Bison boast blowout

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

North Dakota State’s Zach Molitor is declared the winner against Portland State’s Chris Feist in their 165-pound match Friday.

North Dakota State’s Matt Hermann has Portland State’s Kalivas Karras by the leg during their 174-pound match Friday at Bison Sports Arena.

By Jeff Kolpack jkolpack@forumcomm.com
Sports - 01/21/2006

After spending last weekend in Virginia looking like a young Division I wrestling team, North Dakota State grew up a bit on Friday night.

The Bison were the aggressors from the outset in defeating Portland State 37-6 at the Bison Sports Arena.

The matchup of two former NCAA Division II powers was one-sided. The only thing close between the two was the shade of green on their uniforms.

“We thought we could take it to them pretty good,” said NDSU freshman Jacob Bryce. “And I think we took it to them from the start.”

The Vikings, 1-12, won Division II titles in 1989 and 1990 before moving to Division I in the mid-1990s. NDSU, 2-3, won four Division II championships before making the D-I move last season.

NDSU went 1-3 at the Virginia Duals in a performance that wasn’t pleasing to head coach Bucky Maughan.

“We looked flat like (Portland) did in Virginia,” he said. “We were more aggressive tonight. I thought we took it to them the whole night.”

The Bison got pins from Eric Sanders at 133 pounds, Matt Wetterling at 184 and Bryce at 197.

The match started at 157 and NDSU’s Adam Aho set the tempo with an impressive 13-5 decision. Wetterling’s pin over Sean Murphy at 184 gave the Bison a 13-3 lead. The NDSU sophomore continued his fine season, moving his team-best record to 19-6 with 14 of the victories by pin.

“We were ready to go,” Wetterling said. “We expected to win although we had some matches we could have done better.”

Bryce’s pin at 197 was doubly satisfying for the redshirt freshman from Glenwood, Minn. It was his first dual win -- he’s 12-8 overall -- and the first fall of his career.

“There were a couple close ones,” he said. “I was ready to get going to get out there and get that first one.”

It gave the Bison a 19-3 lead.

Zach Molitor, NDSU’s only true freshman in the starting lineup, also got his first dual win, holding off Chris Feist 7-5 at 165.

NDSU’s 37 points was the most since beating Northern Colorado 37-3 in 2004. 125: Mike Meger, NDSU, dec. Bricen Yakabe, 13-3. 133: Eric Sanders, NDSU, pinned Kip Watson, 2:17. 141: David Cunningham, NDSU, dec. Tony Kubec, 14-2. 149: Adam Duryee, PSU, dec. Gabe Mooney, 6-5. 157: Adam Aho, NDSU, dec. Shane Evenhus, 13-5. 165: Zach Molitor, NDSU, dec. Chris Feist, 7-5. 174: Kalivas Karras, PSU, dec. Matt Hermann, 3-2. 184: Matt Wetterling, NDSU, pinned Sean Murphy, 1:12. 197: Jacob Bryce, NDSU, pinned Jake Schneider, 6:01. 275: Mike Maresh, NDSU, dec. Steve Fittinger, 13-4.

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