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January 20, 2004
North Dakota State begins a stretch of three straight non-conference dual meets Wednesday with the University of Mary and Friday with Minnesota State-Moorhead. Both matches are scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at the Bison Sports Arena.
ABOUT MARY: The Marauders have three wrestlers ranked nationally, including defending NAIA national champion Aaron Hartnell (125) and NAIA All-American Mike Champagne (149). Hartnell placed second at this year‚s Bison Open and Champagne leads the Marauders with a 23-6 record and seven pins.
ABOUT MSU-MOORHEAD: Minnesota State-Moorhead (7-1) has won five meets in a row and climbed to No. 13 in Division II despite feasting on several Division III opponents. The Dragons won four matches last Saturday to win the championship title in the Terry Haws Duals tournament at St. John‚s University (MN).
BISON WINNING STREAKS: North Dakota State is 1-0 on its home mat this year and the Bison have won 13 straight duals at the Bison Sports Arena dating back to the 2000-01 season when Division III power Augsburg defeated NDSU 19-12 in Fargo. The Bison also have an 11-match overall winning streak intact dating back to last season.
LOCAL COACHES: U-Mary is coached by Josh Kerbaugh, a product of the NDSU wrestling program and a Fargo South High graduate. Kerbaugh wrestled from 1995 to 1999 for the Bison, compiling a 30-27 career record. He‚s in his second year as the Marauders‚ head coach.
Keenan Spiess is in his first year with MSU-Moorhead. Spiess won a Northern Sun Conference championship at 167 pounds in 1995 for the Dragons. Spiess wrestled one year for North Dakota State before transferring to MSUM. He is a graduate of Fargo North High.
BUSY MONTH: Short rest is the mode for North Dakota State in January. The Bison wrestled four times in two days during the National Duals tournament last weekend. NDSU has wrestled six matches in eight days and the Herd has matches scheduled for the 21st, 23rd, 27th and Feb. 1 before taking a five-day break.
WRESTLERS OF THE WEEK: North Dakota State has been recognized this year with two Wrestlers of the Week in the North Central Conference. Mike Fiedler was the last Bison honored after a 3-0 run through the St. Cloud State Invite on Dec. 13. Thad Pike won it the week prior to that with an impressive fourth-place finish at the Las Vegas Invite on Dec. 5-6.
AROUND THE NORTH CENTRAL CONFERENCE:
North Dakota State is alone in first place and the only team with two conference duals under its belt as dual meet action kicks into high gear. There are four NCC duals slated for this week.
*North Central Conference duals