Max Steigauf / Sports Director / @MSteigauf

SUMMARY

St. Cloud State’s wrestling team returned to Halenbeck Hall on Friday to face the Minnesota State Mavericks. St. Cloud won eight of the ten matches with four bonus point wins to beat Mankato 31-6.

STORY

The Huskies got started fast with the 125 and 133 matches ending with tech falls for Conor Knopick and Caleb Meekins. The Mavericks would swing back at 141 with Trayton Anderson upsetting #12 ranked Alyeus Craig 7-6.

After that upset the matches started to become a lot closer. At 149 it took a late third period takedown for #8 Colby Njos to win his match 4-1. St. Cloud wrapped up the first half of the match on a high note with #1 Nick Novak winning by a 10-0 major decision to give St. Cloud a 17-3 lead heading into intermission.

St. Cloud would once again need another late third period takedown in the 165-pound match for grad student #7 Anthony Herrera to win 4-1. Finally at 174-pound the match would be the first (and only) match that would see the late 1-1 tie turn into overtime. This time Mankato had success getting a clutch takedown on the edge of the mat after St. Cloud’s Bryce Dagel failed on a Hail Mary head lock.

St. Cloud got back to getting bonus points quickly after that with the 184-pound match ending in a 15-0 tech fall for St. Cloud’s #11 Bryce FitzPatrick. At 197 The Huskies’ Dom Murphey turned in another work men like 7-3 win putting the Huskies up 28-6 over the Mavericks. Elijah Novak would end the dual on a high note for St. Cloud with a 5-2 win completing the Huskies 31-6 win over the Mavericks.

St. Cloud will wrestle two times in Halenbeck Hall the next week with #18 ranked Northern State visiting on Thursday at 7 P.M.  and #24 ranked Southwest Minnesota State on Saturday at 2 P.M.