Bison coach salvages day on wild cards

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

03/04/1996

Bison coach salvages day on wild cards Column
by Dave Kolpack

On most years it would be hard to believe that the North Dakota State wrestling team would walk away from the North Central Conference tournament with one individual champion. But Sunday's results were merely an extension of a puzzling season.

"It went pretty much the way our dual season went," said Jeremy LaVigne, NDSU's defending NCC champion who settled for third at 142 pounds. "We knew we had potential this season but we were never able to reach it. It's hard to figure out. Something was missing, maybe the intensity." There was a shining star for the Bison in 177-pounder Robert Finneseth, who spent most of his career stuck in the wrestling room against the team's top competitors. Finneseth brought the hometown crowd to its feet when he decisioned Nebraska-Omaha's Corry Royal in the championship match.

Finneseth saved a ho-hum day.

"It has really been dead in here, hasn't it?" LaVigne asked. "You really can't blame the crowd. We didn't give them a good reason to get excited. I guess if we could only win one match, it was fitting that Robert would win." The Bison had four wrestlers place in the top three, which guaranteed an automatic bid to the NCAA Division II nationals in Greeley, Colo., in two weeks. But they had four other athletes with credentials to reach the big show, including two All-Americans who failed to place in the top five.

That left Bison coach Bucky Maughan in a somber mood for most of the day.

"We knew everything had to go perfect for us to win it," Maughan said. "We weren't wrestling very well to begin with and then we were put into a tough position with some of the seeds. It was that kind of year. We didn't get it done." Maughan was left to sell two of his athletes at the wild card meeting, where the real fun begins behind close doors. The coaches pick six at-large wrestlers among the non-qualifiers to represent the NCC at nationals. It's a little like Oprah Winfrey meets Crossfire.

When the discussion turned from bartering to bickering, Northern Colorado coach Jack Maughan turned to South Dakota State coach Jason Liles and asked, "There's never an easy way to do this, is there?" "There never is," Liles replied.

Bucky Maughan went to bat for George Thompson, a No. 2 seed at 134 pounds, and Jason Cuperus, a No. 3 seed at 150, both of whom finished fourth. Thompson finished second in the nation last year.

After all the fourth and fifth place finishers were posted on the blackboard, Maughan started the debate by shilling for Thompson.

"He had a bad tournament," Maughan told the coaches. "But there's absolutely nobody on the board with any kind of national credentials like George Thompson. He has beaten the (NCC) champion. He has beaten the (NCC) runnerup.

We're all going to be in this position where a kid has a bad start and just has a bad day." Thompson was the first wild card to get voted in. But that opened a can of worms among the coaches because North Dakota's Chris Zink, who has a losing record, beat Thompson in the opening round.

"I don't see the justification there if you vote for Thompson and not for Zink," said UND coach Bruce Moe. "You cannot do it. It's not the right thing and we all know it. We've got to give this tournament some credibility." Zink got the nod on the last ballot.

NDSU's Cuperus was the third wild card to get voted in. So when all was said and done, the Bison qualified six wrestlers for nationals, just one fewer than Sunday's top two finishers, Omaha and South Dakota State.

It was a bad day on the mat. A good day in Room 101 at the BSA.

"We got a little bit of a reprieve," Maughan said. "Now that we've got six wrestlers going, I'm hoping that we can go down there and do something." The tourney didn't end quite so smoothly for the Mankato State Mavericks.

Earlier in the day, one of their wrestlers barrowed the keys for one of two team vans so he could take a nap. When the tourney ended, he went home to St.

Cloud, Minn. -- and took the keys with him.

So they piled the remaining wrestlers and coaches in one van and left the other vehicle here.

"What a way to end the day," said Mavericks coach Jim Makovsky, whose team finished sixth. "Come to think of it, it didn't start very well, either."