No. 2 Huskies blast No. 21 Mustangs 36-4 to open road trip

Thursday, February 3

Marshall, Minn.

7 p.m.

St. Cloud State

Southwest Minnesota State

Photo by: Thomas Breach

2/3/2022 9:45:00 PM | Wrestling

Marshall, Minn. – No. 2 St. Cloud State Wrestling won nine of ten bouts with four bonus-point wins in a 36-4 thumping of No. 21 Southwest Minnesota State on the road Thursday evening. 149-pounder Nicholas Novak pinned Robert Shields at 1:36 in his first collegiate dual, while Jared Head added a quick pin of Nathan Moore 58 seconds into his bout at 165. No. 2 Colby Njos gave the Huskies a monster 16-1 tech fall at 157 and No. 7 Paxton Creese dominated Jackson Stauffacher with a 15-1 major at 125. No Mustang other than No. 4 Caden Steffen scored more than four points on the Huskies.

SPOTLIGHT MATCH

No. 2 Colby Njos put on a clinic at 157 against Lucas Hodges – the Huskies' All-American opened quick with a takedown, cut Hodges loose then brought him down again. Njos went to work on top, breaking Hodges down and putting him on his back twice for four swipes each to enter the second up 12-1. Beginning neutral, Njos went right to work and scored a takedown then added two back points for the tech fall at 3:54.

DUAL RESULTS – No. 2 SCSU 36, No. 21 Southwest Minnesota State 4

133 – No. 3 Garrett Vos over Hunter Pfantz, 5-0 (3-0 SCSU)
141 – Cameron Riggs over Luke Peterson in TB-1, 5-4 (6-0 SCSU)
149 – Nicholas Novak pins Robert Shields at 1:36 (12-0 SCSU)
157 – No. 2 Colby Njos by tech fall over Lucas Hodges, 16-1 (17-0 SCSU)
165 – Jared Head pins Nathan Moore at 0:58 (23-0 SCSU)
174 – No. 5 Dominic Murphy over Carter Marx, 7-3 (26-0 SCSU)
184 – No. 4 Caden Steffen by major decision over Shaeden Scheidt, 13-4 (26-4 SCSU)
197 – No. 2 Noah Ryan over Dillon McEachran, 8-3 (29-4 SCSU)
HWT – No. 2 Kameron Teacher over Jacob Dykes, 8-4 (32-4 SCSU)
125 – No. 7 Paxton Creese by major decision over Jackson Stauffacher, 15-1 (36-4 SCSU)

QUOTABLES

St. Cloud State Wrestling head coach Steve Costanzo

"I thought we had some guys that really wrestled well. 125, Paxton Creese – we talked about that match before the dual – he went out and came pretty close to the tech. A great performance on his part. What a nail biter there at 141, didn't look like we were moving our feet very well, but we found a way to get it done. Sometimes that's what you have to do in wrestling. Going back to 133 with Garrett Vos, those guys have wrestled a few times this year so they're starting to figure each other out a little bit – Garrett wins a 5-0 hard-fought match. Back up to 149 with Nick Novak, making his debut – we just pulled him out of redshirt about a week ago and he didn't disappoint whatsoever. He went out there against a crafty veteran from Southwest and he did a fantastic job. I thought we looked really good at 157 with Colby Njos. Colby came out, he knew he had to wrestle pretty well with his back against the wall competing for a spot with his teammate Herrera. He did well. Going out there and taking care of business at 165 with Jared, getting the pin, I'm really happy for him, get him in the lineup and have success. Dominic Murphy was solid at 174, we'd like to get a few takedowns there but Dom's gotta mix it up a litte bit better. He does what Dom does and did a good job. We were a little undersized at 184 with Shaeden Scheidt – he's a 174-pounder – but he went in and competed hard there for us. Next week we'll have Billy Pitzner back in the lineup, we're getting him healed up and ready to go. At 197 I really liked how Noah Ryan was aggressive the whole time, looking to score points the whole time. The other guy was really wrestling the edge of the mat, and if that was his tactic it worked for him – he didn't give up the major, but you can't win matches that way. I thought Noah did a good job of chasing him down. Kameron Teacher's not feeling that well, but he battles through adversity and gets the job done at heavyweight. He fought off two really good shots by Dykes, and that just shows you the type of competitor that Kam is. Overall, decent performance, we have to get ready for a bit better team on Saturday in Mankato."

On the team's depth at a variety of weights… "We don't have depth at every weight like we do at some of these weights. 157, 165, 149, we have some solid guys all the way up and down our lineups like our starters and backups. It's something you have to have in the NSIC, when you're wrestling top guys in Division II each week – you have to have depth. It's a long season, it's such a grind, and sometimes you just have to rest guys. Sometimes guys just get hurt, and you need fill-ins that are going to go out there, compete and get the job done. Fortunately, we're in that situation right now with a lot of our guys. They're able to fill in and perform well."

On preparing for a short rest ahead of Saturday's dual… "Tomorrow we've got to get them sweating a little bit, get a little workout in and get them feeling good. We won't be too hard on them tomorrow, just prep them for Saturday against Mankato and get them a little bit of a break. I won't be too hard on them tomorrow, but there's still work that needs to be done, there is a rest day looming and that's on Sunday. We'll look forward to our Sunday rest day but there's work to be done and there's business to be taken care of here."

UP NEXT

The Huskies travel to No. 17 Minnesota State-Mankato, February 5 for a road dual at 7:00 p.m. CT. Coverage is available on the NSIC Network and TrackWrestling, with links available on the SCSU Wrestling page.

For all the latest on St. Cloud State Wrestling, stay tuned to SCSUHuskies.com and follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.