Three Jacks finish second overall
at NCAA West Region
March 3, 2007
CEDAR FALLS, Iowa — Ryan Meyer became the first South Dakota State
student athlete to qualify for the Division I Championships as he
placed second overall at 165 pounds Saturday to lead SDSU at the NCAA
West Regional.
Overall, South Dakota State had three wrestlers post runner-up
performances at the NCAA West Regional to place fifth overall in the
team standings at the McLeod Center.
Leading the way for the Jacks was Meyer, a redshirt freshman from
Garretson, who brought home second-place honors after falling to
nationally ranked Nick Baima of Northern Iowa, 12-3, in the
championship match of 165. Baima is currently ranked No. 5 in the
InterMat/NWCA/NWMA Individual Rankings. In his semifinal contest,
Meyer, who qualified on a wild card, downed Devan Lewis of Northern
Colorado, 5-0. For the match, Meyer scored two takedown's and an escape
point with 28 seconds remaining in the contest to secure the victory.
At heavyweight, Jason Stripling finished second overall after dropping
a 9-6 match to Reece Hopkin in championship round action. In the
semifinals, Stripling, a Minneota, Minn., resident, used a three-point
near fall in the third and riding time to upend Anthony Stegeman of Air
Force, 8-0. In his true second match, Stripling was upended by
Northern Iowa's Tyler Rhodes, 3-1.
Senior Andy Everson moved into the championship match at 157 after
dropping North Dakota State's Adam Aho by fall in 4 minutes, 31
seconds, in semifinal action. Everson, a senior from Mitchell who
finished second overall, closed out the regional falling to nationally
ranked Moza Fay of UNI, 14-6 and Luke Salazar of Northern Colorado, 9-4.
After dropping his second-round match to No. 1 seeded Kenny Robertson
by fall, senior Nate Althoff, who was named a second alternate for the
NCAA tournament, rallied off two-straight victories to move into a true
second-place match against Northern Iowa's Alex Dolly. Althoff, a
Watertown resident, was upended by Dolly, 1-0, to finish third overall
at 174 pounds. Against Wyoming's Byran Bernal, Althoff recorded a
takedown with 48 seconds remaining in the match to secure a 4-2
decision. He followed by posting a 9-3 decision over Stephen Crozier of
Air Force in the third-place match.
As a team, South Dakota State, who finished fifth overall in the team
standings with 37 points, placed three wrestlers in the finals.
Individually, Meyer moved to 23-9 overall, while Stripling finished the
year with a 22-7 record.
Northern Iowa finished first overall in the team standings with 96
points, while Northern Colorado posted a second place finish with 73.5
points.
Meyer will compete at the NCAA Division I National Championships in
Auburn Hills, Mich., on March 15-17.