Upcoming Event: Wrestling at Bison Open on November 9, 2025 at 10 a.m.
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10 a.m.
Wrestling
at Bison Open
South Dakota State University Athletics
Thursday, March 17
Detroit, Mich.
10 a.m./7 p.m. CT
South Dakota State University
vs
NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships
Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia
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3/15/2022 4:21:00 PM | Wrestling
#25 SOUTH DAKOTA STATE at NCAA DIVISION I WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS
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Four South Dakota State wrestlers will vie for individual championships and All-America accolades during competition this week at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.
Competition begins Thursday morning and runs through Saturday night at Little Caesars Arena in downtown Detroit, Michigan. Morning sessions begin at noon Eastern Time (11 a.m. Central) on Thursday and 11 a.m. ET (10 a.m. CT) both Friday and Saturday. Evening sessions Thursday and Saturday are slated to start at 7 p.m. ET (6 p.m. CT), with Friday's night session set to begin at 8 p.m. ET (7 p.m. CT).
Television coverage of the early sessions each day will be on ESPNU, with coverage shifting to ESPN for the night sessions. Coverage of all mats and matches throughout the tournament will be available online at ESPN3.com.
South Dakota State placed sixth at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship held March 5-6 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Jackrabbits completed a 13-4 dual season and closed the regular season ranked 25th in the NWCA Division I Coaches' Poll.
SEEDINGS AND PAIRINGS: Clay Carlson was awarded the No. 7 seed at 141 pounds to lead South Dakota State's contingent into this week's NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.
A junior from Willmar, Minnesota, and a returning All-American, Carlson enters the championships with a 30-4 overall record after a third-place finish at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship earlier this month. He will square off against Northwestern's Frankie Tal Shahar, 11-8 overall, in opening-round action.
Carlson was the Jackrabbits' lone All-American last season as he placed eighth in the 141-pound weight class.
Two other returning national qualifiers, Cade DeVos and Tanner Sloan, each received the 12th seed in their respective weight classes. DeVos, a sophomore from Altoona, Iowa, brings a 29-7 overall record into the tournament and will meet Bailee O'Reilly of Minnesota, 12-6 overall, in the opening round at 174 pounds. DeVos, who placed fourth at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship, defeated O'Reilly, 3-2, in a semifinal match at the season-opening Bison Open.
DeVos was a national qualifier at 157 pounds during the 2020-21 season.
Sloan is a three-time NCAA qualifier at 197 pounds who has compiled a 20-5 record this season. The junior and Big 12 runner-up from Alburnett, Iowa, is slated to open his tournament run against Gavin Hoffman of Ohio State, 14-10, in what will be a rematch from a meeting earlier this season at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in which Hoffman notched a 4-3 decision.
Rounding out the tournament field for the Jackrabbits is junior heavyweight A.J. Nevills. A two-time NCAA qualifier while wrestling at Fresno State, Nevills is back at nationals after a two-year layoff. He earned the No. 22 seed with a 27-11 record and has drawn No. 11 Gary Traub of Oregon State, 20-5 overall, in first-round action.
BIG 12 RECAP: Tanner Sloan came up a point short in his quest to become South Dakota State's first Big 12 Conference individual champion since 2018, dropping a 3-2 decision to top-seeded Stephen Buchanan of Wyoming in the 197-pound title bout March 6 at BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
As a team, the Jackrabbits placed sixth in the 12-team field.
A junior from Alburnett, Iowa, Sloan had his 15-match winning streak snapped as he suffered his first loss since placing fourth at the Southern Scuffle on Jan. 2.
After a scoreless first period, Buchanan reeled off the first three points of the match with an escape midway through the second period, followed by a takedown. Sloan tallied his points on escapes late in the second period and again in the third period.
Sloan also was the Big 12 runner-up in the 197-pound weight class at the 2020 championship tournament.
Also earning automatic bids to the NCAA Championships from the Jackrabbits based on their finishes at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship were Clay Carlson (141 pounds), Cade DeVos (174 pounds) and A.J. Nevills (285 pounds).
Carlson, who dropped a 5-3 decision to Andrew Alirez in the semifinals, recorded a third-place finish in the 141-pound weight class. A junior from Willmar, Minnesota, Carlson won two matches during the Sunday afternoon session to run his season record to 30-4 overall. In the consolation semifinals, the returning All-American tallied an 11-4 decision against Oklahoma's Jacob Butler. Wrestling for third place, Carlson defeated North Dakota State's Dylan Droegemueller, 7-5.
Also wrestling in a third-place match for the Jackrabbits was 174-pounder Cade DeVos. The sophomore from Altoona, Iowa, earned a 5-2 victory over fifth-seeded Hayden Hastings in the consolation semifinals, before suffering a 6-3 defeat at the hands of Anthony Mantanona of Oklahoma to finish fourth.
Heavyweight A.J. Nevills turned in a fifth-place finish in his weight class to become the fourth Jackrabbit to secure an automatic berth for the NCAA Championships. Nevills was edged, 8-6, by Missouri's Zach Elam in the consolation semifinals before outlasting Oklahoma's Josh Heindselman, 5-4, in match that went to an overtime tiebreaker.
Jackrabbit wrestlers combined to go 1-2 in seventh-place matches, as well. Tanner Cook was the lone winner for SDSU in those matches, picking up his 15th pin of the season with a first-period fall against Northern Colorado's Nick Knutson.
Kenny O'Neil (157 pounds) and Gabriel Tagg (133 pounds) each placed eighth.
South Dakota State finished the two-day meet in sixth place in the team standings with 66 points. Missouri claimed the team title with 131.5 points, followed by Oklahoma with 113 and Iowa State with 110.
TEAM RANKINGS: For the first time in three seasons, the South Dakota State University wrestling team is nationally ranked. The Jackrabbits cracked the NWCA Division I Coaches Poll by checking in at No. 24 in the Jan. 11 rankings, then moved up one spot to 23rd after winning twice at the Virginia Duals on Jan. 15. SDSU remains in the poll for the sixth week in a row, remaining at No. 25 in the final rankings of the regular season after a 32-3 dual victory over North Dakota State on Feb. 20.
SDSU was last ranked in the poll in November 2018. The Jackrabbits were one of five Big 12 squads in the final regular season poll, joining No. 5 Iowa State, No. 9 Missouri, No. 13 Oklahoma State and No. 24 Oklahoma.
2021 NCAA REVIEW: South Dakota State's Clay Carlson wrapped up competition at the 2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, Missouri, with an eighth-place finish in the 141-pound weight class.
Carlson dropped an 11-4 decision to 10th-seeded Zachary Sherman of North Carolina in the seventh-place match at Enterprise Center. Carlson ended the three-day tournament with a 4-3 record to wrap up the season with a 20-9 overall mark.
Carlson secured All-America honors in dramatic fashion a match earlier. He led 3-1 through two periods in his matchup against Real Woods of Stanford but Woods escaped early in the final period and appeared to take an 8-3 lead after being awarded a takedown and four-point near-fall.
After a lengthy video review, however, Woods was ruled to have used an illegal hold, which negated the sequence and awarded a point to Carlson for a 4-2 lead. On the restart, though, Woods came up with a takedown to tie the match at 4-all with about a minute remaining in regulation.
Carlson then came up with a flurry of his own, starting with an escape just before Woods' riding-time advantage reached a minute. He then recorded a takedown of Woods and followed with a four-point near-fall in the waning seconds for an 11-4 victory, ensuring a top-eight placing.
Later in the session, Carlson met Dylan Duncan of Illinois. In a closely contested matchup, Duncan came away with a 3-2 decision to send Carlson into his seventh-place matchup against Sherman.
Carlson became the first Jackrabbit wrestler to earn All-America honors since Seth Gross, David Kocer and Luke Zilverberg in 2018. Gross won the 133-pound national title that year.
Two other Jackrabbits had their All-America bids end one win shy.
At 133 pounds, Zach Price lost a 9-4 decision to eighth-seeded Chris Cannon of Northwestern. Later in the session, Tanner Sloan was ousted from the tournament with a 9-1 loss to Penn State's Michael Beard.
Also competing for SDSU at the 2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships were Danny Vega (125 pounds) and Cade DeVos (157 pounds). All five Jackrabbit qualifiers won at least one match.
WRESTLERS OF THE WEEK: South Dakota State 197-pounder Tanner Sloan was honored Jan. 25 as Big 12 Wrestler of the Week, becoming the second Jackrabbit to earn the award this season.
A junior from Alburnett, Iowa, Sloan posted a 3-0 record in dual competition over the weekend, starting with a 5-2 decision over fifth-ranked Rocky Elam of Missouri. The victory helped propel the Jackrabbits to their first-ever dual win over a top-10 team at the Division I level.
Sloan closed with weekend with a pair of first-period pins in a triangular at Southern Illinois Edwardsville and against Central Michigan. With his perfect weekend, the two-time NCAA qualifier improved to 11-4 overall this season, including a 5-1 mark in duals.
Sloan joined teammate Clay Carlson, who earned the honor Dec. 7 after winning the 141-pound title at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. Carlson pinned Northern Colorado's Andrew Alirez in the championship bout of the tournament and also defeated Alirez, 9-5, in dual action Feb. 11 at Frost Arena.
20 AND 10: Four Jackrabbit wrestlers have reached the 20-win mark so far this season and all four also posted 10 or more wins in dual competition.
Leading the way is 141-pounder Clay Carlson with a 30-4 overall record and a 14-2 dual mark, while 174-pounder Cade DeVos is right behind at 29-7 overall. After sitting out the team's opening dual Nov. 19 against Augustana, DeVos turned in a 13-3 record in head-to-head competitions.
Heavyweight A.J. Nevills reached both progress points in his Jan. 28 victory against West Virginia. Nevills enters the NCAA?Championships with a 27-11 overall mark after posting a 14-3 dual record in his first season in the Jackrabbit lineup.
Joining the 20-10 Club at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship was 197-pounder Tanner Sloan, who posted his 20th overall win of the season in a semifinal win over Owen Pentz of North Dakota State. Sloan posted an 11-1 mark in dual competition this season and now owns career dual mark of 35-4.
BIG 12 SUCCESS: In seven seasons 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 37-20 record (.649 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: 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 study 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 has compiled a 33-26 career dual record and has coached four All-Americans and 14 NCAA?qualifiers during his tenure in Brookings.
During the 2019-20 season, the National Wrestling Coaches Association selected 149-pounder Henry Pohlmeyer, 184-pounder Zach Carlson and 197-pounder Tanner Sloan as second-team All-Americans after the NCAA Championships were canceled at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Also during the 2019-20 campaign, the Jackrabbits turned in their first winning dual season under Hahn by posting a 12-6 overall record, including a 6-3 mark in the Big 12. Included in the dual wins were victories over nationally ranked Northern Iowa and Stanford.
SDSU also improved by six spots in the Big 12 Conference tournament, finishing fourth in the team standings at the 2020 competition.
Last season, Clay Carlson wrestled his way to an eighth-place finish at nationals in the 141-pound division. Carlson also was honored as the 2021 Big 12 Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year.
In all, five SDSU wrestlers earned a trip to the NCAA Championships in March 2021.
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 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships mark the end of the 2021-22 season for the Jackrabbits.
-GoJacks.com-
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