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South Dakota State University Athletics
Saturday, January 7
Riverside, Calif.
3 p.m. PT/5 p.m. CT
South Dakota State University
vs
Northern Illinois
Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia
TWO DUALS AWAIT JACKRABBITS IN CALIFORNIA
1/5/2023 10:59:00 PM | Wrestling
DUAL 4: #19 South Dakota State (1-2, 0-0 Big 12) at California Baptist Triangular
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The South Dakota State wrestling team begins a stretch of matches from coast to coast by wrestling a pair of duals Saturday evening in Riverside, California.
The Jackrabbits, 1-2 in duals overall, open the day with a nonconference matchup against Northern Illinois. Start time is slated for 3 p.m. Pacific Time (5 p.m. Central).
To close out the day, SDSU is slated to take on Big 12 Conference newcomer California Baptist. That dual, which is the Jackrabbits' first against a Big 12 opponent this season, is set for a 6 p.m. Pacific (8 p.m. Central start). Both of SDSU's matches will be contested on the Lancers' home mat at Van Dyne Gym, with the dual against CBU scheduled to be streamed through YouTube..
NIU comes into the weekend with a 4-2 overall record in duals, while CBU is 1-4 overall, including an 0-2 mark against Big 12 foes.
PROBABLE STARTERS:
125: #30 Tanner Jordan • Jr., St. Paris, Ohio (8-7 overall, 1-2 duals)
133: Derrick Cardinal • R-Fr., Forest Lake, Minn. (4-6 overall, 0-2 duals)
141: #11 Clay Carlson • Sr., Willmar, Minn. (7-4 overall, 1-2 duals)
149: Alek Martin • R-Fr., St. Paris, Ohio (9-7 overall, 1-1 duals)
157: #19 Cael Swensen • R-Fr., Plymouth, Minn. (8-5 overall, 1-1 duals)
165: #13 Tanner Cook • Jr., Ilion, N.Y. (8-1 overall, 3-0 duals)
174: #16 Cade DeVos • Jr., Altoona, Iowa (9-4 overall, 1-2 duals)
184: #16 Cade King • Sr., Waseca, Minn. (6-4 overall, 0-1 duals)
197: #11 Tanner Sloan • Sr., Alburnett, Iowa (8-1 overall, 2-0 duals)
285: #14 A.J. Nevills • Grad., Clovis, Calif. (7-3 overall, 3-0 duals)
Note: Rankings listed are highest of either Intermat or FloWrestling rankings as of Jan. 4, 2023
THE SERIES: Saturday's dual against Northern Illinois will mark the eighth meeting between the Jackrabbits and Huskies. NIU holds a 4-3 series advantage over the Jackrabbits in a series that dates back to the 1966-67 season. The squads met on Dec. 18, 2021, in DeKalb, Illinois, with the Jackrabbits claiming a 26-9 victory on the strength of three bonus-point victories.
Tanner Jordan got things started with a 14-2 major decision over Bryce West in the 125-pound matchup, while Clay Carlson followed two matches later with a fall over Jaivon Jones. Nick Casperson added a win by major decision at 197 pounds for an SDSU squad that won seven of 10 bouts.
South Dakota State 26, Northern Illinois 9 (Dec. 18, 2021 • DeKalb, Illinois)
125: Tanner Jordan (SDSU) major dec. Bryce West (NIU), 14-2
133: Caleb Gross (SDSU) dec. Mikey Kaminski (NIU), 3-2
141: Clay Carlson (SDSU) def. Jaivon Jones (NIU), by fall 1:54
149: Daniel Kimball (SDSU) dec. Anthony Cheloni (NIU), 7-3
157: Anthony Gibson (NIU) dec. Kenny O'Neil (SDSU), 4-0
165: Izzak Olejnik (NIU) dec.Tanner Cook (SDSU), 8-3
174: Cade DeVos (SDSU) dec. Mason Kauffman (NIU), 3-1
184: Brit Wilson (NIU) dec. Cade King (SDSU), 5-2
197: Nick Casperson (SDSU) major dec. Tristin Guaman (NIU), 12-2
285: A.J. Nevills (SDSU) dec. Terrese Aaron (NIU), 7-4
Saturday's dual against California Baptist will be the first-ever meeting between the Jackrabbits and Lancers on the wrestling mat.
LAST TIME OUT: Cael Swensen reached the 157-pound finals and a trio of South Dakota State wrestlers turned in third-place finishes as a young Jackrabbit squad wrapped up competition at the inaugural Soldier Salute with a fifth-place finish in the team standings. The two-day tournament was contested Dec. 29-30 at Xtream Arena in Coralville, Iowa.
A redshirt freshman from Plymouth, Minnesota, Swensen earned his berth in the championship with a 7-2 decision over Northern Iowa's R.J. Weston during the Friday afternoon session.
In the championship bout, Swensen fell behind 11th-ranked Jacob Wright of Wyoming by a 4-0 count in the second period after Wright scored on a reversal and two-point near-fall. Swensen managed escapes in both the second and third periods, and drew to within 4-3 on a penalty point for stalling against Wright in the closing seconds, but couldn't come up the decisive takedown.
Caleb Gross turned in the first third-place finish of the day for the Jackrabbits in the 141-pound division. Gross trailed Iowa's Drew Bennett, 6-3, late in their consolation semifinal matchup Friday afternoon, but Gross countered with an escape and takedown to force overtime at 6-all. In the extra session, Gross capped his comeback with a takedown with just over 30 seconds remaining to pull out the 8-6 sudden victory.
A junior from Pound, Wisconsin, Gross was awarded third place after his scheduled opponent Friday night, Columbia's Matt Kazimir, withdrew from the tournament for medical reasons.
Gross began the final day of competition with a semifinal major-decision loss to second-ranked Real Woods of Iowa.
For the second time in the tournament, 184-pounder Roman Rogotzke notched an overtime decision over Army's Sahm Addulrazzaq to claim third place. In a back-and-forth matchup that was tied at 6-all at the end of regulation, Rogotzke took his nationally ranked opponent down with about 30 seconds remaining in overtime to finish the tournament with a 4-1 mark.
Rogotzke, a redshirt freshman from Stillwater, Minnesota, began the day with a 9-6 loss against Assad. He came back with an 11-4 decision against Guillermo Escobedo of Wyoming later in the afternoon to move into the third-place bout.
Freshman and Brookings native Luke Rasmussen closed out the Jackrabbit effort with a bronze medal in the heavyweight division. After starting the day with a loss by fall to third-ranked Tony Cassioppi of Iowa, Rasmussen rebounded with a 7-4 victory over Jonathan Chesser of The Citadel, followed by a second-period pin against Wisconsin's Gannon Rosenfeld in the third-place match.
Also earning a spot on the podium for the Jackrabbits was redshirt freshman Alek Martin with a seventh-place showing in the 149-pound weight class. Martin compiled a 4-2 record in the tournament, culminating with a 12-2 major decision over Wyoming's Chase Zollmann.
Two other South Dakota State wrestlers competed unattached and reached the finals of their respective weight classes. At 165 pounds, Jack Thomsen dropped a 10-5 decision to nationally ranked Patrick Kennedy of Iowa, while freshman Bennett Berge took the Hawkeyes' Assad to overtime in the 184-pound final before falling by a 6-4 count.
Iowa claimed the team title with 228 points, more than doubling up runner-up Army with 106 points. Wyoming was third with 99.5 points, followed by Columbia with 88.5 points and the Jackrabbits with 79.5.
COOK HONORED: South Dakota State 165-pounder Tanner Cook was honored Dec. 20 as Big 12 Conference Wrestler of the Week after defeating another nationally ranked opponent in convincing fashion.
A junior from Ilion, New York, Cook made quick work of 13th-ranked Bubba Wilson of Nebraska in dual action Dec. 18, recording a pin in 29 seconds. With his victory, Cook improved to 8-1 on the season with six of his wins by fall. Five of Cook's six wins by fall this season have been recorded in less than a minute.
RABBITS RANKED: The South Dakota State wrestling team began the season ranked in the top 25 after being included in a pair of national polls and have continued to climb up the rankings during the first two months of the 2022-23 campaign.
The Jackrabbits checked in at No. 22 in the preseason poll conducted by InterMat and were ranked 25th in the initial National Wrestling Coaches Association survey. SDSU was one of five Big 12 Conference programs ranked in the NWCA top 25, joining No. 4 Missouri, No. 10 Oklahoma State, No. 14 Iowa State and No. 20 Northern Iowa.
Following their strong showing at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in early December, the Jackrabbits climbed seven spots to No. 18 in the NWCA?poll for their highest ranking under head coach Damion Hahn. SDSU slipped one spot to 19th after its Dec. 18 dual loss to Nebraska.
SDSU also has a season-high eight wrestlers ranked individually for the fourth week in a row, with 141-pounder Clay Carlson holding the highest ranking at No. 11 in InterMat's, followed by fellow NCAA?qualifier Tanner Sloan in 12th at 197 pounds.
Cael Swensen, who climbed to No. 19 in the 157-pound rankings by InterMat and Tanner at 125 pounds (30th by InterMat) each joined the rankings after their outings at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
Other returning NCAA qualifiers Cade DeVos (16th at 174 pounds by FloWrestling) and A.J. Nevills (14th at heavyweight by FloWrestling) have maintained top-20 rankings throughout the season, while Cade King (16th at 184 pounds by both InterMat and FloWrestling) rounds out the list of SDSU's ranked wrestlers.
DUAL-MEET DOMINANCE: South Dakota State has dominated the upper two weights in dual meets over the last two seasons thanks to the contributions of 197-pounder Tanner Sloan and heavyweight A.J. Nevills.
Sloan, a senior from Alburnett, Iowa, is 13-1 in duals over the last two seasons. Since dropping his first dual match of the 2021-22 season to Michial Foy of Minnesota, Sloan has won 13 consecutive dual matchups.
For his career, Sloan has compiled a 37-4 dual record and has yet to drop a home match. He went a perfect 11-0 in duals during the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season after posting a 13-3 mark as a redshirt freshman.
Nevills, a graduate student from Clovis, California, has turned in a 17-3 dual record since joining the lineup at the start of the 2021-22 season as a transfer from Fresno State. Nevills went 14-3 in duals last season en route to a trip to nationals and is unbeaten so far this season at 3-0.
SILVER MEDALISTS: Two members of the Jackrabbit wrestling team recently earned individual silver medals in international competition.
In August, incoming freshman Bennett Berge earned a silver medal in the 86-kilogram weight class at the 2022 U20 World Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.
A native of Mantorville, Minnesota, and a member of the Pinnacle Wrestling Club, Berge posted a 4-1 record over two days of competition. He won his first three matches all by technical fall before recording a come-from-behind, 9-7 victory over Ismail Kucuksolak of Turkey in the semifinals. In the championship bout against Rakhim Magamadov of France, Berge lost a 10-5 decision.
Besides his runner-up finish in his weight class, Berge brought home another silver medal as Team USA placed second in the team standings behind Iran. Berge was one of four Americans to medal in the freestyle division.
At the prep level, Berge totaled 241 career victories, posting a 124-1 record over his final three seasons at Kasson-Mantorvile High School. He won five consecutive individual state titles at five different weight classes (138, 160, 170, 182, 195), capping his senior season with a 52-0 record.
In October, Tanner Sloan reached the finals of the 97-kilogram division at the U23 World Championships held in Pontevedra, Spain.
Sloan, a three-time NCAA qualifier at 197 pounds from Alburnett, Iowa, posted a 3-1 record in a two-day span. After winning his first three bouts, Sloan dropped a 5-3 decision to Amirali Azarpira of Iran in the gold medal match on Oct. 22.
Sloan previously competed at the 2019 UWW Junior World Championships in Tallinn, Estonia, after opening international competition by winning the gold medal at the UWW Pan American Championship in Guatemala City, Guatemala.
BIG 12 SUCCESS: Now in its eighth 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 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 and turned in a 5-2 record last 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 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 next few weeks.
COACH HAHN: Damion Hahn is overseeing a successful rebuilding of South Dakota State University wrestling as he enters his fifth season at the helm of the Jackrabbits' program. Hahn has compiled a 34-28 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.
Highlighting the 2020-21 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, an award he would receive again the following year.
In all, five SDSU wrestlers earned a trip to the NCAA Championships in March 2021.
The Jackrabbits returned to the winning side of the ledger during the 2021-22 campaign and also cracked the national rankings as a team for the first time since early in Hahn's first season. SDSU compiled a 13-4 dual record that included a 21-12 victory at ninth-ranked Missouri, marking the program's first dual win over a top-10 opponent.
In postseason competition, SDSU placed sixth at the 2022 Big 12 Wrestling Championship and set four wrestlers on to the NCAA Championships in Detroit.
Hahn's teams also have performed well in the classroom, earning Top 30 Scholar Team All-America honors from the National Wrestling Coaches Association each of the past two seasons. The 2021-22 squad ranked seventh among Division I programs with a 3.465 grade-point average and six Jackrabbits were recognized individually as NWCA Scholar All-America honorees.
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 2022-23 South Dakota State wrestling roster is made up of 35 student-athletes from 11 different states from coast to coast. South Dakota and Minnesota have the most wrestlers with eight, while seven hail from Iowa. Three Jackrabbit wrestlers are from Ohio, with a pair from North Dakota and Wisconsin. Five states have produced one wrestler each: California, Illinois, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.
By class, six are seniors, 11 are juniors and nine are redshirt freshmen. Eight wrestlers are incoming freshman, with one being a graduate student. There are no sophomores on this season's squad.
A LOOK AHEAD: The Jackrabbits will head to the East Coast next weekend for the Virginia Duals. SDSU is scheduled to wrestle four duals Jan. 13-14 at the Hampton Coliseum in Hampton, Virginia.
Friday, Jan. 13
• vs. Navy, 11:30 a.m. ET // vs. Kent State, 2:30 p.m. ET
Saturday, Jan. 14
• vs. Campbell, 2:30 p.m. ET // vs. Ohio, 4 p.m. ET
-GoJacks.com-
Players Mentioned
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/ Wrestling
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125
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133
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285
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165
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149
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285
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184
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197
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