The South Dakota State University wrestling
team will be in search of its first dual victory of the season Friday
night, when it hosts Northern State. Action is set for 7 p.m. at Frost
Arena.
The Jackrabbits enter the matchup with an 0-3 mark following losses to
Nebraska, Utah Valley State and Northern Colorado to open the dual
season. The losses at Utah Valley and Northern Colorado were Western
Wrestling Conference duals.
Northern State enters the dual with a 3-3 overall record. All three of
the Wolves’ victories have come against NAIA opposition. Each of NSU’s
three losses have been to ranked Division II opponents, including a
33-6 setback to 18th-ranked St. Cloud State (Minn.) on Jan. 10 in
Aberdeen.
From there, SDSU will travel to the University of Minnesota for a
Sunday afternoon dual against the fifth-ranked Golden Gophers.
Minnesota, which features a lineup that includes eight wrestlers ranked
in the top 20 of their respective weight classes at the Division I
level, has posted an 8-3 record in duals so far this season. The Golden
Gophers are coming off a fourth-place finish last weekend at the
National Duals, recording victories over West Virginia and Central
Michigan before falling to Nebraska and Michigan.
Sunday’s dual is slated for a 2 p.m. start at the Sports Pavilion on
the U of M campus in Minneapolis. The dual is scheduled to be available
via video webcast through the Jackrabbit Extra subscription service at
the official website of Jackrabbit athletics, www.GoJacks.com.
The Jan. 23 dual at North Dakota State also is slated to be webcast.
Cost of the subscription service is $9.95 per month, and includes
access to coaches’ shows, student-athlete features and audio broadcasts
of select Jackrabbit athletic events.
SERIES RECORDS: South Dakota State will attempt to stay perfect
against Northern State in dual competition. Since the series began
during the 1961-62 season, the Jackrabbits have reeled off 27
consecutive victories over NSU. The last meeting in the series came
during the 2005-06 season, when SDSU recorded a 36-6 victory at Frost
Arena.
Sunday’s match will mark the first time SDSU and Minnesota have
wrestled each other in a dual since the 1978-79 season, when Minnesota
recorded a 33-13 victory. The series with Minnesota began with a 22-4
Golden Gopher victory during the Jackrabbits’ inaugural 1949-50 season.
Minnesota has since gone on to record a 20-4 series advantage. SDSU’s
last victory against Minnesota was a 23-18 triumph during the 1974-75
campaign.
TEACHER VERSUS PUPIL: Friday’s match will mark a homecoming for Northern State head coach Pat Timm.
A Huron native, Timm wrestled at SDSU under head coach Jason Liles from
1994-98, earning NCAA Division II All-America honors on two occasions:
1996 with a seventh-place finish at 167 pounds and in 1998 with a
third-place finish at 177 pounds. He still ranks 21st on the SDSU
career victories list with an 83-42-13 career record.
Timm later served as a graduate assistant at SDSU for two seasons
before being hired as head coach at Northern State prior to the 2000-01
season.
ROSTER CHANGES: The Jackrabbits have had a couple roster changes since the beginning of the new calendar year.
Joining the team recently was Jeremy Swier, who is expected to fill the
197-pound weight class for this week’s duals. He is a sophomore from
Colton, S.D., and a graduate of Tri-Valley High School.
Also beginning workouts with the team is former Jackrabbit football
player Mitch Pontrelli. A native of St. Paul, Minn., Pontrelli was a
two-time state placewinner in wrestling for Johnson High School.
Pontrelli closed out his football career this fall by earning
second-team all-Great West Football Conference honors after tallying 56
tackles, including eight sacks, from his interior defensive line
position for the conference championship squad. Pontrelli, who never
redshirted for football, is a junior eligibility-wise for wrestling. He
would wrestle in the heavyweight division.
Coach Jason Liles also announced that 141-pounder D.W. Bradshaw and 149-pounder Nick Herrboldt have left the team.
SORENSON RETURNS: The Jackrabbits regained the services of
sophomore 184-pounder Tyler Sorenson, who wrestled for the first time
in nearly a year when he made his season debut during SDSU’s duals at
Utah Valley State and Northern Colorado two weeks ago.
Sorenson split his first two matches, losing by fall to Casen Eldridge
of Utah Valley State, before returning to form with a 13-5 major
decision of Vincente Mendez against Northern Colorado.
A Garretson native, Sorenson ranked among the team leaders in victories
with an 18-6 record during the 2006-07 campaign before suffering a
season-ending injury in February 2007. Despite missing the final month
of the season, Sorenson led the team with 247 match points and eight
victories by technical fall.