Pins lead Huskies to 25-13 win over Minnesota State
ST. CLOUD, MINN. – Wrestling duals between St. Cloud State University and Minnesota State University Mankato are always intense, maybe none more so than Thursday evening.
In a dual that included 11 nationally ranked wrestlers, both Huskies and Mavericks fans were on the edge of their seats in Halenbeck Hall waiting to see whether or not one team would extend history or another would stop it. It was the St. Cloud State fans that went home happy Thursday evening, as two tech falls and a handful of hard-fought wins by decisions led the Huskies to a 25-13 win over the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (NSIC) rival Minnesota State.
It was clear this would be one of the closest matches for the season for St. Cloud State, as the Mavericks earned an early win, as Trenton McManus defeated Paxton Creese (Shakopee, Minn. / Shakopee) by decision 8-3 at 125 pounds. However, the Huskies couldn’t be held scoreless for long, as Garrett Vos (Bonifacius, Minn. / Waconia) proved why he’s the No. 1 wrestler in the nation at 133 with a 6-2 win of his own to tie the score at 3-3.
No. 4 Joseph Bianchini (Elk Grove, Ill. / Immaculate Conception) kept things rolling for St. Cloud State, as he won by major decision 11-3 over Kolbe O’Brien to extend the Huskies lead to 7-3.
That’s when things got tight. The Mavericks won the next two matches, tying things at 7-7 with a win at 149 before a sudden death overtime win at 157 gave Minnesota State a 10-7 advantage. Devin FitzPatrick (Mahtomedi, Minn. / Mahtomedi) delivered one of St. Cloud State’s biggest wins of the night, pinning Michael Smith in 1:42 to give the Huskies a 13-10 advantage.
Again, the Mavericks managed to tie things 13-13 with a 5-3 decision win at 174 pounds before No. 11 Billy Pitzner (Jefferson, Wis. / Milton) delivered a lead St. Cloud State would never relinquish. His 7-2 win over Dylan Butts at 184 pounds gave the Huskies a 16-13 lead, which No. 4 Noah Ryan (Mantorville, Minn. / Kasson-Mantorville) extended to 19-13 with a 7-3 decision win over his own at 197 pounds.
It was No. 1 Kameron Teacher (Gove City, Ohio / Central Crossing) who delivered the fastest (and loudest) win of the night at 285 pounds. The heavyweight did not mess around in the final individual match of the evening, pinning David Griffit in 39 seconds, the team and crowd roaring him and the team to its 25-13 victory.
The Mavericks, now 3-1 overall on the year and 3-1 in NSIC matches, host the University of Mary Feb. 4 in their next action.
With the win, the Huskies overall record improves to 3-0 and they are now 3-0 in NSIC play. St. Cloud State will return to action on Thursday, February 4 when the team travels to Kenosha, Wisconsin to take on NSIC newcomer UW-Parkside. The dual is set to begin at 7 p.m.
#1 St. Cloud State 25 #11 Minnesota State 13
125: Trenton McManus (MSM) over Paxton Creese (SCSU) (Dec 8-3)
133: Garrett Vos (SCSU) over Brock Luthens (MSM) (Dec 6-2)
141: Joey Bianchini (SCSU) over Kolbe O’Brien (MSM) (MD 11-3)
149: Kyle Rathman (MSM) over Garrett Aldrich (SCSU) (MD 8-0)
157: Cooper Siebrecht (MSM) over Coby Njos (SCSU) (SV-1 5-3)
165: Devin Fitzpatrick (SCSU) over Michael Smith (MSM) (Fall 1:42)
174: Trevor Turriff (MSM) over Devin Donovan (SCSU) (Dec 5-3)
184: William Pitzner (SCSU) over Dylan Butts (MSM) (Dec 7-2)
197: Noah Ryan (SCSU) over Matt Blome (MSM) (Dec 7-3)
285: Kameron Teacher (SCSU) over David Griffet (MSM) (Fall 0:39)
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