Friday and Sunday, the Jacks saw two home matchups at Frost Arena where they took down Big 12 conference opponents Northern Colorado and California Baptist.
“Anytime we can wrestle in front of our home crowd, it’s important,” said head coach Damion Hahn. “This is our home base and putting on a show for our fans and people is always important.”
South Dakota State sits at the 10th spot in the nation in wrestling and moved to 8-2 due to the weekend wins.
Northern Colorado
Northern Colorado started hot with two wins out of the gate in the 125-pound and the 133-pound weight classes. Tanner Jordan fell to UNC’s Stevo Poulin 7-2 while Derrick Cardinal lost to Dominick Serrano 6-2
“I thought we came out a little flat,” said Hahn. “I still feel that way but I thought our middles kind of picked it up and we ended up getting five tech falls.”
SDSU’s first win of the night came by major decision as Clay Carlson, a senior in the 141-pound weight class against Armando Garcia. Carlson’s 9 points scored in the first period proved lethal as Garcia couldn’t catch the Minnesota native, the match ended with an 11-point differential (14-3).
Tanner Cook had the sole pin of the night against UNC’s Derek Mathews. Tanner Cook was bested early on by Mathews from an unsuccessful takedown but quickly put the Bear on his back and earned a pin, inching the Jackrabbits back on the board.
Cade DeVos and Tanner Sloan, who are both ranked nationally in the top-5 finished their matches with tech falls. Joining Tanner Sloan and DeVos were Alek Martin, Cael Swenson and Bennett Berge all earning tech falls of their own.
Tanner Sloan, DeVos and Martin refused to allow their opponents to a single point while Swenson and Berge both finished with 18 points, the duel highs for the night.
South Dakota State now moves to 27 wins over the Bears’ 12 while winning their last eight meetings.
Carlson’s match marks 107th wins and puts him in 11th place in career wins at South Dakota State.
California Baptist
The Jacks nearly pulled off a sweep against the Lancers and pushed Tanner Cook to the third period before Drayden Morton pulled in California Baptist’s only win of the night, finishing the duel at 39-3 in favor of SDSU.
Flipping finishes from Friday’s meet was Tanner Jordan who beat 28th-ranked Elijah Griffin in a 7-3 decision.
DeVos scored the match point high for the Jacks as he dropped 23 points to California Baptist’s Justin Phillips’ four to win by technical fall. 5th ranked Tanner Sloan also ended his match with a tech fall over Eli Sheeren 17-1.
Chaz Hallmark was no match for Swenson as he finished 15-2 over his opponent. Also securing a major decision finish was Logan Graf who beat Mitchell Neiner 10-1.
Carlson won 8-2, Martin finished with a score of 5-1, Luke Rasmussen won by fall and Bennett Berge pinned Nathan Hass in 46 seconds.
Up Next
The 10th-ranked Jackrabbits have one more home meet against Air Force before hitting the road for four meets with two of them against ranked opponents ( 5th Oklahoma State and 18th-ranked Oklahoma).
Their matchup against Air Force is set for 7 p.m. at Frost Arena on Friday.