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South Dakota State University Athletics
Saturday, March 6
Tulsa, Okla.
11 a.m./5 p.m.
South Dakota State University
at
Big 12 Wrestling Championship
Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia
BIG 12 TITLES AT STAKE IN TULSA
3/4/2021 12:12:00 PM | Wrestling
South Dakota State at Big 12 Wrestling Championship
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Postseason competition begins Saturday as South Dakota State University wrestlers will vie for conference titles and berths in the upcoming NCAA tournament at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The two-day tournament runs Saturday and Sunday at BOK Center. Action begins at 11 a.m. Saturday, with consolation matches and semifinals set for 5 p.m. Saturday. Competition resumes at 10 a.m. Sunday with consolation and placing matches, leading up to the championship session slated for a 5 p.m. start on Sunday.
Video coverage of the first three sessions will be available on the ESPN+ (Big 12 Now) streaming platform (subscription required). Sunday's finals will be televised live on ESPN2 and also available for viewing through WatchESPN.
The Jackrabbits have finished in the top four of the team standings in four of the five Big 12 wrestling championships in which they have competed. SDSU posted consecutive third-place efforts at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship in both 2017 and 2018, and garnered fourth-place finishes in 2016 and 2020.
PRE-SEEDS AND PAIRINGS: Pairings for the 2021 Big 12 Wrestling Championship were announced Wednesday, with six seeded Jackrabbit wrestlers receiving first-round byes.
One of the Jackrabbits receiving a bye was top-seeded and undefeated 197-pounder Tanner Sloan. He will face the winner between eighth-seeded Kayne Hutchison of Air Force and Utah Valleys Ashton Seely later in Saturday's opening session. A sophomore and returning NCAA qualifier from Alburnett, Iowa, Sloan enters the two-day tournament with a 13-0 mark, winning nine of his 13 matches by either fall (3) or technical fall (6).
Sloan finished as runner-up at 197 pounds in 2020, dropping a 5-1 decision in the championship bout to West Virginia's Noah Adams, who is seeded third. Stephen Buchanan of Wyoming is the second seed, while A.J. Ferrari of Oklahoma State rounds out the top four in a highly competitive weight class.
SDSU's pair of third-seeded wrestlers, 133-pounder Zach Price and 141-pounder Clay Carlson, are both slated to wrestle in the opening round. Price, 11-2 overall an on an eight-match winning streak, squares off against Anthony Madrigal of Oklahoma for the right to face sixth-seeded Job Greenwood of Wyoming in the second round.
Carlson, 13-4 on the season, will meet Caden Gfeller of Oklahoma State in his opening match, with a matchup against sixth-seeded Chris Sandoval of Northern Colorado at stake.
Two Jackrabbit wrestlers are unseeded in the tournament and also will wrestle in the first round. At 149 pounds, Hunter Marko is scheduled to go up against top-seeded Boo Lewallen of Oklahoma State, while 184-pounder and Brookings native Jacob Schoon drew second-seeded Tate Samuelson of Wyoming.
Also in the lower weight classes, fifth-seeded Danny Vega received a first-round bye at 125 pounds and fourth-seeded Cade DeVos has a opening-round bye in the 157-pound division. Danny Vega, who has shaken off a tough start to reel off 12 consecutive victories for a 12-4 mark, awaits the winner between North Dakota State's McGwire Midkiff and fourth-seeded Killian Cardinale of West Virginia. A senior from Tucson, Arizona, Vega was selected as an alternate to the 2020 NCAA Championships.
DeVos is slated to face the winner between No. 5 seed Jacob Wright of Wyoming and West Virginia's Alex Hornfeck. The Altoona, Iowa, product enters his first Big 12 Wrestling Championship with an 11-7 overall record.
In the upper weights, Colten Carlson (165 pounds), Cade King (174) and heavyweight Blake Wolters all received opening-round byes. Both Carlson and Wolters are seeded eighth as they prepare for their third Big 12 championships, and likely will face respective No. 1 seeds Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma State) and Gannon Gremmel (Iowa State) in the second round.
Colten Carlson is 7-6 overall, while Wolters enters with a 4-8 mark, but with four of his losses coming in overtime. Carlson will wrestle at Big 12s in his third weight class after previously competing in the 149- and 157-pound divisions.
King is the seventh seed at 174 pounds and will await the winner between No. 2 Hayden Hastings (Wyoming) and Julie Broderson (Iowa State). A native of Waseca, Minnesota, King is 9-7 so far in his sophomore season.
PANEL RANKINGS: South Dakota State wrestlers Danny Vega and Zach Price each moved up two spots in their respective weight classes as the second installment of the NCAA Coaches Panel rankings were revealed Feb. 25, prior to the start of postseason conference tournaments.
Vega, a senior from Tucson, Arizona, rose to No. 24 in the 125-pound rankings. He has won 12 matches in a row and enters the Big 12 Wrestling Championship with a 12-4 overall record.
A sophomore from Johnston, Iowa, Price upped his ranking to No. 13 at 133 pounds after a ranking of 15th two weeks ago. He has won eight consecutive matches to finish the regular season with an 11-2 overall mark.
Sophomore Tanner Sloan continued to lead the contingent of six ranked Jackrabbit wrestlers with a fifth-place showing in the 197-pound rankings. The Alburnett, Iowa, native, who is on the watch list for the 2021 Hodge Trophy, is undefeated at 13-0, racking up six wins by technical fall, three by fall and two by major decision.
Other Jackrabbits in the top 20 of their respective weight classes are sophomore 141-pounder Clay Carlson and redshirt freshman Cade DeVos in the 157-pound division. Carlson, from Willmar, Minnesota, shares the team lead in victories with a 13-4 record and is 16th in the panel rankings.
DeVos, a native of Altoona, Iowa, has posted an 11-7 record in his first season in the lineup en route to a No. 19 ranking.
Completing the Jackrabbits' list of ranked wrestlers is sophomore 174-pounder Cade King, who stands 32nd with a 9-7 overall mark.
ALLOCATIONS ANNOUNCED: NCAA officials announced Feb. 11 the pre-allocations for the 2021 NCAA?Division I Wrestling Championships set for later this month in St. Louis.
The weight class conference champion in each qualifying tournament will earn an automatic qualifier to the national championships. Each conference was awarded additional preallocations based on the five-year average (2016-20) of pre-allocations earned by the conference in each weight class, with the Big 12 Conference receiving a total of 35 additional allocations for a total of 45 automatic qualifiers. Of the 35 pre-allocations, four spots were awarded to six different weight classes (125, 133, 149, 165, 197 and 285), three spots were awarded to a trio of weight classes (141, 174, 184), with the 157-pound weight class receiving two additional allocations.
In recent years, pre-allocations have been determined by a formula measuring Division I winning percentage, ratings percentage index and coaches' ranking. A decrease in overall matches, and in particular non-conference matches, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, led the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee to transition to using the five-year historical average to determine pre-allocations for 2021.
After the conference tournaments have concluded, the Division I Wrestling Committee will meet to select the remaining 64 at-large qualifiers to fill out the 33-man bracket in each weight class, which will be announced March 9. Brackets and seeding will be revealed on NCAA.com March 10.
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 heading into the weekend.
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: Jackrabbit wrestlers who qualify for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships will compete March 18-20 in St. Louis, Missouri.
-GoJacks.com-
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