Lower weights get Bison going, UNC can't recover

The Forum, Fargo, North Dakota

01/12/1997

Bison Wrestling, Lower weights get Bison going, UNC can't recover By Eric Peterson North Dakota State's Jeremy McCrank was literally knocked out in his wrestling match against Northern Colorado's Tom Wagner Saturday. He recovered.

The Bison team delivered its own knockout punch to the Bears, winning the first three matches of the dual. The Bears never recovered.

McCrank's win at 177 and the quick start gave No. 9-ranked NDSU a 25-10 win over No. 6-ranked Northern Colorado in front of 716 fans at the Bison Sports Arena in North Central Conference wrestling. It was the Bison's conference opener.

"I got hit in the head and everything went black," said McCrank, who went down in the second period of his match. "I was a little dizzy for most of the match." That's when McCrank let his instincts take over. He wrestled lights out for the rest of the match and his four points in the third period led him to a 6-2 victory.

"I thought the key to the match was we seemed to take control in the third period," said NDSU coach Bucky Maughan. "I think our conditioning was better." Northern Colorado was wrestling in its fourth dual in five days. The Bears proved to be no match for the Bison, who hadn't wrestled since Dec. 13.

"We've not looked good all week," said Northern Colorado coach Jack Maughan, Bucky's son. "I thought we'd have a chance if we'd wrestled. We didn't wrestle at all. They outhustled us. When the matches got close, they came through." Kyle Pieper kickstarted the Bison with a 3-2 win over all-American Aaron Gonzalez. Pieper's escape in the third period proved top be the difference.

"That was a toss-up match," said Bucky Maughan, who is 10-0 against his son.

"That set the tone." The Bears' only wins came from Tony Benallo (142), T.J. Deaguero (167) and Chris Villalobos (heavyweight).

NDSU extended its lead to 25-7, its largest of the dual, after Ryan Wolters win at 190. Wolters dominated his match, registering seven takedowns on Sean Hadwiger.

The Bison improve 2-2 overall and 1-0 in the NCC with the victory. The Bears fall to 2-3 and 2-3.

"We all looked at it as getting the ball rolling," McCrank said of the match.

"This is the way we wanted to start it. We're looking to keep it going this way."