THIS WEEK: The North Dakota State wrestling team will be back on the road for a pair of Western Wrestling Conference duals. The Bison (4-2, 1-0 WWC) will take on Wyoming (1-8, 0-1 WWC) on Friday, January 26, at the UniWyo Complex in Laramie and then will wrestle Air Force (2-8, 0-0 WWC) the following evening at the USAFA Cadet Gymnasium in Colorado Springs, Colo.
The match against Wyoming is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. MT and the duel against Air Force has a 2 p.m. MT start.
THE SERIES: The Bison lead the series with Air Force 4-1 and have split six matches with Wyoming. North Dakota State defeated both teams on back-to-back days last season in Fargo. NDSU beat Air Force 27-9 on January 27, 2006, and then defeated Wyoming 18-15 the following afternoon. NDSU's Eric Sanders, Matt Hermann and Matt Wetterling each went 2-0 on the weekend against these two schools.
ABOUT THE OPPONENTS: Wyoming enters the match against NDSU with a 1-8 record overall after dropping their inaugural WWC dual to Northern Iowa 24-16 last Saturday.
Like the Bison, the Cowboys competed at the Virginia Duals on January 12-13. Wyoming went 1-2 in Virginia, defeating the Citadel. Carter Downing leads the Pokes with 26 wins and was named WWC Wrestler of the Week on December 19.
Wyoming is coached by Steve Suder. Suder is in his 18th year at Wyoming and has coached six All-Americans in his tenure.
Air Force has a record of 2-8 on the season with wins coming against the Colorado School of Mines and Brown University. The Falcons have wrestled three nationally ranked opponents, including defending national champion Oklahoma State. The match against NDSU will be their first WWC dual.
Air Force is led by junior Jake Kriegbaum. Kriegbaum leads the team with 10 wins and was a national qualifier last year at 141 pounds. The Falcons are coached by Joel Sharratt. Sharratt was the head assistant wrestling coach at the Naval Academy before taking over this season. During his amateur career, he was a three-time All-American at the University of Iowa.
BISON BLANK UTAH VALLEY STATE IN WWC OPENER: North Dakota State won its first Western Wrestling Conference match defeating Utah Valley State 46-0 in front of a crowd of 604 at the Bison Sports Arena on Friday, January 19. The last time the Bison shutout an opponent was on February 14, 2004, when NDSU upended Air Force 42-0.
After forfeits at 125 and 133 pounds, Gabe Mooney got the duel rolling by defeating Justin Morrill 8-4 at 141 pounds. Ryan Adams, wrestling in his first home dual for the Bison, followed that effort up, winning 11-6 over Justin Rawle at 149 pounds.
Adam Aho and Mike Quamme each earned four points for NDSU after major decisions at 157 and 165 pounds, respectively. Aho defeated Clayton Wolf 13-4 and Quamme took care of Dustin Olsen 12-3. The 12-3 decision for Quamme was his first career dual win.
The most exciting match of the night came at 174 pounds between NDSU's Matt Hermann and UVSC's Marc Fenwick. Fenwick had a 10-8 advantage with less than a minute remaining in the final period. But with 34 seconds remaining, Hermann scored a takedown to tie the match at 10, which sent it into overtime. The extra session would be a short one though as Hermann notched a takedown 23 seconds into sudden victory to earn a 12-10 decison.
Matt Wetterling increased his winning streak to five and his pinning streak to four at 184 pounds after sticking Brock Jardine's shoulders to the mat in 1:57. At 197 pounds, Jacob Bryce recorded his first technical fall of the season, defeating Eric McCalister 23-8 with 35 seconds remaining in the final period.
Heavyweight Justin LaGosh secured the shutout for North Dakota State with a first period pin of Mike Smith. The pin was LaGosh's fourth of the season.
BONUS POINTS: North Dakota State scored 46 points in their dual against Utah Valley State on January 19, their highest total in almost seven seasons. The 46 points are the most scored in a dual for NDSU since February 16, 2000, when the Bison beat MSU-Moorhead 48-6 at the Bison Sports Arena.
NOW INTRODUCING: Ryan Adams and Mike Quamme both made their first appearances in dual matches for North Dakota State at the Virginia Duals on January 12-13.
Adams, a 149-pound redshirt freshman from Coon Rapids, Minn., is 4-1 in duals this season. Quamme, a sophomore from Dundas, Minn., picked up his first career dual win with a 12-3 major decision over Justin Olsen of Utah Valley State on January 19.
DOUBLE DIGITS: Four Bison have eclipsed the double-digit win mark this season. Eric Hoffman, Eric Sanders, Gabe Mooney and Adam Aho now each own at least 10 victories in the 2006-07 season. Hoffman and Mooney lead the team with 12 wins apiece and Sanders and Aho have recorded 11.
PIN TO WIN: Matt Wetterling has pinned his last four opponents, three of those coming in the first period. The junior leads the squad in falls with six and has the fastest pin recorded this season for the Bison when he pinned Justin Terhune of Drexel in 33 seconds at the Virginia Duals.
Last season Wetterling recorded 18 pins, which was tied for ninth overall and third in Division I according to InterMatWrestle.com, a Web site ran by the National Wrestling Coaches' Association.
NON-CONFERENCE MATCH: Although NDSU and SDSU are both in the Western Wrestling Conference, the match on December 15 was a non-conference dual. The two teams will wrestle again with the dual in Brookings on February 18 counting toward the WWC standings.
WETTERLING NAMED WWC WRESTLER OF THE WEEK: Matt Wetterling (Willmar, Minn./Willmar HS) went 4-0 with three pins at the Virginia Duals on January 12-13. In the opening match against No. 10 Penn State, Wetterling scored the lone win for the Bison with a 6-3 decision over Mike Ward. In NDSU's final three matches of the tournament, Wetterling pinned Jared Ricotta of Duquesne in 6:53, Justin Terhune of Drexel in 0:33 and No. 19 Jesse Strawn of Old Dominion in 2:20. Wetterling's pin over Terhune clinched the match against Drexel and a top-eight finish for North Dakota State, their highest finish in three years of competing at the tournament. Wetterling is now 8-4 on the season with five pins and has a 4-1 dual record.
WESTERN WRESTLING CONFERENCE: North Dakota State and six other schools officially formed the Western Wrestling Conference (WWC) on April 27, 2006.
Along with the Bison, charter members of the Western Wrestling Conference will include: the United States Air Force Academy, the University of Northern Colorado, the University of Northern Iowa, South Dakota State University, Utah Valley State College and the University of Wyoming.
Last season the Bison went 4-1 against these schools. Their only loss came to Northern Iowa and their dual with SDSU last year was cancelled due to bad weather. To make up for it, the Bison will face the Jackrabbits twice this year.
NEWCOMERS: North Dakota State welcomes 13 new student-athletes to their roster including a couple of decorated transfers.
Eric Hoffman comes to NDSU via Iowa Central Community College where he was the NJCAA national champion at 125 pounds in 2005. In two years at ICCC, Hoffman compiled a record of 58-12.
Ryan Klinger is a transfer from the University of Illinois where he backed up 133-pound All-American Kyle Ott for two years. In high school, Klinger was an Illinois state champion and helped lead his high school team to its first ever state team title in 2003.
The 11 high school wrestlers that joined the Bison this year have combined for eight state championships, led by Casey Buchholz (North Dakota) and Vince Salminen (Montana), who each won two.
POSTSEASON ELIGIBLE: Thanks to an NCAA ruling in September 2004, North Dakota State could reclassify its wrestling team to Division I in three years instead of five, making them eligible for the NCAA West Regional and the Division I Championships this year. NDSU is on track to reclassify in all sports by 2008-09.
