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South Dakota State University Athletics
Thursday, March 18
St. Louis, Mo.
10 a.m. each day
South Dakota State University
at
NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia
FIVE JACKS TO WRESTLE AT NCAA MEET
3/16/2021 8:45:00 AM | Wrestling
South Dakota State at NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
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Five South Dakota State University wrestlers will compete for the titles of All-American and national champion this week at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, Missouri.
Competition begins Thursday and runs through Saturday at Enterprise Center in downtown St. Louis. Television coverage of the three-day event will be available live through the ESPN family of networks, including the ESPN3/WatchESPN streaming platform.
This year's tournament will run with extra sessions as the first two days of competition will feature wrestlers in the lower weights (125-157) and upper weights (165-285) competing in their own sessions.
Representing the Jackrabbits are automatic qualifiers Danny Vega (125 pounds), Zach Price (133 pounds) and Clay Carlson (141 pounds). Earning at-large selections to the 330-wrestler field were Cade DeVos (157 pounds) and Tanner Sloan (197 pounds). Sloan is the Jackrabbits' lone repeat qualifier, but has not wrestled a match in the NCAA Championships due to the 2020 event scheduled for Minneapolis was canceled at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
This marks the ninth consecutive year SDSU has had at least one national qualifier.
PRE-SEEDS AND PAIRINGS: Tanner Sloan is the highest-seeded South Dakota State wrestler heading into the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, holding the 13th spot in the 197-pound weight class as seedings and pairings for the three-day tournament were announced March 10.
A sophomore from Alburnett, Iowa, Sloan enters the NCAA Championships as an at-large selection with a 14-2 record. He will face 20th-seeded Max Shaw of North Carolina, who has posted an 8-4 record so far this season.
Seeded 14th at 133 pounds is the Jackrabbits' Zach Price. The Johnston, Iowa, native has a 14-4 record this season and is slated to face No. 19 Chance Rich of CSU Bakersfield, 5-2 overall, in the opening round.
At 141 pounds, Clay Carlson is seeded 15th and completes the Jackrabbit sophomore trio of national qualifiers. A native of Willmar, Minnesota, Carlson holds a 16-6 record this season and will meet 18th-seeded Parker Filius of Purdue, 7-7 overall.
Another at-large qualifier, redshirt freshman Cade DeVos is seeded 18th in the 157-pound weight class. The Altoona, Iowa, product holds a 13-9 overall record and is scheduled to square off against Michigan State's Chris Saldate, 8-5 overall, in first-round action.
Rounding out the tournament field for the Jackrabbits is senior Danny Vega, seeded 22nd at 125 pounds. An alternate last year, Vega has compiled a 14-6 record during the 2020-21 season. He is scheduled to meet No. 11 Dylan Ragusin of Michigan in opening-round competition.
BIG 12 RECAP: Three South Dakota State wrestlers earned automatic berths to nationals during competition March 6-7 at the Big 12 Conference Wrestling Championship held at BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The first Jackrabbit to punch his ticket to St. Louis was senior 125-pounder Danny Vega, who placed fourth. An NCAA alternate a year ago, Vega recorded a 12-3 major decision over Iowa State's Kysen Terukina to open the final day of competition. In the third-place match, Vega dropped a 9-6 decision to West Virginia's Killian Cardinale in a rematch from their quarterfinal matchup on Saturday in which Vega came away with a pin.
Earning his first trip to nationals out of the 133-pound weight class was Jackrabbit sophomore Zach Price with a fifth-place finish. The Johnston, Iowa, native lost an 8-4 decision to Zach Redding of Iowa State in his first match on Sunday, but came back to clinch his NCAA berth with an 8-1 decision over Fresno State's Haiden Drury.
Making it 3-for-3 in the lower weights for the Jackrabbits was 141-pounder Clay Carlson, who added a fourth-place finish to also earn his first nationals berth. A sophomore from Willmar, Minnesota, Carlson edged Chase Zollman, 2-1, in his first match Sunday, but dropped a 6-4 decision to D.J. Lloren of Fresno State in the third-place match.
Also placing fourth was 157-pounder Cade DeVos, who awaited word on his at-large selection to nationals as only the top three spots were allocated automatic bids in his weight class. A redshirt freshman from Altoona, Iowa, DeVos turned in an 11-5 decision over Alex Hornfeck of West Virginia to begin the day, then dropped a hard-fought, 3-1 overtime decision to second-seeded Justin Thomas of Oklahoma.
Top-seeded Tanner Sloan also had his nationals fate left in the hands of the NCAA Committee after he was pinned by Marcus Coleman of Iowa State to open Sunday. Sloan later withdrew from the tournament due to injury, finishing sixth.
Also wrestling in placing matches on Sunday were sophomore 174-pounder Cade King and redshirt freshman 184-pounder Jacob Schoon. A Brookings native, Schoon came away with seventh place after pinning West Virginia's Anthony Carman.
King dropped a 6-4 overtime decision to Austin Brenner of North Dakota State to place eighth.
SDSU finished eighth in the team standings.
BIG 12 SUCCESS: Now in its sixth season as an affiliate member of the Big 12 Conference for wrestling, South Dakota State has proven it can contend in one of the top wrestling leagues in the country.
Since joining the league at the start of the 2015-16 season, the Jackrabbits have combined to post a 32-18 record (.640 winning percentage) in duals against Big 12 opponents, with seven of those losses coming during the 2018-19 campaign. SDSU posted an 8-0 mark in Big 12 duals during the 2017-18 season.
The Jackrabbits also turned in back-to-back third-place efforts at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship in both 2017 and 2018, after a fourth-place finish at their inaugural league meet in 2016. SDSU posted another fourth-place finish in 2020, improving six spots in the team standings from the previous season.
NEW FACILITY ON THE HORIZON: The South Dakota Board of Regents approved plans in December for South Dakota State University to move forward with a $4 million on-campus wrestling training facility.
The nearly 16,000-square-foot Kurtenbach Family Wrestling Center would be constructed on the southwest corner of the Sanford-Jackrabbit Athletic Complex. Former SDSU wrestler and coach Frank Kurtenbach provided the lead gift for the facility, which will feature four competition mats, plus a strength and conditioning area, locker rooms, team room, coaches' offices and spaces for academics and nutrition.
"The approval from the Board of Regents to break ground on a state-of-the-art wrestling facility will forever change the landscape of SDSU Wrestling," SDSU head coach Damion Hahn said.
"I can't thank our Jackrabbit family enough for the contributions that have been made toward this endeavor. I would like to make a special thank you to the Kurtenbach family for their vision and support of the project."
Pending final approval by the South Dakota Legislature, construction of the two-story structure is tentatively scheduled to begin in spring 2021.
COACH HAHN: Damion Hahn is overseeing a successful rebuilding of South Dakota State University wrestling as he is in his third season at the helm of the Jackrabbits' program. Hahn holds a 20-22 career dual record through the end of the 2020-21 dual season.
During the 2019-20 season, the Jackrabbits returned to the winning side of the ledger in dual competition by posting a 12-6 overall record, including a 6-3 mark in the Big 12. Included in the dual victories were wins over nationally ranked Northern Iowa and Stanford.
SDSU also improved by six spots in the Big 12 Conference Wrestling Championship, finishing fourth in the team standings at the 2020 competition. Four Jackrabbit wrestlers earned automatic qualifying berths in the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships, with another receiving a bid as an alternate. The NCAA Championships were later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the National Wrestling Coaches Association selected 149-pounder Henry Pohlmeyer, 184-pounder Zach Carlson and 197-pounder Tanner Sloan as second-team All-Americans.
In his first season at SDSU, Hahn faced a rebuilding task as the Jackrabbits featured new starters in six spots in the lineup. SDSU finished with a 3-10 dual mark, including a 2-7 record against Big 12 foes. Pohlmeyer was the lone NCAA qualifier.
Hahn was hired at SDSU on April 9, 2018, following more than a decade of success as a member of the coaching staff at Cornell (N.Y.).
"Damion represents everything we are looking for in being able to take our wrestling program to the next level," said SDSU Director of Athletics Justin Sell in announcing the hire. "His success both as a collegiate wrestler and coach, along with his ability to recruit high-achieving student-athletes on and off the mat, made him the ideal candidate. He is a tremendous ambassador for the sport who will work tirelessly to ensure wrestling thrives both on our campus and across the country."
Hahn spent 12 years as an assistant coach and later the associate head coach at Cornell in Ithaca, New York. During his tenure, the Big Red recorded 11 top-10 team finishes at the NCAA Championships, including consecutive runner-up finishes in 2010 and 2011. He mentored 50 All-Americans, 12 of whom were individual NCAA champions. Cornell also won 12 straight Ivy League dual championships and 11 consecutive Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association team titles.
In accepting his first head coaching position, Hahn made a return to the Midwest. As a collegiate wrestler at Minnesota, Hahn won NCAA individual national titles as a junior and senior. A four-time All-American, he also was a three-time Big 10 individual champion and was named the Jesse Owens Big 10 Male Athlete of the Year in 2004. The Golden Gophers won team NCAA championships during both his freshman and sophomore seasons. He finished his collegiate career with a 118-21 record.
Hahn was inducted into the University of Minnesota's M Club Hall of Fame in 2018.
THE ROSTER: The 2020-21 SDSU wrestling roster features 30 student-athletes from 12 different states. Of the 30 wrestlers, eight are from Iowa, followed by seven from Minnesota and five native South Dakotans. Two Jackrabbit wrestlers hail from Wisconsin, while eight states — Arizona, California, Missouri, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Texas and Washington — each are represented by one wrestler.
By class, four are seniors, three are juniors, 10 are sophomores, eight are redshirt freshmen and five are incoming freshmen.
A LOOK AHEAD: The NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships mark the conclusion of the 2020-21 season.
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