1/18/07

Wrestlers Take Fourth at National Duals

149-pounder Rhoten defeats top-two wrestlers in the nation for his weightclass

by Tyler Buckentine
Issue date: 1/18/07
Section: Mens Sports

Considering what some of the Minnesota State wrestlers pulled off individually at the NCWA Division II National Dual Meet, it looked like the Mavericks had a successful weekend.

Too bad it wasn't an individual meet.

MSU lost a pair of back-to-back duals to close out the weekend for a fourth-place finish. The Mavericks fell to No. 2 ranked Nebraska-Kearney in the semifinals, 20-16, and No. 1 ranked Central Oklahoma in the third-place dual, 18-15.

"We're disappointed because a championship was right within our grasp. We needed a few matches to go our way and they didn't," coach Jim Makovsky said. "We wrestled our ass off. Our conditioning looked great. We wrestled extremely hard this weekend.

"We had a lot of guys wrestling ranked kids so it gives our guys a good measuring stick to see where they're at."

Fourth-ranked Jason Rhoten beat the two top wrestlers in the country at 149 pounds and finished the weekend 4-0.

Andy Pickar, who had wrestled only two matches prior to this weekend, also went undefeated at the National Duals.

Jeff Pfaffinger's only loss came at the hands of No.1 ranked Brett Algood of Nebraska-Kearney.

True-freshman Travis Elg shed his redshirt status to fill in at 141 pounds and pinned two of his opponents.

"I know the guys felt great about their conditioning, but it was just a couple mistakes and the outcome is different," Makovsky said. "We're going to try to clean out those mistakes, but the biggest thing is the effort is there."

MSU opened the weekend with a 33-6 drubbing of Chardon State. In the quarterfinal, the Mavericks had nine come-from-behind wins, including four that were won in the final ten seconds, as they took care of Fort Hays State, 29-12.

"Everybody knows we're going to wrestle all 420 seconds. Every second of every match," Makovsky said.

The Mavericks were without Nick Smith, a junior at 125 pounds, who suffered an ankle sprain two weeks ago. He is probable for tonight's dual at No. 19 Minnesota State Moorhead

"We had a guy out at 125 pounds. So if you look at our matches, you can't be too disappointed," said Pickar, a junior at 165 pounds. "Our 125-pounder is ranked second in the country and it hurts not having him in the lineup."

MSU will wrestle dual meets for the remainder of the regular season.

Winter Break

The Mavericks rolled through Winter Break with a 10th place finish at the Reno (Nev.) Tournament of Champions on Dec. 20. The open tournament included many Division I schools. Brandon Girtz and Brady Wilson each placed fifth at the tournament, while Jeff Pfaffinger and Efrain Ayala took sixth.

MSU picked up pair of wins with routs over The University of Mary, 41-12, and Northern State 39-9 on Jan. 6 and 7.

"We had a lot of our backups in against Mary and those guys stepped it up big time," Pickar said. "That's one good thing about this team, that we have depth in a lot of spots. Where those guys would be starting at other schools, and here they are filling in as backup role and preparing like a starter."

The Mavericks did get a break from the action when Makovsky gave them nine days off from Dec. 21-29.

"Having a break is actually good for you physically. You get to stop for nine days and get your batteries recharged," Makovsky said. "If you're constantly climbing and never stop for a little break, you can't see where you're coming from. It's no different then climbing a mountain, you just have to stop and look at the scenery every now and then."

"I was jacked when they came back. There's no other way to put it."

Tyler Buckentine is a Reporter staff writer