FARGO, N.D. – The North Dakota State wrestling team will compete in the 49th Annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships Dec. 29-30 in Evanston, Ill. at Welsh-Ryan Arena on the campus of Northwestern University. The tournament includes ten ranked teams, including No. 1 Iowa, as well as three teams receiving votes. Western Wrestling Conference foes Northern Iowa, Utah Valley and South Dakota State will also be competing. Overall, more than 40 Division I, II and III programs are scheduled to compete.
Tournament Schedule
Thursday, Dec. 29
Session I: 9:30 a.m.
Session II: 7 p.m. (Championship and consolation matches)
Friday, Dec. 30
Session III: Noon (Semifinals, consolation rounds, 7th place matches)
Session IV: 7 p.m. (1st, 3rd and 5th place matches)
Live Coverage
Wildcats All-Access on NUsports.com will provide a live, subscription-based webstream from Thursday night’s quarterfinals and the Big Ten Network will broadcast Friday’s finals on tape delay at 9:30 p.m. @NU_Wrestle will provide Twitter updates throughout the tournament and @NU_SportsLive will provide bout-by-bout updates from Friday’s finals.
Nebraska takes down NDSU
No. 16 Nebraska won nine of ten bouts en route to a 31-6 win over North Dakota State on Sunday, Dec. 18 in Fargo. Trent Sprenkle was the lone Bison to pick up a win, pinning Shawn Nagel in the first period at 125 pounds. The Huskers improved to 7-0 with the win, while NDSU fell to 1-2.
Bison handle South Dakota State
North Dakota State won eight of 10 bouts to claim a 32-9 win over South Dakota State in the Western Wrestling Conference opener Tuesday, Dec. 6. The Bison won their home opener for the fourth time in five years as Trent Sprenkle, Justin Solberg, Mark Erickson, Steven Monk, Tyler Johnson, Kurtis Julson, Mac Stoll and Evan Knutson picked up conference victories.
Sprenkle, Monk maintain InterMat rankings
North Dakota State senior Trent Sprenkle is ranked No. 16 at 125 pounds and sophomore Steven Monk is No. 14 at 157 pounds in the latest version of the InterMat rankings released Dec. 27. Sprenkle is No. 14 in the D1CollegeWrestling.com rankings, No. 14 in WIN Magazine’s rankings and No. 17 in WrestlingReport.com’s rankings. Monk is also No. 13 in WIN Magazine’s rankings, No. 12 in WrestlingReport.com and No. 13 in D1CollegeWrestling.com’s rankings. Redshirt freshman Kurtis Julson is No. 30 at 174 pounds and Mac Stoll is No. 32 at 184 pounds in the WrestlingReport.com rankings.
Division I Teams at Midlands
No. 1 Iowa
No. 7 Illinois
No. 9 Oklahoma
No. 12 Lehigh
No. 13 Maryland
No. 15 Virginia Tech
No. 17 Rutgers
No. 18 Northwestern
No. 19 Central Michigan
No. 24 Edinboro
Cal Poly (RV)
Penn (RV)
Purdue (RV)
American
Bucknell
Cal State Bakersfield
Clarion
Eastern Michigan
Harvard
Iowa State
North Dakota State
Northern Illinois
Northern Iowa
Princeton
Rider
Stanford
South Dakota State
Utah Valley