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Bison travel to No. 25 Northern Iowa Saturday, return home Monday to host American University
February 14, 2006
North Dakota State (6-4) will travel to Cedar Falls to take on No. 25 Northern Iowa on Saturday, Feb. 18, and host American University on Monday, Feb. 20. Northern Iowa will be the third nationally ranked team the Bison have wrestled this season. NDSU fell to No. 23 Penn at the Virginia Duals on Friday, Jan. 13, and No. 24 Northern Illinois on Sunday, Feb. 12.
THE SERIES: Northern Iowa leads the series with North Dakota State 11-2-1. The last time these two teams met was on Feb. 10, 2005, when the Panthers defeated the Bison 31-12 at the Bison Sports Arena. The loss snapped North Dakota State's 20-match home winning streak. This will be the first meeting between NDSU and American.
SCOUTING NORTHERN IOWA: Northern Iowa is (5-8-2) heading into Friday's dual with South Dakota State and is ranked 25th in the latest USA Today/NWCA/Intermat Division I Coaches Poll.
Northern Iowa has wrestled the best teams the country has to offer. The Panthers have wrestled nine of the top-25 teams in the country, including top-ranked Minnesota and second-ranked Oklahoma State. In fact, all eight of their losses have came to nationally ranked foes, including a 26-10 defeat to No. 10 Missouri on Monday, Feb. 13.
The Panthers have three nationally ranked wrestlers. Junior Nick Baima is ranked sixth at 165 pounds, senior Chris Bitetto is 19th at 157 pounds and sophomore C.J. Ettelson is 20th at 141 pounds. Baima leads the team in wins with 27 and the three wrestlers have a combined 67 victories this season to only 21 losses.
UNI is coached by Brad Penrith. Penrith is in his fifth year at Northern Iowa and has a career record of 53-42-2. Penrith was a three-time Big 10 Champion wrestler for the University of Iowa in the mid '80s.
SCOUTING AMERICAN: American University is 10-6 on the season and will wrestle East Stroudsburg on Thursday and South Dakota State on Sunday before heading up to Fargo. Like UNI, the Eagles have also wrestled some very tough competition, losing to three of the top five teams in the country. They have been wrestling well of late, winning three of their last four matches.
American has three nationally ranked wrestlers including top-ranked Josh Glenn at 184 pounds. Glenn is 24-1 on the season and was the EIWA Freshman of the Year in 2005. Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov is ranked fourth at 165 pounds. The senior has a perfect 18-0 record heading into duals with East Stroudsburg and South Dakota State this weekend. Heavyweight Adam LoPiccolo is 10th in the country with a record of 18-8.
Mark Cody is the head coach for the Eagles. Cody has revitalized the program, which is coming off its best finishes at the EIWA and NCAA Championships in 2005.
DUAL WITH SOUTH DAKOTA STATE POSTPONED: Due to weather, North Dakota State's dual with South Dakota State on Friday, Feb. 10, was postponed. No makeup date has been scheduled at this time.
BISON FALL TO NO. 24 NORTHERN ILLINOIS 27-9: The North Dakota State wrestling team won their first two bouts before falling to No. 24 Northern Illinois 27-9 at Victor E. Court in DeKalb, Ill., on Sunday, Feb. 12. The loss snaps North Dakota State's six-match winning streak.
The match started at 184 pounds with NDSU's Matt Wetterling winning his 24th match of the year and notching his 17th fall as he pinned Derick Lalowski in 2:08. The sophomore has now won his last seven bouts and improved his dual record to 8-2.
Jacob Bryce extended the Bison lead to 9-0 after his 3-2 decision over Derek Hunsinger at 197 pounds. Bryce has been on a roll lately as well winning five of his last six matches and evened his dual record to 5-5 on the year.
Those two bouts would be the only ones North Dakota State came out victorious in as Northern Illinois would win the final eight. However, a couple of Bison gave some nationally ranked opponents all they could handle.
No. 20 Joe Sapp needed an extra session to defeat NDSU's Mike Maresh at heavyweight. Sapp took down Maresh in the overtime period to secure the Huskies' first win of the day by the score of 7-5.
In the next bout, North Dakota State's Mike Meger faced No. 12 Pat Castillo at 125 pounds. The match was close with Castillo coming out on top 6-5.
WETTERLING, BRYCE ON A ROLL: Sophomore Matt Wetterling and redshirt freshman Jacob Bryce each have impressive winning streaks as of late for North Dakota State.
Wetterling is 24-6 on the year and has won his last seven matches with five of those victories coming by fall. The 184-pounder leads the Bison in overall wins (24), dual wins (8), pins (17) and team dual points (41).
Bryce has won his last four matches to improve his record to 16-9 overall and even his dual record to 5-5. After being dropped on the back of his head, Bryce won the match-clinching bout against Wyoming when he defeated Malcom Havens. He also beat nationally ranked Reece Hopkin of Northern Colorado in the dual with the Bears on Feb. 6 by the score of 6-4.
HOMEWARD BOUND: After wrestling four straight matches on the road, NDSU will wrestle American in their home finale on Monday, Feb. 20, at the Bison Sports Arena. The Bison are 3-1 this year at the Bison Sports Arena, with victories over Portland State, Air Force and Wyoming.
STABLE LINEUP: Through 10 matches this year, NDSU has only used three different lineups. Mike Maresh took over heavyweight duties after the first dual of the season against North Carolina State. The other change came before the dual against Wyoming when Andrew Quittschreiber replaced Adam Aho at 157 pounds. The other eight wrestlers have competed in all 10 duals.
LAST YEAR OF RECLASSIFICATION: The Bison are still without a conference affiliation, but NDSU is looking ahead to 2006-07 when its NCAA tournament eligibility begins, thanks to an NCAA ruling in September 2004 that North Dakota State could reclassify its wrestling and volleyball teams to Division I in three years instead of five. NDSU is on track to reclassify in all sports by 2008-09.