NEW YORK – The South Dakota State University wrestling team wrapped up a successful season Friday at the NCAA Division I Championships contested at Madison Square Garden.
The Jackrabbits entered the second day of the national tournament with four of their school-record five national qualifiers still in contention; however, the Jackrabbits went a combined 2-5 in competition on Friday.
Redshirt freshman Seth Gross was the lone victorious Jackrabbit on Friday, winning two of his three matches in the 141-pound consolation bracket. Both of Gross’ victories were third-period come-from-behind victories as he rallied for a 12-10 decision over Purdue’s Danny Sabatello and came back later for a 10-6 win over Jimmy Gulibon of Penn State. Gross’ tournament run came to an end one win shy of qualifying for All-America honors in a 10-3 loss to Solomon Chishko of Virginia Tech. Gross ended the tournament with a 3-2 record and finished the season with a 26-14 overall mark.
Senior 157-pounder Cody Pack entered Friday without a loss after winning his first two tournament matches, but also came up one victory short of achieving All-America status. In the quarterfinals, the seventh-seeded Pack was edged 11-10 by 15th-seeded Chad Walsh of Rider (N.J.). Pack later dropped a 10-3 decision to Dylan Palacio of Cornell (N.Y.) to end his collegiate career tied for sixth on the SDSU career wins list with Aaron Veskrna (1999-2002) with 114. A four-time national qualifier, Pack finishes the season with a 29-5 record.
Also competing Friday were David Kocer at 174 pounds and 197-pounder Nate Rotert. Both Jackrabbit wrestlers were eliminated with losses during Friday’s first session as Kocer dropped an 8-0 major decision to Pennsylvania’s Casey Kent and Rotert was upended by Kent State’s Kyle Conel, 9-4.