Sarah Passick

South Dakota State’s wrestling team swept its competitors off the mats Friday, Dec. 7, during the Concordia-Moorhead and Carleton triangular.

The Jacks won by a 37-12 count over Concordia and then defeated Carleton 47-9.

“We has seven who won their first collegiate dual match,” Jason Liles, wrestling head coach, said. “We did pretty good. We tried not to wrestle down to them, we tried to wrestle at a higher level.”

The second-ranked Jackrabbits had seven wrestlers who won their first collegiate dual match. Those wrestlers are Jordan Zens, 125 pounds, Nathan Wallman, 133 pounds, Jeremy Roe, 141 pounds, Marcus Hellwege, 149 pounds, Scott King, 174 pounds, Cole Strandemo, 184 pounds and Todd Paszek, 197 pounds.

SDSU also had seven wrestlers who won both their dual matches. Those wrestlers are Jeremy Roe (141), Tyler Bryant (165), Cole Strandemo (184), Todd Paszek (197) and Jon Madsen (heavyweight).

For junior Scott King, this was his first wrestling match in three years. This is the first time that he has wrestled since high school.

“I was a little nervous,” the Faulkton native said. “It was more ruffling than anything.”

Freshman Cole Strandemo was happy with his performance on the mats Friday. Strandemo defeated Concordia’s Ed Oehlers by a 6-0 decision for his first dual win. He also defeated Carleton’s Jonathan Davey by a fall to claim another victory.

“”I was happy with the way I wrestled,” he said. “It was nice to get that first win under my belt.”

The Jacks return to Frost Arena to close out competition for the semester on Thursday, Dec. 13, taking on Minnesota State-Moorhead.

Minnesota State-Moorhead has a strong team, Liles said.

“They have a real good team,” Liles said. “They are going to be really strong and it will be a close dual.”

Minnesota State-Moorhead is 3-2-0 overall and have not yet competed against other Northern Sun Conference schools.

Strandemo and King are optimistic about this Thursday’s dual.

“We are going to wrestle tough,” Strandemo said. “If we wrestle hard we should beat them.”

King said he hopes he wrestles better Thursday.

“We are going to win,” he said enthusiastically. “And I hope I will wrestle better because hopefully I will be in better shape.”

Next semester, the Jacks enter the North Central Conference competition beginning with 15-ranked Southwest State on Jan. 5.

Over semester break many wrestlers plan to practice with their high school wrestling team.

Strandemo plans on practicing with high school wrestlers in Mandan, N. D. He said in his spare time he will be running and weightlifting to keep himself in the wrestling mood.

King also plans on practicing with Faulkton High School wrestling team over the break to keep in shape.

Many high schools like Salem host alumni matches for fathers and sons. This is another way to keep the wrestlers active over the semester break.

The wrestlers will have one week off. They will return Dec. 28 and have two practices a day in conditioning and weigh training to prepare for the second half of the season.