The SDSU wrestling team added two more wins to its dual record after beating Kent State and the No. 16 ranked Navy at the Virginia Duals.
The Jacks traveled to Hampton, Virginia after upsetting Michigan to compete in the Virginia Duals at the Hampton Coliseum.
SDSU started their trip to Virginia facing off against the Golden Eagles of Kent State on Friday, Jan. 12. The Jacks controlled the dual, not allowing the Golden Eagles to score any team points, winning 50-0.
The win against Kent State earned head coach Damion Hahn his 50 dual win over six seasons.
Starting at 125 pounds, No. 17 ranked Tanner Jordan earned a technical for the Jacks beating Adan Benavidez 17-0. Following Jordan, No. 15 ranked Derrick Cardinal earned another technical fall for the team, outscoring Pablo Castro 24-8 at 133 pounds.
At 141 pounds for the Jacks, No. 22 ranked Clay Carlson won by decision 5-2 over Billy Meiszner, the only win by decision for the Jacks in the dual. No. 22 ranked Alek Martin won by major decision over Matt Ryan at 149 pounds.
Before the halfway mark of the dual, SDSU’s No. 17 ranked Cael Swenson picked up a tech fall at 157 pounds over the Golden Eagles, Keegan Knapp. This would round out the first five of the ten matches of the dual, the Jackrabbits started strong but did not stop there.
No. 26 ranked Tanner Cook at 165 pounds earned a fall for the Jacks in 44 seconds over Aaron Ferguson. Following a tech fall at 174 pounds, No. 4 ranked Cade DeVos handled A.J. Burkhart 19-4.
At 184 pounds No. 13 ranked Bennett Berge earned the final tech fall for the Rabbits over Kyle Snider 17-2.
The Jackrabbits’ 197-pounder Thomas Dineen won by fall over Blake Schaffer in six minutes and 12 seconds. No. 32 ranked Luke Rasmussen ended the dual with a fall for SDSU in two minutes and 27 seconds over Josh Boggan.
This was the first of two victories over the weekend for the Jackrabbits as they took the mat against Navy in the second dual.
Once again starting out the dual strong, the Jacks handily won the first two matches.
Jordan started the Jacks out with a fall over Navy’s Hayden Benter in four minutes and six seconds. Cardinal followed the fall with a major decision for the Rabbits, 14-1 over Garrett Totten at 133 pounds.
In the following match, the Jacks suffered their first of three losses on the weekend. Josh Koderhandt of Navy won by decision over SDSU’s Carlson 3-1 at 141 pounds.
The match at 141 pounds was a close match throughout the whole match, but Carlson had two stalling calls given to him and coach Hahn was not happy about the calls, but knows it happens.
“The officiating stay out of the match, that’s never how the match should have been decided, but it is what it is,” Hahn said.
In the next match Alek Martin picked it back up for the Jacks with a victory of his own. Martin won by major decision over Nicholas Vafiadis 8-0.
Cael Swenson won by tech fall over Navy’s Charlie Evans 20-4 at 157 pounds, picking up the Jacks’ fourth win of the dual. The next match resulted in another loss for the Rabbits as Andrew Cerniglia of Navy beat Tanner Cook for the Jacks, 10-2 winning by major decision.
SDSU then won three straight matches in the dual at 174, 184 and 197 pounds before losing again at 285.
Cade Devos won his match at 174 pounds by decision over Danny Wask 5-0. In similar fashion, Bennett Berge also won his match by decision at 184 pounds, beating David Key of Navy 9-6.
At 197 pounds No. 5 ranked Tanner Sloan won by tech fall over Cael Crebs of Navy 18-0.
In the final match of the dual and weekend trip for the Jacks, Grady Griess of Navy pinned Jacks’ wrestler, Luke Rasmussen in six minutes and eight seconds.
Even with the three losses they took in the dual, coach Hahn was pleased with how his team performed.
“We dropped a couple of matches in that dual, but I thought overall the guys were pushing the pace, we scored a lot of bonus points.”
The dual wins this weekend improved the Jacks’ all-time record over the two teams they faced. They improved to 3-1 against Kent State and 2-1 over Navy, extending their dual win streak to 11 over their past four appearances at the Virginia Duals.