JACKS RETURN TO TULSA FOR NATIONALS

Thursday, March 16

Tulsa, Okla.

10 a.m./6 p.m.

South Dakota State University

NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

3/14/2023 9:49:00 PM | Wrestling

#14 South Dakota State at NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships

When	Thursday-Saturday, March 16-18 Thursday: Sessions at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m. Friday: Sessions at 11 a.m. at 7 p.m. Saturday: Sessions at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.
Where	BOK Center \| Tulsa, Okla.
TV	ESPN family of networks (including streaming on ESPN+) Morning sessions - ESPNU Evening sessions - ESPN
Live Results	Trackwrestling.com
Tournament Notes	SDSU \| Tournament Brackets
Social Media	Twitter \| Facebook \| Instagram \| #GetJacked

A program-record eight South Dakota State wrestlers will make their way to Tulsa, Oklahoma, this week for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.

Action gets under way at 11 a.m. Thursday at BOK Center in downtown Tulsa, with the tournament featuring 330 wrestlers in 10 different weight classes concluding Saturday night. Coverage of all six sessions will be available via the ESPN family of networks.

The Jackrabbits had six wrestlers automatically qualify for the national meet based on their finishes at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship, which also was held in Tulsa, March 4-5. SDSU's eight-member contingent was completed with the additions of 125-pounder Tanner Jordan and 184-pounder Cade King as at-large selections.

The previous school record for national qualifiers at the Division I level was seven in 2018. Of those seven wrestlers, Seth Gross won a national championship at 133 pounds, while Luke Zilverberg (eighth at 157 pounds) and David Kocer (seventh at 174 pounds) also earned All-America honors.

THE SCHEDULE:
• 11 a.m. Thursday – Pigtail, first-round matches (ESPNU)
• 6 p.m. Thursday – Wrestleback prelims, second-round matches, consolation round (ESPN)
• 11 a.m. Friday – Quarterfinals, wrestleback second and third rounds (ESPNU)
• 7 p.m. Friday – Semifinals, consolation fourth round, blood round (ESPN)
• 10 a.m. Saturday – Medal rounds (ESPNU)
• 6 p.m Saturday – Championship matches (ESPN)

JACKRABBIT QUALIFIERS:
125:     #32 Tanner Jordan • Jr., St. Paris, Ohio (17-14 overall)
141:     #11 Clay Carlson • Sr., Willmar, Minn. (21-8 overall)
157:     #18 Cael Swensen • R-Fr., Plymouth, Minn. (21-8 overall)
165:     #16 Tanner Cook • Jr., Ilion, N.Y. (16-7 overall)
174:     #15 Cade DeVos • Jr., Altoona, Iowa (23-7 overall)
184:     #19 Cade King • Sr., Waseca, Minn. (16-9 overall)
197:     #9 Tanner Sloan • Sr., Alburnett, Iowa (23-2 overall)
285:     #12 A.J. Nevills • Grad., Clovis, Calif. (20-6 overall)

SEEDINGS AND PAIRINGS: Tanner Sloan earned the No. 7 seed at 197 pounds to lead South Dakota State into the 2023 NCAA?Division I Wrestling Championships.

A senior from Alburnett, Iowa, Sloan enters the tournament with a 23-2 overall record and is slated to meet No. 26 Gavin Hoffman of Ohio State in the opening round. That matchup represents a rematch from the first round a year ago, when Hoffman recorded a 6-4 overtime decision over Sloan.

Sloan, who was runner-up in his weight class at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship earlier this month in Tulsa, is a four-time NCAA qualifier with a 82-19 career record.

Also making his fourth trip to nationals is heavyweight A.J. Nevills, who is seeded 14th to set up a first-round matchup against Duke's Jonah Niesenbaum. A senior from Clovis, California, Nevills made his first two NCAA appearances while wrestling at Fresno State and earned his second consecutive berth with the Jackrabbits after a sixth-place finish at the Big 12 Championship while compiling a 19-6 record.

Both 141-pounder Clay Carlson and 174-pounder Cade DeVos will be making their third consecutive trips to nationals.

An All-American in 2021, Carlson is seeded 11th and is set to face No. 22 Malyke Hines of Lehigh in the opening round. A senior from Willmar, Minnesota, Carlson holds a 21-8 record this season after finishing third at the Big 12 Championship, and carries a 94-39 career mark into the tournament.

DeVos also recorded a third-place finish at the 2023 Big 12 Championship and brings a 23-7 record into the NCAA Championships as the No. 13 seed. A junior from Altoona, Iowa, DeVos is slated to face No. 20 Alex Cramer of Central Michigan in his first match.

Earning his second NCAA berth at 165 pounds is junior Tanner Cook, who is seeded 22nd with a 16-7 record. The Ilion, New York native, who placed eighth at the Big 12 Championship, will face returning All-American Cameron Amine of Michigan in the opening round. Cook's first qualified for the NCAAs in 2020, but that tournament was canceled at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three Jackrabbits will be making their first trip to nationals, including redshirt freshman 157-pounder Cael Swensen, who is seeded 20th with a 21-8 mark after placing fifth at the conference level. The Plymouth, Minnesota native will face No. 13 Trevor Chumbley in a rematch of their fifth-place bout at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational this past December in which Chumbley won a 6-2 decision.

Senior Cade King and junior Tanner Jordan are seeded 24th and 32nd, respectively, at 184 and 125 pounds. A native of Waseca, Minnesota, King brings a 16-9 record into his matchup against Minnesota's Isaiah Salazar, who is seeded ninth.

Jordan, from St. Paris, Ohio, will wrestle No. 33 Tucker Owens of Air Force in a pigtail match for the right to face top-seeded and defending national champion Spencer Lee of Iowa. Jordan has compiled a 17-14 record so far this season, which included a pin of Owens in dual action in late January.

A full listing of initial matches for Jackrabbit wrestlers is as follows:
125: #32 Tanner Jordan vs. #33 Tucker Owens (Air Force)
141: #11 Clay Carlson vs. #22 Malyke Hines (Lehigh)
157: #20 Cael Swensen vs. #11 Tevor Chumbley (Northwestern)
165: #22 Tanner Cook vs. #11 Cameron Amine (Michigan)
174: #13 Cade DeVos vs. #20 Alex Cramer (Central Michigan)
184: #24 Cade King vs. #9 Isaiah Salazar (Minnesota)
197: #7 Tanner Sloan vs. #26 Gavin Hoffman (Ohio State)
285: #14 A.J. Nevills vs. #19 Jonah Niesenbaum (Duke)

BIG 12 RECAP: After 10 minutes of action, Tanner Sloan's mission to become South Dakota State's first Big 12 Conference individual wrestling champion in five years came up one point short in a 2-1, tiebreaker loss to Missouri's Rocky Elam in the 197-pound title bout on March 5.

A senior from Alburnett, Iowa, Sloan suffered his second loss of the season, falling to 23-2 overall and had his 20-match winning streak snapped. Sloan scored the first point of the methodical match on an escape with exactly a minute remaining in period No. 2.

Elam chose a neutral start to the third period, but neither wrestler was able to deliver a takedown in the third period, sending the match to overtime. After another two minutes of little action, the match was decided in tiebreakers when Elam rode out Sloan for the first 30-second interval and then managed an escape in the second half without an answer from Sloan to secure the final point.

The victory by Elam secured Missouri's second consecutive team title as the Tigers finished with 148 points on the strength of placing six wrestlers in the finals. Iowa State with 134 points and Iowa State with 129 points rounded out the top three.

SDSU, which had ended each of the previous three sessions in fifth place, slipped to sixth in the final session with 86.5 points.

Clay Carlson and Cade DeVos each finished with third-place showings in their respective weight classes. A senior from Willmar, Minnesota, Carlson received a forfeit prior to his scheduled consolation semifinal against Oklahoma's Mosha Schwartz, then outlasted Iowa State's Casey Swiderski in the third-place match. In what was a rematch from the opening round, Carlson and Swiderski ended regulation and the first overtime session tied at 2-all. Both wrestlers recorded escapes in the set of 30-second tiebreakers, but Carlson was awarded the decisive point on the merits of a one-second advantage in riding time.

DeVos, a junior from Altoona, Iowa, avenged a loss during the regular season to Oklahoma's Tate Picklo with a convincing 6-1 decision in the consolation semifinals. DeVos was slated to meet Utah Valley's Demetrius Romero in the third-place matchup, but Romero withdrew from the tourney to put DeVos on the podium in the third spot.

Redshirt freshman Cael Swensen added a fifth-place finish for the Jackrabbits at 157 pounds. He dropped a 5-4 decision to Jason Kraisser of Iowa State to open the second day of competition, then came back with a 5-2 decision over Jared Hill, defeating the Oklahoma wrestler for the second time in the tournament.

Heavyweight A.J. Nevills also lost in the consolation semifinals, dropping a 2-0 decision to Northern Iowa's Tyrell Gordon. Nevills was injured in the closing seconds of that match and withdrew from the tournament to close out his championship run with a sixth-place finish.

Other Jackrabbits to post top-eight finishes were Cade King, seventh at 184 pounds, and Tanner Cook, eighth in the 165-pound class. King did not wrestle a contested match during the Sunday afternoon session, while Cook dropped an 8-3 decision to Oklahoma's Gerrit Nijenhuis.

RABBITS RANKED: The South Dakota State wrestling team closed the 2022-23 regular season with its highest ranking under head coach Damion Hahn, checking in at No. 14 following the Jackrabbits' victory over North Dakota State on Feb. 19. It marked the highest ranking for the Jackrabbits since ascending to No. 12 late in the 2017-18 season.

The Jackrabbits began the season ranked in the top 25 after being included in a pair of national polls and maintained a national ranking for most of the 2022-23 campaign.

SDSU 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 preseason top 25, joining No. 4 Missouri, No. 10 Oklahoma State, No. 14 Iowa State and No. 20 UNI.

Following their strong showing at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in early December, the Jackrabbits climbed seven spots to No. 18. The Jackrabbits moved up two more spots in January to No. 16 and continued their steady climb to No. 14 on the strength of a 12-4 dual season that included a 10-match winning streak.

COOK, NEVILLS AMONG PIN LEADERS: Two South Dakota State wrestlers have been ranked in the top 10 among Division I wrestlers for wins by fall this season.

Jackrabbit 165-pounder Tanner Cook entered the Big 12 Wrestling Championship ranked in a tie for eighth with nine wins by fall against D-I competition and added two more in his first postseason tournament of the season. A junior from Ilion, New York, Cook has needed only 23 minutes and 31 seconds of mat time to post his 11 falls, with six of those pins occurring in less than a minute.

Cook was honored Dec. 20 as Big 12 Conference Wrestler of the Week after pinning 13th-ranked Bubba Wilson of Nebraska in only 29 seconds in dual action Dec. 18. He brings a 14-4 season record and a 55-19 career mark into competition this weekend.

At heavyweight, SDSU's A.J. Nevills recently dropped out of the top 10 despite eight wins by fall. Nevills has recorded his eight pins against D-I opponents in 25 minutes and 38 seconds, last adding to his total with a Jan. 22 pin against Wyoming's Mason Ding.

DUAL-MEET DOMINANCE: South Dakota State 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 25-1 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 25 consecutive dual matchups.

For his career, Sloan has compiled a 49-4 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. Sloan completed a 14-0 dual slate during the recently completed 2022-23 campaign.

Nevills, a graduate student from Clovis, California, turned in a 28-4 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 went 14-1 this season, with his lone loss to Wyatt Hendrickson of Air Force.

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).

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 43-22 record (.662 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, followed by a 6-2 mark during the 2022-23 campaign.

The Jackrabbits also turned in back-to-back third-place efforts at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship in 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 OPENS: South Dakota State marked the start of the calendar year by moving into a new home with the opening of the 16,000-square-foot Kurtenbach Family Wrestling Center.

The South Dakota Board of Regents approved plans for the project in December 2020 and ground was broken in September 2021 for the $4 million on-campus training facility, which is located 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 features four competition mats, a strength and conditioning area, locker rooms, team room, coaches' offices and spaces for academics and nutrition.

"This 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."

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 45-30 career dual record and has coached four All-Americans and 22 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 sent four wrestlers on to the NCAA Championships in Detroit.

The 2022-23 season included a 10-dual winning streak en route to a 12-4 record. The Jackrabbits also were strong in tournament settings, placing third at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in December and posting a sixth-place finish at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship. SDSU went on to send a program-record eight wrestlers to the NCAA?Championships.

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 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships mark the end of the 2022-23 season for the Jackrabbit wrestling team.

-GoJacks.com-