Fiedler gives Bison one more NCC wrestling title

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

By Heath Hotzler hhotzler@forumcomm.com
Sports - 02/21/2004

It was billed as a battle between two of the top NCAA Division II wrestling heavyweights in the country. It came down to a single middleweight. Mike Fiedler, a senior 165-pounder, scored a 5-3 decision in the final match of the night to lift No. 1-ranked North Dakota State to an 18-13 North Central Conference dual win Friday against rival No. 3 Nebraska-Omaha at Bison Sports Area.
The victory gave NDSU (14-0, 5-0 NCC), which is in its final season in Division II, its 17th conference title. The Bison will begin a Division I transition next year.

“It’s not just the conference title for us,” said Bison senior 157-pounder Paul Carlson. “It’s something for us to go out with. It’s something for us to remember that we were on top of our game during the last year of Division II.”

The drama of the dual began after the fifth match of the night, when NDSU 125-pound freshman Eric Sanders suffered a 14-6 major decision loss against Dustin Tovar.

Tovar’s win cut the Bison’s advantage to 9-7 with five matches remaining.

UNO’s Mitch Waite, the No. 7-ranked 133-pounder in Division II, then defeated No. 8 Nick Magee 5-3 to put the Mavericks ahead 10-9.

Longtime Bison coach Bucky Maughan thought his team had the upper hand following sophomore Mathias Bitz’s 3-2 upset victory against No. 8 Eli Dominquez of UNO at 141.

But the coach’s confidence changed to nerves moments later when Maverick 149-pounder Patrick Allibone upset the Bison’s Zach Stevens, 8-1.

“Every year we wrestle Omaha it’s the same,” Maughan said. “When we won at 141 I thought we had it. Then our 149-pounder gets beat and it’s back to a nail-biter right down to the end.”

The Bison, who lead the series 20-13-2, topped UNO 18-13 during January’s national duals tourney, won a 16-16 decision by criteria last year in Omaha and were victorious 18-13 two years ago in Fargo.

Carlson, the top-ranked and defending national champion at 157-pounds, gave NDSU a 15-13 lead with a 3-2 win against Chas DeVetter.

Then it was up to Fiedler to seal the deal.

“I felt good that it was in my hands,” Fiedler said. “And I got it done right away in the first period, luckily.”

Fiedler scored four points against freshman J.D. Naig with a pair of takedowns in the final 45 seconds of the first period.

“I had a lot of confidence in Fiedler,” Maughan said. “But I’ve seen a lot of fluky things in wrestling. There are no sure things in wrestling.” 125: Tovar, UNO, maj. dec. Sanders, 14-5. 133: Waite, UNO, dec. Magee, 5-3. 141: Bitz, NDSU, dec. Dogminguez, 3-2. 149: Allibone, UNO, dec. Stevens, 8-1. 157: Carlson, NDSU, dec. DeVetter, 3-2. 165: Fielder, NDSU, dec. Naig, 5-3. 174: Pike, NDSU, dec. Conlin, 7-4. 184: Hermann, NDSU, dec. Oviatt, 5-4 (OT). 197: Kraemer, NDSU, dec. Strandberg, 7-3. HWT: Stigman, UNO, dec. Bryce, 7-2.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Heath Hotzler at (701) 241-5562