Jared Franek

NDSU’s Jared Franek Repeats As Winner of NCAA Elite 90 Award

TULSA, Okla. – North Dakota State’s Jared Franek is the recipient of the Elite 90 award for the second straight season, as the NCAA presented the Harwood, North Dakota native with the award prior to Saturday night’s championship round at the BOK Center.

Franek, a senior 157-pound wrestler for the Bison, has a 4.00 grade-point average majoring in sport management with a minor in business administration.

Franek is North Dakota State’s 19th Elite 90 award winner across five different sports, and he is the fourth Bison to win the award multiple times, joining Carson Wentz (3x), Clay Ream (3x) and Cole Wisniewski (2x). It is the fifth award for the wrestling program since 2016.

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Franek Named Big 12 Wrestler of the Week

IRVING, Texas – North Dakota State wrestling’s Jared Franek has been named the Big 12 Wrestler of the Week following his performance last week in two duals, picking up a pair of ranked victories.

Franek started off the week on Friday by upsetting No. 4 Brayton Lee of Minnesota, winning 2-1 in the first tiebreaker round of overtime. After a scoreless sudden victory, Franek escaped in two seconds and then held off a late charge from Lee to secure the victory.

The Harwood, N.D. native then defeated No. 23 Michael Petite of Buffalo on Sunday. Franek secured a pair of first-period takedowns on his way to a 6-3 win and improve to 3-1 on the season and 2-1 against ranked competition.

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Franek Named CoSIDA First Team Academic All-American

AUSTIN, Texas – North Dakota State wrestler Jared Franek has been voted to the CoSIDA Academic All-America Men’s At-Large First Team, the College Sports Information Directors of America announced on Tuesday.

Franek, a junior 157-pound wrestler for the Bison, has a 4.00 grade-point average majoring in sport management with a minor in business administration. It is a first-time honor for Franek, who was the recipient of the Elite 90 award for the 2022 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship earlier this year. He was also named to the Academic All-Big 12 team earlier this year.

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Franek Named Winner of NCAA Elite 90 Award

DETROIT – North Dakota State’s Jared Franek is the recipient of the Elite 90 award for the 2022 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship.

Franek, a junior 157-pound wrestler for the Bison, has a 4.00 grade-point average majoring in sport management with a minor in business administration. The Harwood, North Dakota native was presented with the award prior to Saturday night’s championship round at the Little Caesars Arena.

Franek is North Dakota State’s 16th Elite 90 award winner across five different sports, and he is the second Bison wrestler to win the honor, joining Clay Ream, who was the recipient of the award in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

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NDSU 10th in NWCA Top 30 All-Academic Team Standings, Four Wrestlers Scholar All-Americans

MANHEIM, Pa. — North Dakota State University was ranked No. 10 in the 2020 National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Division I Top 30 All-Academic team standings announced Thursday, April 30, while NDSU 197-pound senior Cordell Eaton headlined a group of four Bison named to the NWCA Scholar All-American individual list.

Eaton, a redshirt senior Long Grove, Iowa, would have made his first NCAA appearance. He won the 197-pound true sixth place match to earn the AQ at the Big 12 championship. Eaton went 4-2 at the Big 12 tournament and stands at 15-12 overall. He is a two-time NWCA Scholar All-American and was named the Big 12 Conference Wrestling Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Dylan Droegemueller, a redshirt freshman from Champlin, Minn., would have made his first trip to the NCAA tournament. He had a 3-2 record and battled through the 141 loser’s bracket to place fourth at the Big 12 championship. Droegemueller has a 15-10 record with five major decisions, three pins, and a tech fall.

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Sykora, Franek, and Fogarty Honored as NWCA announces 2020 Division I All-America Teams

MANHEIM, Pa. – North Dakota State 133 Cam Sykora earned second-team All-American honors, and 157 Jared Franek and 165 Andrew Fogarty were honorable mention as the National Wrestling Coaches Association announced the 2020 Division I All-American teams.

Each year the NWCA recognizes the outstanding work of the DI Student-Athletes by naming the All-Americans based on their achievements in the national championship, however, this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic the championships were canceled.

All-American honors were based on each wrestler’s overall body of work through the conference tournaments and up to the national championships.

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