JACKS HEAD TO CEDAR FALLS FOR NATIONAL DUALS

Friday, January 10

Cedar Falls, Iowa

South Dakota State University

NWCA National Duals

Photo by: Jenna Batka

1/9/2025 11:26:00 AM | Wrestling

#14 South Dakota State at NWCA National Duals

Date

Friday, Jan. 10 - Saturday, Jan. 11

Time (CT)

10 a.m

Location

Cedar Falls, Iowa

Site

UNI Dome

TV / Stream

FloWrestling

Live Stats

TrackWrestling

South Dakota State

Game Notes | Home Page

Brookings, S.D. - The South Dakota State wrestling program heads to Cedar Falls for the second time this year to compete at the NWCA National Duals. The National Duals will be held in the UNI Dome, marking the second time the Jacks will compete in the Dome this year. The Jacks will compete against some of the best mid-major programs in the country, including Northern Iowa, Little Rock, Ohio and Wyoming. The Jacks will go up against the Chippewas of Central Michigan in their first-round matchup.

THE LINEUP: This is the probable lineup for the NWCA National Duals:

125: No. 12 Tanner Jordan -or- Daniel Guanajuato

133: No. 20 Derrick Cardinal

141: Caleb Gross -or- Julian Tagg

149: Colin Dupill -or- Avery Allen

157: No. 21 Cobe Siebrecht -or- Moses Espinoza-Owens

165: No. 13 Drake Rhodes -or- Marcus Espinoza-Owens

174: No. 7 Cade DeVos

184: No. 6 Bennett Berge -or- Brock Fettig

197: Thomas Dineen

285: No. 25 Luke Rasmussen -or- Cody Donnelly

*Flo Rankings used

NWCA National Duals Schedule:

Day 1 -

10 a.m. - Division I Men Round 1

Noon - Division I Men Round 2 Champ

2 p.m. - Division I Men Consis

4 p.m. - Division I Men Consis Round 2

Day 2 -

9 a.m. - Division I Men Consi Semis

11 a.m. - Division I Men Semis

1 p.m. - Division I Men 3rd, 5th, & 7th Place Matches

3 p.m. - Division I Men 1st Place Match

Soldier Salute Recap

Logan Swensen and Tyson Peach placed third in their respective weight classes as 11 Jackrabbits finished on the podium on the second day of the Soldier Salute. The Jacks finished fourth by team score.

After dropping his first match of the day to Kale Petersen of Iowa, Swensen rallied and grabbed a win over his teammate Cale Seaton on his way to compete for third place at the Soldier Salute. In the third-place match, Swensen controlled a 10-5 victory over No.32 Stockton O'Brien of Wyoming to clinch third at 133 pounds.

Peach dropped a tightly contested dual to No. 6 Vance VomBaur in his semi-final match but bounced back, scoring a decision win over Cullan Schriever of Iowa. He took care of business in his third-place match, dominating a 9-3 decision over Jace Rhodes of Iowa and securing a third-place finish in a tough 141-pound bracket.

In other action, Julian Tagg and Burk Blasius placed fifth in their respective divisions after Tagg scored a 7-2 decision in his match and Blasius accepted a medical forfeit.

After dropping his opening match of the entire tournament, Caleb Gross wrestled his way to the podium at 141 pounds. He secured a seventh-place finish by scoring a major decision over Missouri's Owen Uhls, 13-4.

Cale Seaton, Avery Allen, Marcus Espinoza-Owens, Brock Fettig, Thomas Dineen, and Cody Donnelly all placed on the podium as well. Seaton dropped a hard-fought fifth-place match at 133 pounds, leaving him with a sixth-place finish. Avery Allen fell to Adam Allard by decision, placing sixth at 149 pounds.

Brock Fettig and Marcus Espinoza-Owens had good showings at the Soldier Salute but couldn't come away with victories in their third-place matches at 184 and 165 pounds, leaving both with fourth-place finishes. Dineen and Donnelly both finished eighth in their respective divisions.

WRESTLER TO WATCH: Bennett Berge

Bennett Berge last competed at the Rider Quad duals for the Jackrabbits. The redshirt sophomore went 2-0 that day with two top-15 wins against No. 9 Jaxon Smith of Maryland and No. 11 Reece Heller of Pitt. In the month of December, Berge went 8-2 against his competition with both losses coming against top-20 wrestlers in Isaac Dean of Rider and Max McEnelly of Minnesota. He also scored a win over No. 19 Jaden Bullock of Michigan at CKLV. Berge was awarded SDSU's Male Student-Athlete of the Month in December for his efforts.

Berge will have an interesting matchup to look out for in the tournament. With UNI competing in the National Duals, we will likely see a rematch between Berge and No. 2 at 184 pounds Parker Keckeisen of UNI. Berge lost an 8-3 decision in the pair's first match but is one of two wrestlers not to allow Keckeisen to score bonus points this year. This will be a match to look out for as the tournament begins.

Jackrabbit Summary

The South Dakota State Jackrabbit Wrestling program is looking to capitalize on a successful 2023-24 season as they return to action in 2024-25 under head coach Damion Hahn.

The return of three All-Americans highlights the squad: Tanner Jordan (125), Cade DeVos (174), and Bennett Berge (184). They return alongside NCAA qualifiers Derrick Cardinal (133), Alek Martin (149), and Cael Swensen (157).

SDSU returns to the mat in 2024-25 after finishing third in the Big 12 Championships and 13th at the NCAA Championships in 2023-24. The Big 12 Championships were highlighted by the crowning of Cade DeVos (174) and Tanner Sloan (197) as champions in their respective weight classes.

The Jacks are coming off a season in 2023-24 where they had a program-record four All-Americans and a program-record-tying eight NCAA Qualifiers. The Jacks went 13-4 in dual meets and 7-2 in conference duals. This is highlighted by a 7-1 home record for South Dakota St. with wins over Air Force and Wyoming.

SDSU is full of new faces, as the program brought in 12 newcomers in the offseason. Six of the newcomers are freshmen. This includes Burk Blasius, Kenton Cooke, Shane McConville, Logan Swensen, Tyson Peach, and Quin Morgan. Sophomore Jacob Fistler wrestled with the JWC last year but has now been added to the 2024-25 squad.

In September, the Jackrabbits announced the addition of four transfers from the University of Iowa. Those include Zach Glazier, Cobe Siebrecht, Cade Siebrecht and Drake Rhodes.

Glazier was the runner-up at 197 pounds at the Big 10 Championships for Iowa in 2023-24. He put together a 37-9 record over 4 years with Iowa, including a 9-4 record against ranked opponents in 2023-24.

Cobe Siebrecht sat out of competition in 2023-24, but in 2022-23, Siebrecht was an NCAA Qualifier at 157 pounds and finished seventh at the Big 10 Championships. He put together a 21-11 record over three years of competition at Iowa.

The Jacks are led by head coach Damion Hahn, who is in his seventh year at the helm of SDSU. Hahn holds a record of 58-34 overall and a Big 12 dual record of 28-21. The 2023-24 season was his best mark by far as the leader of the Jackrabbit wrestling program, as the team went 13-4 in duals. SDSU received their highest preseason ranking from InterMat under Hahn as they are ranked No. 9 to start the season, and are No. 10 and No. 12 in the FloWrestling and NWCA Coaches polls, respectively. He is joined by Cam Simaz, Cody Caldwell, and Clay Carlson as his assistant coaches.

Key Storylines

The New: South Dakota State added four transfers in September from the University of Iowa: Zach Glazier, Cobe and Cade Siebrecht and Drake Rhodes. The transfers come in alongside six freshmen.
The Old: SDSU returns seven of its 10 starters from last year, including All-Americans Tanner Jordan, Cade DeVos and Bennett Berge. The team also returns NCAA Qualifiers Derrick Cardinal, Alek Martin and Cael Swensen.
Program Records: The Jacks brought home a program record four All-Americans in 2023-24 with Tanner Jordan, Cade DeVos, Bennett Berge and Tanner Sloan. The Jacks tied their program record of eight NCAA Qualifiers by sending Cardinal, Martin, Swensen and Clay Carlson.
Experience Matters: The projected starting lineup for the Jackrabbits this year includes five athletes in their sixth year of collegiate eligibility. Amongst those five athletes, they total eight NCAA Qualifications, 1 Big 12 Title and two All-American honors.
In the Rankings: SDSU is ranked No. 14 in the NWCA Coaches Poll this week. There was no movement for the Jacks from last week. The Jacks are ranked at No. 3 in the NWCA Coaches Mid-Major Poll.
Home Mat Advantage: The Jackrabbits put up a home record in 2023-24 of 7-1. Their only loss came to fellow ranked program Missouri, only losing the dual 19-21. SDSU scored over 30 points in six of their eight home duals.
In the Classroom: The SDSU wrestling program had the fourth-highest team GPA in the country amongst wrestling programs last year, according to NWCA. The Jackrabbits compiled a 3.5416 team grade-point average to receive the team recognition for the fourth season and were the highest-ranking Big 12 Conference school.
New Staff, Old Faces: Two-Time All-American Clay Carlson was added to the wrestling coaching staff in the offseason as an assistant coach. Carlson wrestled at SDSU for six years and was a four-time NCAA qualifier, two-time All-American and two-time Big 12 Wrestling scholar athlete of the year. Brady Berge was also promoted from volunteer assistant coach to the head coach of the JWC regional training center.
Individual Rankings: The Jacks have a wrestler ranked in eight of 10 weight classes as we hit week 10 of the college wrestling season. Drake Rhodes, Luke Rasmussen and Derrick Cardinal have been the biggest movers, going from unranked in the pre-season to ranked in FloWrestling's polls as of week 10.
NWCA National Duals: The National Duals begin on Friday, Jan. 10th and run through Saturday the 11th. Division 1 teams are competing in the National Duals for the first time since 2017. The tournament will run in a bracket-style with duals between teams. The Jacks are ranked as the 2-seed as the tournament begins, behind the 1-seed hosts Northern Iowa.
Offseason work: Cael Swensen finished second at the U23 National Duals in Geneva, Ohio, over the summer in the 74-kilogram division. Fellow Jackrabbits Marcus Espinoza Owens, Kail Wynia, Thomas Dineen, Derrick Cardinal and Brock Fettig competed at the event, with Wynia and Dineen placing fourth in their respective divisions.