they would lose their next three matches by at least eight points each, which gave Liberty bonus team points, and never regain the lead.

Coach Jason Liles felt that if one match went differently, the dual may have had a different result.

“If we had a match here or there, like Walraven, if we won that match it changes the whole dual,” Liles said.

The next match for the Jacks was against the University of Tennessee- Chattanooga. In this dual, the Jacks would suffer their worst defeat of the day as Chattanooga won all but one match and won by a score of 40-4.

Pickrel started this dual off with a close match, but lost 8-6. From there, SDSU dropped the next seven matches until No. 8 rated 197-pounder Tyler Sorenson got SDSU an 11-0 win and all four of SDSU’s team points.

Third time proved to be a charm for SDSU as they notched their only win, a 30-12 affair over University of the Cumberlands. The Jacks won seven of the 10 matches in this dual. Not all the matches were easy though. Nick Flynn, at 157 pounds, had a close match, winning 7-5. Weston Blasius, competing at 165 pounds, had the closest match of the dual as he would win 4-3. Heavyweight Jared Aesoph competed in his first match of the season and won his opener 5-3.

The fourth dual of the day was against Northern Illinois University. SDSU would again start the day with a win as Pickrel would put up a score of 5-0. The next match, Jackrabbit newcomer Tyler Johnson, at 133 pounds, in his first day of competition, would suffer a defeat by pin.

Dustin Walraven put the Jacks back on top as he got his first pin of the day. NIU would go on to win the next five matches, until Sorenson notched a pin as well to take the lead and never look back as they ended the dual with a score of 32-15.

The final dual of the day for SDSU would be against No. 11 Indiana.

“It’s difficult to wrestle five matches in a day, especially when the fifth match of the day is with No. 11 Indiana,” said Liles, “but we wrestled hard.”

The Jacks may have wrestled hard but it wasn’t going to be enough against Indiana, as they won eight of the 10 matches and finished the dual with a score of 37-6. The Jacks dropped the first two matches until Walraven won his match 6-4. Indiana then won the next five matches until Sorenson would take a decision in his toughest match of the day 9-7.

The next match for the Jacks takes place on Dec. 12 at the Swiftel Center in Brookings. The Jacks will take on No. 11 Nebraska.