JACKRABBITS SHIFT GEARS, HEAD TO VIRGINIA

Saturday, January 15

Hampton, Va.

2 p.m. ET/1 p.m. CT

South Dakota State University

Chattanooga

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

1/14/2022 2:11:00 PM | Wrestling

DUALS 7-8: #24 SOUTH DAKOTA STATE at VIRGINIA DUALS

When	Saturday, Jan. 15 2 p.m. Eastern/1 p.m. Central — vs. Chattanooga 4 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Central — vs. Maryland
Where	Hampton Coliseum \| Hampton, Virginia
TV	FloWrestling.org (subscription)
Live Results	Trackwrestling.com
Match Notes	South Dakota State \| Chattanooga \| Maryland
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| Instagram \| #GetJacked

After some last-minute shuffling of its schedule, the nationally ranked South Dakota State wrestling team heads to Hampton, Virginia, for the Virginia Duals.

The 24th-ranked Jackrabbits, 5-1 overall in duals, are slated to wrestle twice on Saturday, squaring off against Chattanooga (3-5 overall) at 2 p.m. Eastern (1 p.m. Central), followed by a matchup against Maryland (3-3 overall). Both duals will be contested at the Hampton Coliseum and will be available for viewing through FloWrestling.org (subscription required).

South Dakota State moved into the NWCA Division Coaches Poll for the first time since early in the 2018-19 season after recording a 27-13 home win over then-No. 22 Northern Iowa on Jan. 9.

THE SERIES: South Dakota State will be wrestling against both of its opponents at at the Virginia Duals for only the second time in program history. The Jackrabbits lost each of its previous meetings on neutral mats, dropping a 29-9 decision to Maryland during the 2008-09 season at Lincoln, Nebraska, and falling 40-4 to Chattanooga a season later in Bloomington, Indiana.

The Jackrabbits have found previous success at the Virginia Duals, wrestling three times in the tournament early in their transition to NCAA Division I competition. South Dakota State went a combined 8-2 in three consecutive appearances between the 2004-05 and 2006-07 seasons against a mixture of Division I and lower-division squads.

Previous Virginia Duals Appearances
2004-05: def. Duquesne, 29-12; def. Millersville, 21-19; def. Davidson, 31-15;
2005-06: def. Delaware State, 44-0; lost to Duquesne, 15-28; def. Anderson (S.C), 22-18; lost to Franklin & Marshall, 18-23
2006-07: def. Roger Williams, 30-9; def. Newport News Apprentice, 31-7; def. Anderson, 49-6

LAST WEEK: South Dakota State controlled the second half of its wrestling dual against 22nd-ranked Northern Iowa Jan. 9 at Frost Arena, opening the Big 12 Conference portion of its schedule with a 27-13 victory.

The Jackrabbits, who won seven of 10 matches in the dual, improved to 5-1 overall. UNI dropped to 1-5 overall and 0-2 against Big 12 opponents.

Leading 9-7 at the intermission, Tanner Cook gave SDSU some added cushion with a first-period pin of Cayd Lara. Ranked 29th at 165 pounds, Cook's pin was his ninth of the season.

Cade DeVos, ranked 11th at 174 pounds, followed with a 10-6 decision over Pat Schoenfelder, while Cade King followed with a dual-sealing pin in the opening period against Dajun Johnson that pushed the Jackrabbit advantage to 24-7.

Heavyweight A.J. Nevills closed the dual with a 4-3 victory over Tyrell Gordon.

SDSU built its early lead with three decisions, starting with a 4-3 victory by Tanner Jordan over Kyle Gollhofer in the 125-pound matchup.

Clay Carlson, ranked sixth at 141 pounds, continued his winning ways with an 11-4 decision against 19th-ranked Cael Happel, with Daniel Kimball notching a come-from behind, 9-5 victory over Triston Lara in the 149-pound bout. Kimball trailed 4-2 entering the third period, but scored on an escape and added a takedown and four-point near-fall late in the final stanza.

Following the dual with UNI, SDSU compiled a 5-5 record in additional matches against the Panthers and Wyoming, the latter of which was unable to field a complete team for an originally scheduled triangular. Jordan scored a pair of narrow decisions over Wyoming wrestlers to end the day with a 3-0 record and Cook recorded his second pin of the day with a first-period fall against Cooper Voorhees.

Other winners for the Jackrabbits were Nevills and 133-pound newcomer Gabriel Tagg.

RABBITS RANKED: For the first time in three seasons, the South Dakota State University wrestling team is nationally ranked. The Jackrabbits, who defeated then-No. 22 Northern Iowa, 27-13, last week, cracked the NWCA Division I Coaches Poll Tuesday by checking in at No. 24.

SDSU was last ranked in the poll in November 2018. The Jackrabbits are one of five Big 12 squads in this week's poll, joining No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 9 Missouri, No. 11 Iowa State and No. 18 Oklahoma. Wyoming, North Dakota State and UNI are receiving votes.

In addition, five Jackrabbit wrestlers are individually ranked by various wrestling organizations. Returning All-American Clay Carlson is ranked as high as fifth by FloWrestling at 141 pounds, while Cade DeVos is ranked 10th in the 174-pound division by Intermat. Two-time NCAA qualifier Tanner Sloan holds the No. 21 spot in the Intermat rankings at 197 pounds, with A.J. Nevills ranked 23rd by FloWrestling in the heavyweight division.

Tanner Cook rounds out the individual rankings with a 29th-place showing in the 165-pound rankings conducted by Intermat.

The Jackrabbits also are ranked third in the first NWCA?Mid-Major Division I Poll of the season. Lehigh holds the top spot, followed by Cornell. Rival North Dakota State is right behind SDSU in the fourth spot.

UNDEFEATED IN DUALS: Three regulars in the Jackrabbit starting lineup bring undefeated dual records into their matchups at this weekend's Virginia Duals.

Clay Carlson leads the SDSU contingent with a perfect 6-0 mark in duals so far this season at 141 pounds. The junior from Willmar, Minnesota, tallied an 11-4 decision against 19th-ranked Cael Happel in the Jackrabbits' latest dual, Jan. 9 against Northern Iowa.

Cade DeVos stands at 5-0 in duals after sitting out the Nov. 19 season opener against Augustana. The 174-pounder is tied with Carlson for most overall wins on the team this season with 18 after his 10-6 decision in dual action last weekend against Northern Iowa's Pat Schoenfelder.

Daniel Kimball is settling into the starting role at 149 pounds for the Jackrabbits and upped his dual mark to 4-0 with a 9-5, come-from-behind victory over Triston Lara of Northern Iowa.

Nick Casperson, who has been filling in for Tanner Sloan at 197 pounds, entered last weekend's matchup against Northern Iowa with a 4-0 dual mark, but suffered his first loss when he was pinned by Parker Keckeisen, who came into the match ranked fourth at 184 pounds.

BIG 12 SUCCESS: Now in its seventh 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 33-18 record (.647 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.

TAGG JOINS TEAM: The Jackrabbit wrestling team has received a boost in the lower weights with the addition of mid-year transfer Gabriel Tagg. The Lodi, Ohio, native, who previously wrestled at North Carolina, was officially cleared to practice earlier this month and made his Jackrabbit debut by recording a 19-1 technical fall against Darrick Stacey of Wyoming in an additional match Jan. 9.

He is projected to wrestle at 133 pounds and has three years of eligibility remaining.

Tagg posted a 15-5 record at 141 pounds as a freshman during the 2019-20 season at North Carolina. He also has competed in freestyle competition both nationally and internationally, including winning both the U.S. Junior World Championships at 61 kilograms and the Austria Flatz Open at 65 kilograms in 2019.

NEW FACILITY ON THE HORIZON: Ground was broken in September for a new $4 million on-campus wrestling training facility.
The nearly 16,000-square-foot Kurtenbach Family Wrestling Center is being 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."

The South Dakota Board of Regents approved plans for the project in December 2020. The facility is expected to be completed in the fall of 2022.

COACH HAHN: Damion Hahn is overseeing a successful rebuilding of South Dakota State University wrestling as he is in his fourth season at the helm of the Jackrabbits' program. Hahn holds a 25-23 career dual record.

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. Two of the wins were against 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.

During a pandemic-altered 2020-21 season, Hahn led the Jackrabbits to a 5-6 dual record. Despite slipping to an eighth-place finish at the Big 12 Conference meet, the Jackrabbits qualified five wrestlers for the NCAA?Championships, with Clay Carlson earning All-America honors with an eighth-place finish at 141 pounds.

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 champs.

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 2021-22 SDSU wrestling roster features 33 student-athletes from 12 different states. Of the 33 wrestlers, eight are from Iowa, followed by seven from Minnesota and six native South Dakotans. Three Jackrabbit wrestlers hail from Ohio, with two from California. Seven states — Illinois, New York, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin — each are represented by one wrestler.

By class, one is a senior, eight are juniors, 11 are sophomores, one is a redshirt freshman and 12 are incoming freshmen.

A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits are scheduled to wrestle three duals over two days, starting with a Jan. 22 matchup at Big 12 Conference foe Missouri (2 p.m. start).

From there, SDSU will square off against host SIU-Edwardsville (1:30 p.m.) and Central Michigan (3 p.m.) in a Jan. 23 triangular in Edwardsville, Illinois.

-GoJacks.com-