D-I benchmark

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

NDSU’s Lucas Christianson, upends Princeton’s Eric Marcotulli during the Dec. 7 match.

NDSU head coach Bucky Maughan says his team has set a goal of being ranked in the top 25 “as soon as possible.”

North Dakota State wrestler Nick Magee, right, earned a major decision over Princeton’s Audrey Pang at 133 pounds, helping the Bison defeat the Tigers 29-6 on Dec. 9.

By Jeff Kolpack jkolpack@forumcomm.com
Sports - 01/07/2005

North Dakota State left this week for an East Coast wrestling trip that will encompass 11 days, two tournaments and a dual against Duke University.

The Bison will see all levels of Division I competition including several top 25 teams in the University of Virginia Duals to teams that don’t have a prayer of being ranked in the North Carolina State Duals.

In essence, it will give NDSU a benchmark of where it belongs among its 85 new Division I brothers.

“The top 25 are awfully tough,” head coach Bucky Maughan said. “Then you have another 25 that are pretty solid. After that, it drops off.”

NDSU’s hope is to reach top 25 status in the next few years. It is eligible for national competition in 2006 thanks to an NCAA ruling that allowed each reclassifying school to designate one male and one female sport -- sans football and basketball -- for a two-year probationary period instead of five.

How far away are the Bison?

“It’s not easy,” Maughan said of reaching the top 25 poll. “But that’s what I want to do as soon as possible.”

NDSU is redshirting several wrestlers this year and next year. The team it is fielding this year is not the caliber of past Division II championship teams -- the Bison lost seven starters from last year including graduating seniors and redshirting returning wrestlers.

NDSU made its Division I debut last month with a 29-6 win over Princeton University.

But Princeton is nowhere near top 25 status.

“As far as the Division I ratings go, they weren’t really known in the wrestling field so we knew we had a good shot at them,” said Bison junior Adam Dahlstrom.

Like all Bison wrestlers, Dahlstrom has faced Division I competition his entire career. NDSU routinely wrestled in Division I tournaments in prior seasons. This year, NDSU has already seen wrestlers from 10 of the top 19 teams in the latest Division I coaches poll.

“You have a range of kids,” Dahlstrom said. “There’s a fair amount that you believe you’re going to wrestle well with. For the most part, they’re all pretty decent.”

With NDSU’s change in divisions comes a change in mentality. Whereas Bison wrestlers were once considered “just Division II kids” who hoped to give Division I wrestlers a good match, they now will be required to beat a good share of them.

Maughan has tweaked his practice tempo in an effort to increase his wrestlers’ mental toughness.

“The big thing there that’s nice is that we have a young team,” said assistant coach Bret Maughan. “They’ll see that Division I kids are no different than us. The biggest thing is getting the confidence that these guys we’re facing aren’t Superman.”

NDSU will probably not be intimidated with Division I foes Appalachian State (N.C.), Gardner-Webb University (N.C.) and Campbell University (N.C.) in the North Carolina State tournament. That may change in the Virginia Duals, which includes Nebraska, Missouri, Indiana, Lock Haven (Pa.) and Edinboro (Pa.).

“We’ll have a tough time in that tournament,” Bucky Maughan said. “But if we wrestle well, I think we’ll hold our own in the North Carolina State Duals.”

To get to the level of being competitive in the Virginia Duals, and thus a top 25 team, the head coach is in the process of changing his recruiting strategy. In the past, the Bison concentrated on high school seniors and normally signed them in the spring.

Division I recruiting has an earlier clock. Most top prospects commit in the summer or fall of their senior seasons.

This recruiting season was hindered because NDSU found out that its post-season probation was shortened in October -- too late for most Division I prospects.

Maughan said almost all of them already had committed their five allowable campus visits. This spring, the Bison coaching staff will identify the top juniors at each weight class and go to work. For the first time, the USA Wrestling Junior Nationals at the Fargodome has the potential to yield several Division I prospects for NDSU. “It’s a whole different ballgame,” Bucky Maughan said. It’s a top 25 game the Bison hope to crack sooner than later.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-5546