Nine Jackrabbits qualified for the NCAA Division 1 Championships which begin today in Philadelphia and go through Saturday after finishing third in the Big 12.
“It’s the Big 12 Championships, you have more than a handful of teams that bring their absolute best to the tournament,” said Damion Hahn. “I thought there were some rounds that were up and there were some rounds that were, you know, where we took some losses. That’s just how it goes.”
The brackets will feature an SDSU wrestler in every weight class except at 149 pounds.
Similar to the Big 12 wrestling Championships, SDSU’s Bennett Berge is the highest-ranked Jackrabbit heading into completion and is ranked fifth in the 184-pound weight class. This season, Berge has tallied a 26-5 record and finished third in the conference. The sophomore will wrestle No. 28 Dennis Robin of West Virginia.
Cobe Siebrecht, Drake Rhodes and Zach Glazier joined the South Dakota State wrestling team this season through the transfer portal and all qualified for the championships.
For Siebrecht, he finished second in the conference after losing to Vinny Zerban 7-4 and boasts the No. 19 spot heading into the weekend. Siebrecht did however gather two upset wins in the tournament over Jared Hill and No. 1 Cody Chittum, who he lost to earlier this season. The Iowa transfer will take on No. 14 Jude Swisher of Penn in the 157 pound class.
Though having to default due to an injury in his first match of the Big 12 Championships, Rhodes earned the No. 14 spot heading into this weekend at 165 pounds. Rhodes holds a 21-5 record this season and will compete against No. 19 Jack Thomsen who spent three seasons at South Dakota State before transferring to Northern Iowa.
Similar to Berge, Glazier took third in the conference and will head into the national championships with the No. 14 spot in the 197-pound weight class. Glazier notched two wins in the consolation bracket to take third over Brian Burburija and 4-3 victory by decision in the match for third. The sixth year will take on No. 19 Andy Smith of Virginia Tech in his first match.
Julian Tagg went into the Big 12 Championships with as the eighth ranked 141-pounder and ended with a fifth place finish with notable wins over Eli Griffin and Mosha Schwartz. Tagg faced former champion Andrew Alirez in the second round and narrowly lost 4-3. The Ohio native is ranked No. 18 in his weight class and will take on Rutgers wrestler Joseph Olivieri who is ranked 15th.
Cade DeVos also finished fifth in the Big 12 and will take the mat against No. 20 Dani Braunagel of Illinois. DeVos tallied 19 wins and seven losses this season and took down Jared Simma in the conference championships.
285-pound Luke Rasmussen won his final match of the conference tournament to take third and earned a qualifying spot for the national championships after he took down Sam Mitchell. This will be Rasmussen’s first appearance in the national tournament and will face off with No. 8 Like Luffman of Illinois.
“At heavyweight in the Big 12, we had a lot of bubble guys that could have allocated spots but they did not and our guy was one of them and you had to finish in the top four to go to the national tournament and Ras [Rasmussen], you know wrestled out of his mind.”
Tanner Jordan finished in eighth place in the Big 12 at 125 pounds after a loss to Northern Iowa’s Trevor Anderson and will take on No. 10 Stevo Poulin. Jordan goes into the tournament with a 23-8 record and holds the No. 23 spot in the weight class.
In the 133 pound class is Derrick Cardinal who qualified for his second national tournament. Cardinal is 18-14 on the year and will take on No. 3 Nasir Bailey of Little Rock.
The tournament can be streamed on ESPN with sessions beginning today at 11 a.m. at the Wells Fargo Center.
