No. 1 Minnesota defeated No. 20 North Dakota State University in dominating fashion on Sunday evening to advance to the semifinal of the EAS/NWCA National Duals hosted in Columbus, Ohio. The Gophers, who were able to gather 35 team points, won nine bouts on the evening including two falls and two major decisions.
Redshirt freshman Sam Brancale rejoined the lineup and started the dual off with a major decision over Hunter Weber of NDSU, 10-1. The dual allowed Brancale to move to 14-5 on the season and Minnesota started the dual off with a four point lead over North Dakota.
No. 8 David Thorn kept the ball rolling as he defeated Justin LaValle by fall at 3:34. No. 6 Chris Dardanes and No. 3 Nick Dardanes were both able to defeat their NDSU opponents by decision, 6-1 and 4-2 respectively.
After an exciting and much needed fall last weekend in front of a sold out Sports Pavilion, Dylan Ness moved to No. 5 in the InterMat individual rankings. Ness delievered another standout performance on Sunday evening as he defeated Nicholas Olejnik by fall at 4:14, sealing another six points for the Gophers.
The only loss of the evening for Minnesota came at 165 as Danny Zilverberg was defeated by decision by Steven Monk of NDSU and collected the only three points for the Bison on the evening.
No. 6 Logan Storley, No. 8 Kevin Steinhaus and No. 4 Scott Schiller all claimed decision victories and racked up nine points for the Gophers en route to their 35-3 victory.
Minnesota’s Michael Kroells stepped in for heavyweight Tony Nelson and came away with a 14-5 major decision and sealed the win for the Gophers by adding the final four points for the Gophers.
NDSU (10-5) continues action at the National Duals in Consolation Round 2 at 10 a.m. (CT) Monday against the No.25-ranked Oregon State Beavers. The Bison and Beavers met once previously this year, with NDSU picking up a 19-17 non-conference victory on Jan. 19, in Corvallis, Ore.
With the victory over North Dakota State University, the Gophers advance to the semifinal round and will wrestle Big Ten foe, Ohio State University at 1 p.m. on Monday afternoon. The Big Ten Network will air the semifinal between the two teams.
Match #1 Champ. Round 1: Minnesota received a Bye
Match #2 Quarterfinal:
Minnesota 35, North Dakota State 3
125 – Samuel Brancale (Minnesota) over Hunter Weber (North Dakota State) Maj 10-1
133 – David Thorn (Minnesota) over Justin LaValle (North Dakota State) Fall 3:34
141 – Christopher Dardanes (Minnesota) over Clayton Cathey (North Dakota State) Dec 6-1
149 – Nick Dardanes (Minnesota) over Tyler Diamond (North Dakota State) Dec 4-2
157 – Dylan Ness (Minnesota) over Nicholas Olejnik (North Dakota State) Fall 4:14
165 – Steven Monk (North Dakota State) over Daniel Zilverberg (Minnesota) Dec 8-5
174 – Logan Storley (Minnesota) over Hayden Zillmer (North Dakota State) Dec 9-3
184 – Kevin Steinhaus (Minnesota) over Kurtis Julson (North Dakota State) Dec 6-0
197 – Scott Schiller (Minnesota) over Tyler Lehmann (North Dakota State) Dec 8-5
285 – Michael Kroells (Minnesota) over John Gusewelle (North Dakota State) Maj 14-5