Wolves slip past Jacks

Friday, January 18

Frost Arena

7 p.m.

South Dakota State University

Northern State

1/18/2008 1:00:00 AM | Wrestling

By: SDSU Sports Info

Northern State earned an 18-16 victory over the Jackrabbits during a wrestling dual at Frost Arena on Friday night.

The visiting Wolves took control early, winning four of the first five matches, and held off a late SDSU rally.

Trailing 18-6, the Jacks won the final three matches of the night to provide for the final margin.

Former football standout Mitch Pontrelli, who just joined the team this week, got the streak going with a decisive 7-2 win over Northern's Jared Little. Jackrabbit junior Alan Marvin then won a tight match, 6-4, over NSU's Corbin Surat to bring SDSU within 18-12.

The Jacks needed a pin in the final match of the night to earn a tie, however, senior Derek Pirner came up short and settled for an 8-0 major decision in a stall-filled battle against Rick Schiley.

Northern's Dave Schiley beat Jackrabbit Adam Everson 9-5 at 141 pounds to get the dual going. Ryan Larsen then made it 7-0 with a 16-3 major decision over SDSU's Mark Wermersen at 149 pounds.

At 157 pounds, the Wolves' Dustin Bonn posted a 14-4 major decision over Nick Genereux to make it 11-0.

State got on the scoreboard at 165 pounds when Ryan Meyer defeated Donnie Bowden 4-3.

Phillip Downs of Northern beat Justin Retallic 7-3 in the 174-pound bout.

The Jacks took advantage of a healthy Tyler Sorenson, as the 184-pound sophomore won his match 9-3 over Cale Cornemann.

Northern took an 18-6 lead after Todd Naasz's 15-1 major decision over Jeremy Swier.

Friday marked Northern State's first win over South Dakota State in school history. The Wolves are 4-3 on the season.

SDSU (0-4) heads to the University of Minnesota for a dual on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Sports Pavilion on the U of M campus in Minneapolis.