Maughan hopes shakeup will awake Bison

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

02/08/1996

Maughan hopes shakeup will awake Bison
By Jeff Kolpack

It hasn't been a good two weeks. Miserable, actually. For Bucky Maughan, about the only thing left to attain low-point status is if his kid's team beat him.

It just so happens North Dakota State travels to Northern Colorado Friday night in North Central Conference wrestling. The Bison are on a four-match losing streak -- two to the weather and one each to Nebraska-Omaha and Mankato State.

The Bison slipped from second to sixth in the NCAA Division II poll. Northern Colorado, coached by Jack Maughan, is fifth.

"He's got a good shot at it," said Bucky Maughan, who has an 8-0 record vs.

Jack. "We've either got to get it together now or I don't know if we're going to do it." The Bison are moving Ryan Wolters to heavyweight and inserting Robert Finneseth into the 190-pound slot. They're also hoping Jeff Kapusta and Mark Pazdernik recover from recent injuries. In short, this has been one of the tougher stretches in Maughan's 32 years at NDSU.

"Our system isn't broke," he said. "We're doing the same things that got us great finishes in the last 20 years." One thing that is different is the start. Because of gender equity regulations, the Bison were capped at a maximum of 26 wrestlers. In past years, Maughan welcomed as many walk-on wrestlers who were willing to accept an all-guts, but no-glory status.

"One thing that is hurting us is our numbers are down so much," he said. "We started with 26 and 10 dropped out. The thing in wrestling and I don't know if it makes it unique or not, but it's really tough to find enough kids who want to come in and get beat up for two years until they improve enough to make it." Wolters, who has struggled to make the 190-pound weight maximum, beat Kelly Greger in a wrestle-off Tuesday to get the heavyweight nod. Finneseth, an All-American, has had a long layoff. But Maughan is hoping his experience will be a boost.

"We started out ranked pretty high," Maughan said, "and I don't know if the kids were very hungry. They didn't have to do anything to get ranked, just on what the Bison teams in the past have done. They haven't proven anything this year. If we're going to have the kind of season we're used to having, we're going to have to pick it up."