Northwestern Dual

The opener is this Sunday vs #16 Northwestern. Northwestern is actually really solid this year and should be favored by a good margin. They have studs at 125 and 157, and 7 starters ranked in the top 20. Wrestlestat has this as a 25-11 win for Northwestern.

The margin of error for a Bison win is thin, but there is a way. Wins at 133, 149, 165, 174, 184, and HWT is the best path IMO. 197 and 125 are within the realm of possibilities too. Fleetwood has beaten Sebastian Rivera both times they have wrestled, so perhaps he can do it again, but I'm very skeptical of it.

My prediction (rankings from FloWrestling):
125-#3 Rivera dec Fleetwood. Rivera is great and I think he gets on his offense easy enough to win by 4 or 5. 3-0 NU
133- #20 Sykora dec #15 Valdiviez. Valdiviez was literally the last NCAA tournament entrant last year, after he got into the tournament an hour before it started when Nebraska's Jason Renteria missed eight. He would up posting an impressive 2-2 mark at NCAAs. I still like Cam though. If Cam can get a takedown, I think he gets to his tilts and wins. 3-3
141- #20 Thomas dec Sutton. Thomas is really solid and only a rFr. I expect him to rise through the rankings and contend for an AA spot. Sutton looks solid, but I think Thomas is too much. 6-3 NU
149- Jaden Van Maanen dec Shayne Oster. JVM looks really solid and looks to score points in bunches. Oster is a veteran who is in his third year as Northwestern's starter. 6-6
157- #7 Deakin maj Knutson. Deakin is a junior world silver medalist and legitimate All American contender. He had a brutal path at last years NCAA tourney, and he wound up missing the podium. I expect him to overwhelm Knutson. 10-6 NU
165- #12 Fogarty tech Cody. No idea who Northwestern will throw out at 165, but assuming they don't burn a redshirt, they're going to be throwing out guys that really struggled to win a match. Fogarty should roll. 11-10 NDSU
174- #14 Sebastian dec De La Riva. De La Riva has beaten Sebastian in their only previous meeting, but Sebastian had the vastly superior year last year. Hopefully I'm wrong here. 13-11 NU
184- McNutt dec Morland. Veteran vs the youngster, and I'm going with the veteran. Morland had a solid redshirt season. I expect a close match here. 14-13 NDSU
197- #19 Chakonis dec Eaton. Even though Chakonis is ranked, this looks like a toss up to me. Hope I'm wrong on the result. 17-13 NU
HWT- Metz dec #10 Jennings. I think the youngster wins this one. I expect a low scoring match and just can't see Jennings getting a takedown. I'll bet on Metz getting the only takedown and the win. 17-16 NU.

This is a great opportunity for several NDSU guys to get a top 20 win and get some respect nationally. Should be a great one.

Also, if you use the code TTWR1, you can get a ticket to the match for $5 if you buy today. Hope to see a big crowd for what should be an exciting dual.

I missed it if this was mentioned before, but it looks like this is going to be on Flowrestling, along with the rest of our home duals.

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The debut of North Dakota State's home duals on FloWrestling!

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https://www.flowrestling.org/events/...edule/schedule

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Originally Posted by RadioBison

I missed it if this was mentioned before, but it looks like this is going to be on Flowrestling, along with the rest of our home duals.



https://www.flowrestling.org/events/...edule/schedule

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Yeah, that's obviously new this year. That's big from a wrestling community perspective. Flo, and specifically FloWrestling, has gotten huge and it is a great way to put your program in front of recruits eyes.

For those that can't make it to the dual and don't pay for Flo, the dual will also be broadcast free on BEK sports.

Is there an actual delay for the dual? I’m just hoping it’s not a Flo malfunction. Go Bison.

It’s been delayed Three times now.

Great performance today. Any time you can beat a top 20 team from the best conference, that's a good day.
125- Fleetwood went out and dominated the backup like he should. Set a great tone for the dual and I liked that he stared down #3 Rivera and exchanged some friendly words for ducking him after he won. He has beaten Rivera both times they've faced off too, which certainly makes it seem like Northwestern was avoiding him.
133- Great match by Cam. Good early takedown and got a quick tilt, which led to a win over the #15 ranked wrestler in the country.
141- Sutton got pinned, which sucks, but he generally wrestled well up until that point. He had some nice flurries and exchanges with Thomas, who again, I fully expect to contend for AA status.
149- Van Maanen was exciting, high scoring, and nerve wracking. In the end it worked out and he got the narrow win, but there are definitely things he can clean up. It is going to be very fun to watch him throughout the year.
157- Knutson was outmatched by #7 Deakin, which was to be expected. The good news is he kept wrestling hard and showed a good gas tank. Now he just needs to show he has a go to takedown.
165- Fogarty dominated like he should and got another big fall for NDSU.
174- De La Riva was extremely sloppy, but he also had some nice attacks. His gas tank looked fine, but he needs to pick his shots much better and work to clean finishes immediately. Still, Sebastian is a borderline top 10 guy and I could see De La Riva beating him, should they meet again.
184- Great match by McNutt and he absolutely dominated. If he is this crisp on his feet in every match, he's going to be a problem for a lot of guys this year.
197- Great job by Cordell Eaton to record probably the signature win of his career thus far. He had some nice clean attacks, was controlled, and didn't put himself into bad spots and that allowed him to knock off the #19 ranked wrestler at 197.
HWT- This didn't go very well. The match was very close for two periods, but Jennings controlled the third with a simple tilt. Metz has to get better at mat wrestling (both riding and escaping) if he is to threaten the big fellas at NCAAs. He looked fine on his feet. Jennings is a very solid heavyweight, so no need to panic.

Nice summary Big Bird. Yeah, I enjoyed Fleetwood staring into the Northwestern bench. I was hoping for a better match for the former Packer Metz, but, like you say, no need to panic.

Good start for the boys. I can't wait for the Oregon St and Iowa St matchups.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sAGdl-ByhO4

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Originally Posted by Big Bird

Great performance today. Any time you can beat a top 20 team from the best conference, that's a good day.

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I haven't been able to watch the matches yet, but it sounds like the guys did well.

However, this dual is a good example of one that leaves me scratching my head. On paper, NW would be favored over us at 125 and 184, yet they wrestled back-ups. I think we had a pin and a tech at those weights, so you could be looking at something like a 17-point swing. It seems like they didn't put out the line-up that would give them the best chance to win. I suppose that it could be having guys injured or unable to make weight, but I'm not sure. It feels more like they just don't care about which team wins the dual, and they want to do something that will be more beneficial in the long run. I'm not trying to take anything away from our guys. We had some impressive wins and beat the team they put on the mat, and who's to say that we wouldn't still have won against all of their starters? It's just something that bugs me about college dual meets.