ST. LOUIS — South Dakota State wrestlers had a bit of a flair for the dramatic in combining to go 4-1 during the opening round of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships Thursday at Enterprise Center.
After senior 125-pounder Danny Vega dropped a 13-10 decision to 11th-seeded Dylan Ragusin of Michigan, each of the four other national qualifiers for the Jackrabbits recorded late takedowns to pull out victories.
At 133 pounds, 14th-seeded Zach Price went to overtime in his match against Chance Rich of CSU Bakersfield before prevailing, 4-2.
Fellow sophomore Clay Carlson, seeded 15th at 141 pounds, trailed by a point in the closing seconds against Purdue’s Parker Filius, but came away with a takedown just before the final horn to pull out a 7-6 decision.
Redshirt freshman Cade DeVos, seeded 18th at 157 pounds, closed out the morning session for the Jackrabbits with a 3-1 victory over Michigan State’s Chase Saldate. The match was tied at 1 until DeVos logged the lone takedown of the match with about 20 seconds remaining.
Filling out the afternoon program, 13th-seeded Tanner Sloan registered his only takedown of his match against Max Shaw of North Carolina with about 40 seconds to go and held on for a 4-2 victory. That sets up Sloan for a rematch Thursday night against fourth-seeded A.J. Ferrari of Oklahoma State, who defeated the Jackrabbit wrestler, 7-1, in the semifinals of the Big 12 Wrestling Championship two weeks ago.
Thursday’s evening competition begins at 5 p.m. for the lower weights (125-157) and 8 p.m. for the upper weights (165-285). Other matchups involving Jackrabbit wrestlers include:
125 Consolation – Danny Vega vs. Gage Curry (American)
133 Round of 16 – Zach Price vs. #3 Korbin Myers (Virginia Tech)
141 Round of 16 – Clay Carlson vs. #2 Nick Lee (Penn State)
157 Round of 16 – Cade DeVos vs. #2 Hayden Hidlay (North Carolina State)
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