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Division I meets Divsion II in Southern Minnesota
By Jim Beshey
Two of Minnesotas State college coaches placed thenselves in the category of 'fearless' when they scheduled their teams to wrestle the University of Iowa at Blue Earth High School on November 25th. There is an old adage if you want to be the best you have to play the best. Division I Iowa has long been the best wrestling school in the nation and continues to challage for the national title. Southwest Minnesota State of Marshall and Minnesota State of Mankato took on the Hawkeyes before a sellout crowd in the southern Minnesota community just off Interstate 90. Billed as a homecoming for four of Iowa's wrestlers, local teams and fans cheered on the three teams in a rare opportunity to witness this level of competition outside the confines of the University setting. Blue Earth Area alumni Luke Eustice, Ty Eustice, Jeff Pfaffinger and Mapleton's Ned Shuck wrestle for the Hawkeyes. Both Eustice boys are starters for the Hawks. Their father is a former BEA coach and is now principal there and helped to set up the duals. Southwest State lists six Minnesota wrestlers and MSU has nine on their rooster so it was exciting for the fans.
Mankato's Jason Rhoten vs. Iowa's Cliff Moore. (Photo Jim Beshey)
The difference between Division I and II was evident as Iowa shutout SWS 54-0 and defeated MSU 37-3. The Hawkeyes were superior on their feet scoring takedowns by bunches in many of the matches. In the SWS dual the closest match was a 6-2 decision by Pfaffinger over Keefer Jensen. The Hawks pinned the Mustangs in seven of the ten matches and added two tech falls to the lone decision. SWS head coach John Sterner responded when asked about the showing of his team, "It's what I wanted for the program -- bringing us from where we are to where we need to be. It was worse than I thought it would be but, we need to bring ourselves to a higher level." Sterner had no regrets about scheduling the dual.
Iowa's Jeff Pfaffinger vs. Southwest's Keefer Jensen. (Photo Jim Beshey)
Minnesota State University at Mankato has wrestled D-I schools before but never Iowa, according to head coach Jim Makovsky. The Mavericks faired somewhat better than SWS winning the final match of the evening at the 275 pound weight class. Mike Engelmann of Spencer, Iowa, a junior won 3-2 over a redshirt freshman from Lisbon, Ryan Fuller. Fuller looks to be Iowa's heaveyweight this season to replace last years national champion Steve Mocco who is taking an Olympic redshirt year. In addition to Engelmann, Makovsky had praise for Jason Rhoten of Kasson, George Lynaugh and Matt Perrizo of Inver grove Heights and Jon Dierks of Mankato. Perrizo wrestled the closest match in a losing effort to Cole Pape 9-7. Perrizo was tied in the match with less than a minute remaining and some quick exchange of points left Pape with the victory. Rhoten, a freshman, was only down 3-2 at the beginning of the 2nd period but the experience of Iowa's Cliff Moore a senior proved to be two much as Moore won 19-9. Junior Josh Janousek of Greenbush provided some excitement with a 9-3 loss to Iowa senior Ryan Fulsaas. Fulsaas nearly was unable to finish the match after receiving a hit on his nose causing it to bleed profusly. Janousek was tied in the 2nd but gave up a stalling point, an escape and two takedowns.
Mankato's Matt Perrizo vs. Iowa's Cole Pape. (Photo Jim Beshey)
Iowa's head coach Jim Zalesky pointed out that the benefit to this evening's duals was to the wrerstlers from Iowa coming home to wrestle in front of their home town fans. "It gives us the opportunity to promote wrestling and these schools to promote their programs." The fans stayed around for some time talking with wrestlers and coaches, getting autographs and just enjoying the atmosphere of a wrestling evening at the start of another season.