The Johnnie wrestling team travels to Moorhead to face Concordia for a 7 p.m. dual Friday, Jan. 31.
Saint John’s (1-4 dual record) hosted two events last weekend (Jan. 24-25) in Sexton Arena. The Johnnies suffered a 38-9 loss to Wisconsin-Eau Claire Friday night and hosted their annual North Country Open Saturday. The Blugolds took advantage of a forfeit at 125 pounds and recorded four bonus-point wins, including three pins, in the victory.
Senior Noah Becker (Browerville, Minn.), who is ranked as high as No. 3 nationally by D3wrestle.com at 133 pounds, posted a first-period pin (2:25). Becker continued his winning ways the following day at the North Country Open with two victories, a pin in 26 seconds and a 10-5 decision over Kyle Burwick from Division I Wisconsin, before exiting the tournament.
Senior Quincy Spiering (Mounds View, Minn./St. Thomas Academy) collected the other victory in Friday’s dual with a 4-3 win at heavyweight. At the North Country Open, Spiering finished third at heavyweight in the silver bracket with a 3-1 record. He lost his opening-round match and advanced to the third-place match thanks to a pair of medical forfeits. Spiering took third with a first-period pin of Augsburg’s Luke Zaiser and is now 8-8 this season.
Seniors Dan Gainer (St. Paul, Minn./Cretin-Derham Hall) and Anthony Hennen (Cologne, Minn./Norwood-Young America) both went 2-2 to claim fifth place at 174 and 141 pounds, respectively, in the silver bracket.
NATIONAL RANKINGS: Becker stayed at No. 3 nationally in the latest D3wrestle.com poll released Jan. 28 and moved up one spot to No. 5 in the National Wrestling Coaches’ Association (NWCA) rankings posted Jan. 29. Becker’s opponent for Friday, Concordia’s Jacob Prunty, moved up one spot to No. 6 in the NWCA rankings. Prunty is not ranked by D3wrestle.com.
A LOOK AT THE COBBERS: Concordia-Moorhead (5-4 dual record) fell to Division II MSU-Moorhead 20-19 last Thursday (Jan. 23). The Cobbers jumped out to an early 16-6 lead by winning three of the dual’s first five matches. The dual started at 184 pounds and freshman Gabe Zierden scored first for the Cobbers at 197 with a pin 3:41 into the match. Another pin by junior Cole Kubesh at 125 pounds and a major decision at 141 by sophomore Jacob Prunty gave the Cobbers the 10-point lead (16-6) at the halfway point. Concordia held a one-point advantage after nine matches, but MSU-Moorhead’s Evan Foster defeated the Cobbers’ Ian Frenzel 6-2 for the dual win.
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FRIDAY’S PROBABLE LINEUPS: The two teams are scheduled to send this lineup to the mat Friday.
125: Open vs. Cole Kubesh (15-7)
133: No. 3/5 Noah Becker (15-1) vs. No. 6 Jacob Prunty (14-3)
141: Anthony Hennen (9-15) vs. Cade Lundeen (12-8)
149: Carter Entinger (0-1)/Graham Evavold (1-9) vs. Kellen Schauer (8-6)/Bret Wilson (5-5)
157: Jerod Novak (8-4) vs. Tyler Bents (12-9)
165: Logan Edwards (2-11) vs. Caden Spindler (6-3)
174: Jacob Scherber (18-14) vs. Ian Frenzel (10-7)
184: Dan Gehrz (9-11)/Lincoln Shinn (7-6) vs. Ayden Friese (7-12)
197: Dominic Skawiniak (11-10) vs. Gabe Zierden (14-7)
285: Mason Nibbe (6-7)/Quincy Spiering (8-8) vs. Chase Dockter (0-1)
LAST YEAR: Then-No. 22 Concordia won seven matches in a 31-12 win over Saint John’s last Jan. 25 (2019) in Collegeville. Becker earned his 10th consecutive win, and 19th in his last 20 matches, with a 6-1 decision at 133 pounds. Ahead 2-1 late in the match, Becker was awarded a point for stalling with 49 seconds left, escaped and recorded a takedown for good measure to seal the victory.
Senior Jerod Novak (Aitkin, Minn.) brought the Johnnies to within three (12-9) with a pin at 157 pounds, but the Cobbers answered with three straight bonus-point wins to clinch the dual win.
Luke Dodd ’19 won his fifth straight bout, moving his season record to 11-3, with a grueling 5-4 victory at 197 pounds.
SERIES HISTORY: The Johnnies are 15-12 against the Cobbers since 1995, including a 4-5 record in Collegeville. Concordia has won 12 of the last 14 meetings and each of the last seven. SJU had a 13-match win streak against CC from 1995-2007.
Check out Johnnies Wrestling at gojohnnies.com.
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