No. 2 St. Cloud State handles No. 21 Wolves on Senior Night
St. Cloud, Minn. – No. 2 St. Cloud State Wrestling took care of business on Senior Night, handling No. 21 Northern State 26-6. The Huskies won eight of ten bouts with major decisions by No. 2 Kameron Teacher and No. 7 Paxton Creese at heavyweight and 125. No. 2 Colby Njos scored a 15-0 tech fall in an exhibition match, closing things out in the 2021-22 home finale in dominant fashion. 157-pounder Anthony Herrera scored a big win over No. 8 James Burks for the Huskies’ lone ranked win. The Huskies led in takedowns 20-3 and dominated riding time, earning the additional point in six of their eight wins.
SPOTLIGHT MATCH
No. 7 Paxton Creese gave a vintage performance at 125 full of explosiveness, opening up with an early takedown before letting Landen Fischer free. Creese started on top after deferring to begin the second and was reversed by Fischer, then came right back in a flash to turn his opponent back around and go up 4-3. Paxton worked into a tight hold and put Fischer on his back for four swipes to enter the third leading 8-3. Choosing down, Creese drew a stall then escaped before adding one last takedown. He earned the riding time point for a 12-3 major decision, his fourth straight bonus-point win.
St. Cloud State 26 Northern State 6
157 – Anthony Herrera over No. 8 James Burks, 6-4 (3-0 SCSU)
165 – No. 12 Devin Donovan over Kelby Hawkins, 5-3 (6-0 SCSU)
174 – No. 5 Dominic Murphy over Tanner Wiese, 4-0 (9-0 SCSU)
184 – No. 7 Billy Pitzner over Treyton Cacek, 5-1 (12-0 SCSU)
197 – No. 2 Noah Ryan over Cole Huss, 8-2 (15-0 SCSU)
HWT – No. 2 Kameron Teacher by major decision over Josh Trumble, 15-5 (19-0 SCSU)
125 – No. 7 Paxton Creese by major decision over Landen Fischer, 12-3 (23-0 SCSU)
133 – Teagan Block over Daniel Valeria, 4-1 (23-3 SCSU)
141 – No. 1 Joseph Bianchini over Kolton Roth, 5-1 (26-3 SCSU)
149 – No. 8 Wyatt Turnquist over Nicholas Novak, 8-6 (26-6 SCSU)
Exh. 157 – No. 2 Colby Njos by tech fall over Tyson Stoebner, 15-0
St. Cloud State Coach Steve Costanzo had this to say:
“Through the first seven, I was pretty pleased with the way we won those matches. Danny’s got to wrestle for seven minutes – when you’re ahead by one, you have to wrestle like you’re behind. The kid attacked us, we tried to hold on, we got taken down and beat. We wrestled pretty well at 141, those two guys have wrestled before and gone back-and-forth. We’ve got the best of him both times, but that kid’s a good competitor. 149, it’s a match we’d like to have back, but we’ll get it back soon enough. Nick’s a freshman, he needs those matches to learn from. He will learn from that match, we’ll move forward, and sometimes losing a match here and then is good for you.”
On the senior class’ impact on Huskies Wrestling… “There’s a lot of wins between those six guys right there. They definitely left their mark on the program. I’m super proud of them, I know there’s a lot more for them to accomplish here. They want to get on top of the podium at the end of the season. Most guys have been on the podium, but they want to get to the top. We have to keep working and keep pushing forward, but there’s no doubt we really appreciate what they’ve done for us.”
On preparing for the regular-season finale next week… “We approach every match the same way. We won’t be making a big deal about the match going to Augustana, it’s just another dual for us. Every match is big – it’s not like this match is any bigger than any other match. We’ll just go down there with the same preparation, moxie and attitude and hope to come away with a good performance.”
UP NEXT: The Huskies close out the regular season with a dual at No. 10 Augustana on Thursday, February 17. Coverage is available on the NSIC Network and TrackWrestling, with links available on the SCSU Wrestling page.
Check out Huskies Wrestling at scsuhuskies.com and on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.