Aggressive Bison top No. Colorado

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

By Jeff Kolpack jkolpack@forumcomm.com
Sports - 01/23/2005

Andy Pickar took a beating during North Dakota State’s recent wrestling trip to the East Coast. His right eye was almost swollen shut and his face had more colors than the rainbow.

“People were asking me what went wrong,” Pickar said.

Not much went wrong on Saturday for the Bison, who were aggressive and sharp against Northern Colorado. Pickar’s pin put NDSU in firm control in a 31-3 win over the Bears at the Bison Sports Arena.

Pickar didn’t waste any time. He almost put John White on his back just seconds into the match and then ended it with a stiff takedown after 1 minute, 25 seconds. “I wanted to go after it,” he said. Pickar is turning his freshman season into one of excellence. He’s 19-8 against mostly Division I competition. “He’s the real deal,” said NDSU head coach Bucky Maughan. “When we hit Division I, he has a chance to qualify and get in there.” Pickar’s pin gave NDSU an 18-3 advantage. NDSU’s only hiccup was Lucas Christianson’s 5-3 loss to Kenny Hashimoto, a match that Christianson led until the third period.

NDSU’s Mike Meger and Nick Magee were in control in their wins by decision at 125 and 133, respectively. Zach Stevens started an upper weight onslaught at 149 with a dominating 7-1 win over Nathan Gerrard.

That gave NDSU, which improved to 6-2 in duals, a 9-3 lead and the momentum.

Collin Kelly, Pickar, Adam Dahlstrom and Matt Hermann followed with successive convincing victories. Hermann’s 15-6 win over Cole Allison was the 50th of his career.

“We were the better team on our feet,” Maughan said.

It was not an easy day for the Bears, who fell to 3-5. They started the day in Brookings, S.D., by defeating South Dakota State 31-12 in a match that started at 1 p.m.

They were on Interstate 29 driving north by 3 p.m. arriving at the Sports Arena about two hours before the NDSU match. “We were a flat team,” said UNC assistant coach George Thompson, who was in charge because head coach Jack Maughan was back home awaiting the birth of his first child. NDSU and UNC are both going through a Division I transition. They’ll see each other again in February at UNC. “We didn’t compete as well as we should have,” Thompson said. “This is a hard place to come into and I think some of our guys have it in their heads that it’s going to be a tough place. I thought in some weights we gave them too much respect.” 125: Mike Meger, NDSU, dec. Blayze Bahe, 6-4. 133: Nick Magee, NDSU, Kyle Kaiser, 6-1. 141: Kenny Hashimoto, UNC, dec. Lucas Christianson, 5-3. 149: Zach Stevens, NDSU, dec. Nathan Gerrard, 7-1. 157: Collin Kelly, NDSU, dec. Mikell Surber, 8-5. 165: Andy Pickar, NDSU, pinned John White, 1:25. 174: Adam Dahlstrom, NDSU, dec. Shawn Hart, 11-4. 184: Matt Hermann, NDSU, dec. Cole Allison, 15-6. 197: Dustin Benz, NDSU, dec. Tanner Linsacum, 4-3. HWT.: Tim Kraemer, NDSU, dec. Sam Safken, 10-3. A--781.

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