Maughan accuses school of poaching

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

Bucky Maughan NDSU wrestling coach Believes MSU Mankato lured wrestlers from NDSU

By Jeff Kolpack jkolpack@forumcomm.com
Sports - 09/28/2005

North Dakota State head wrestling coach Bucky Maughan on Tuesday accused Minnesota State Mankato of luring athletes from his team.

Four Bison starters have transferred to Mankato in the last two years and another is on the way. Mathias Bitz wrestled for the Mavericks last season and Andy Pickar, Zach Stevens and Tim Kraemer enrolled this semester. Maughan said Dustin Benz intends to transfer to Mankato next semester.

“I’m very upset with Mankato, they’re poaching on us,” Maughan said.

“I’ve had open talks with their coach. This is ridiculous.”

Mankato’s head coach, Jim Makovsky, refutes the allegations. It’s against NCAA rules to actively recruit an athlete from another school.

“I would aggressively deny they were aggressively recruited,” Makovsky said.

Makovsky said all five Bison wrestlers contacted him first. He said the Mankato athletic department faxed a release for each wrestler to NDSU and all five were signed by an administrator from NDSU.

That process gives another school permission to talk to a student-athlete.

“I did as little as I could to facilitate the transfer when they came down here,” Makosvky said. “If NDSU is not Division I, we’re not sitting here having this conversation. I told them it’s as soft a sell as I’m ever going to give them. The choice is theirs.”

NDSU is in the final year of a Division I reclassification in wrestling. The Bison will be eligible for the Division I Championships in 2006.

Kraemer, Benz, Bitz and Stevens are seniors.

“They wanted to compete for a national championship,” Makovsky said.

Mankato finished third in the NCAA Division II Championships last season and is a favorite to better that this year. The Bison were a Division II power until moving to Division I last season.

“In 40 years, nobody has transferred to Mankato,” said Maughan, in his 42nd year with NDSU. “All of a sudden there are five of them. Then you start looking at the makeup of their team -- they’re a JC and transfer team -- and there seems to be a little bit of a pattern there and I’m not very happy with it.”

The toughest blow for NDSU is the departure of Pickar, arguably NDSU’s brightest prospect. The sophomore was 24-8, including an 11-3 dual record at 165 pounds.

“I thought he would have developed into a Division I wrestler,” Maughan said.

All four Bison transfers had winning records last year. Kraemer was 31-7 at heavyweight, Benz 21-10 at 197 and Stevens 15-11 at 149. Bitz, who was 24-15 with NDSU at 141 pounds in 2003-04, took third in the Division II national tournament at 157 last season.

The departures leave NDSU with junior Matt Hermann as the only experienced wrestler. The Bison are expected to field a lineup of true freshmen and redshirt freshmen.

Maughan said none of his incoming recruits will be redshirted. The Bison have a full team of 25 wrestlers.

“Kids will have to grow up in a hurry and find out the intensity level is different at Division I,” Maughan said. “It will be a different year. This is a situation that’s never going to be here again. I told them to take advantage of it.”

Readers can reach Forum reporter Jeff Kolpack at (701) 241-554