JACKS SET TO COMPETE AT SOLDIER SALUTE

Sunday, December 29

Coralville, Iowa

10 a.m.

South Dakota State University

Soldier Salute

Photo by: Dave Eggen/Inertia

12/28/2024 1:01:00 PM | Wrestling

#14 South Dakota State at Soldier Salute

Date

Sunday, Dec. 29 - Monday, Dec. 30

Time (CT)

10 a.m (Day 1), 11 a.m (Day 2)

Location

Coralville, Iowa

Site

Xtream Arena

TV / Stream

B1G+

Live Stats

TrackWrestling, SmoothComp

South Dakota State

Game Notes | Home Page

Brookings, S.D. - The Jackrabbit wrestling team is back in action after the Christmas holiday break as they head to Coralville, Iowa, to compete in the Solider Salute. The Jacks will send 17 wrestlers, mostly reserves, to the Solider Salute to go up against some of the best in college wrestling.

THE LINEUP: These are the wrestlers registered for the Soldier Salute:
125- Daniel Guanajuato
133- Cale Seaton
133- Logan Swensen
133- Kenton Cooke
141- Caleb Gross
141- Tyson Peach
141- Julian Tagg
149- Colin Dupill
149- Avery Allen
157- Moses Espinoza-Owens
165- Marcus Espinoza-Owens
184- Burk Blasius
184- Brock Fettig
184- Jared Thiry
197- Thomas Dineen
197- Quin Morgan
285- Cody Donnelly

SOLDIER SALUTE SCHEDULE

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2024

Session 1 – 10:00 AM – 2:00 PM

Session 2 – 3:30 PM – 8:30 PM

MONDAY, DECEMBER 30, 2024

Session 3 – 11:00 AM – 3:00 PM

Session 4 – 5:00 PM – 7:30 PM

RIDER QUAD AND DREXEL RECAP

The Jacks scored a pair of ranked wins over No. 18 Pittsburgh and No. 24 Maryland as they swept all three of their duals Friday at Rider. The duals were a homecoming for head coach Damion Hahn as he returned to New Jersey, where he was a three-time high school state champ and held the record for pins and consecutive wins.

SDSU's first dual of the day was with the host, Rider. The Jacks had three wrestlers make their season dual debuts: Caleb Gross, Brock Fettig and Thomas Dineen. Dineen and Fettig scored wins in their matchups, with Fettig scoring a sudden victory win against ranked opponent No. 24 Isaac Dean. Elsewhere, Tanner Jordan, Derrick Cardinal, Drake Rhodes, Cade DeVos and Luke Rasmussen took care of business as the Jackrabbits handled the Broncos, 30-10.

The Jacks went up against the No. 18 Pitt Panthers in their second dual of the day. Caleb Gross scored his first win of the season over No. 31 Anthony Santaniello, a 2-0 gritty decision win. Jordan and Cardinal started the match off with back-to-back decision victories, with Cardinal's being over No. 27 Vinny Santaniello. Drake Rhodes shutout No. 32 Jared Keslar, and Bennett Berge came away with a top-15 win over Pitt's Reece Heller, 9-6, thanks to some third-period heroics from the redshirt sophomore. Berge scored two takedowns in the third for a gritty win over Heller. The Jacks took six of the 10 matches as they scored their first ranked win of the day over No. 18 Pitt.

SDSU finished out the Rider quad with a dual against No. 24 Maryland. Moses Espinoza-Owens scored his first dual win of the season, scoring some late takedowns against Maryland's Mekhi Neal for an 8-3 decision. Jordan, DeVos and Rhodes all scored their third wins of the day by decision, with DeVos scoring a major. Berge took home a top-10 win against Jaxon Smith after scoring a takedown against the No. 9 wrestler at 184 pounds with 20 seconds left in the match. Tommy Dineen and Luke Rasmussen closed the action with back-to-back major decisions, capping off a 27-7 win for the Jackrabbits.

The Jacks scored wins in seven of the 10 matches on Saturday as they took care of business against the Drexel Dragons, 25-10.

No. 12 Tanner Jordan started the dual off with bonus points in the first match as he took down Desmond Pleasant by major decision, 16-3. No. 23 Derrick Cardinal followed him up by battling through a 6-3 decision win over Kyle Waterman.

Caleb Gross scored his third win of the season in his first week of action as he took down Jordan Soriano on a 9-6 decision. Colin Dupill got back in the win column, scoring a dominant 5-1 win over Dominic Findora, putting the Jackrabbits up 13-0 in the match.

The Dragons got on the board at 157 and 165 pounds as Luke Richter scored a 12-3 major decision win over Moses Espinoza-Owens and Cody Walsh scored a hard-fought decision over SDSU's Marcus Espinoza-Owens, 4-3. At 184 pounds Brock Fettig held a lead over Giuseppe Hoose for most of the match before allowing a late takedown, dropping a 5-4 decision to Hoose.

Cade DeVos, Thomas Dineen, and Luke Rasmussen closed the match with wins at 174, 197, and 285 pounds. DeVos scored a major decision win to get the Jacks back on track in the dual taking the match, 13-3. Dineen scored his third win of the weekend at 197 pounds as he fought through a challenging match with Ethan Wilson, 9-6. Rasmussen added the only technical fall of the day for the Jacks taking out Shane Whitney, 18-3.

WRESTLER TO WATCH: THOMAS DINEEN

Thomas Dineen is coming off a week where he went 3-1 in dual action. Dineen scored wins against Steyn De Lange from Rider and Chase Mielnik from Maryland during the Rider duals and lost his match against No. 14 Dayton Pitzer when he moved up to heavyweight for the dual against Pittsburgh.

Dineen followed his effort at the Rider Duals up by scoring a win over Ethan Wilson during the dual with Drexel. These matches were Dineen's first dual action of the season. He will look to build more confidence with a good showing at the Soldier Salute.

JACKRABBIT SUMMARY

The South Dakota State Jackrabbit Wrestling program is looking to capitalize on a successful 2023-24 season as they return to action in 2024-25 under head coach Damion Hahn.

The return of three All-Americans highlights the squad: Tanner Jordan (125), Cade DeVos (174), and Bennett Berge (184). They return alongside NCAA qualifiers Derrick Cardinal (133), Alek Martin (149), and Cael Swensen (157).

SDSU returns to the mat in 2024-25 after finishing third in the Big 12 Championships and 13th at the NCAA Championships in 2023-24. The Big 12 Championships were highlighted by the crowning of Cade DeVos (174) and Tanner Sloan (197) as champions in their respective weight classes.

The Jacks are coming off a season in 2023-24 where they had a program-record four All-Americans and a program-record-tying eight NCAA Qualifiers. The Jacks went 13-4 in dual meets and 7-2 in conference duals. This is highlighted by a 7-1 home record for South Dakota St. with wins over Air Force and Wyoming.

SDSU is full of new faces, as the program brought in 12 newcomers in the offseason. Six of the newcomers are freshmen. This includes Burk Blasius, Kenton Cooke, Shane McConville, Logan Swensen, Tyson Peach, and Quin Morgan. Sophomore Jacob Fistler wrestled with the JWC last year but has now been added to the 2024-25 squad.

In September, the Jackrabbits announced the addition of four transfers from the University of Iowa. Those include Zach Glazier, Cobe Siebrecht, Cade Siebrecht and Drake Rhodes.

Glazier was the runner-up at 197 pounds at the Big 10 Championships for Iowa in 2023-24. He put together a 37-9 record over 4 years with Iowa, including a 9-4 record against ranked opponents in 2023-24.

Cobe Siebrecht sat out of competition in 2023-24, but in 2022-23, Siebrecht was an NCAA Qualifier at 157 pounds and finished seventh at the Big 10 Championships. He put together a 21-11 record over three years of competition at Iowa.

The Jacks are led by head coach Damion Hahn, who is in his seventh year at the helm of SDSU. Hahn holds a record of 58-34 overall and a Big 12 dual record of 28-21. The 2023-24 season was his best mark by far as the leader of the Jackrabbit wrestling program, as the team went 13-4 in duals. SDSU received their highest preseason ranking from InterMat under Hahn as they are ranked No. 9 to start the season, and are No. 10 and No. 12 in the FloWrestling and NWCA Coaches polls, respectively. He is joined by Cam Simaz, Cody Caldwell, and Clay Carlson as his assistant coaches.

KEY STORYLINES

The New: South Dakota State added four transfers in September from the University of Iowa: Zach Glazier, Cobe and Cade Siebrecht and Drake Rhodes. The transfers come in alongside six freshmen.
The Old: SDSU returns seven of its 10 starters from last year, including All-Americans Tanner Jordan, Cade DeVos and Bennett Berge. The team also returns NCAA Qualifiers Derrick Cardinal, Alek Martin and Cael Swensen.
Program Records: The Jacks brought home a program record four All-Americans in 2023-24 with Tanner Jordan, Cade DeVos, Bennett Berge and Tanner Sloan. The Jacks tied their program record of eight NCAA Qualifiers by sending Cardinal, Martin, Swensen and Clay Carlson.
Experience Matters: The projected starting lineup for the Jackrabbits this year includes five athletes in their sixth year of collegiate eligibility. Amongst those five athletes, they total eight NCAA Qualifications, 1 Big 12 Title and two All-American honors.
In the Rankings: SDSU is ranked No. 14 in the NWCA Coaches Poll this week. There was no movement for the Jacks from last week.
Home Mat Advantage: The Jackrabbits put up a home record in 2023-24 of 7-1. Their only loss came to fellow ranked program Missouri, only losing the dual 19-21. SDSU scored over 30 points in six of their eight home duals.
In the Classroom: The SDSU wrestling program had the fourth-highest team GPA in the country amongst wrestling programs last year, according to NWCA. The Jackrabbits compiled a 3.5416 team grade-point average to receive the team recognition for the fourth season and were the highest-ranking Big 12 Conference school.
New Staff, Old Faces: Two-Time All-American Clay Carlson was added to the wrestling coaching staff in the offseason as an assistant coach. Carlson wrestled at SDSU for six years and was a four-time NCAA qualifier, two-time All-American and two-time Big 12 Wrestling scholar athlete of the year. Brady Berge was also promoted from volunteer assistant coach to the head coach of the JWC regional training center.
Individual Rankings: The Jacks have a wrestler ranked in eight of 10 weight classes as we hit week eight of the college wrestling season. Drake Rhodes, Luke Rasmussen and Derrick Cardinal have been the biggest movers, going from unranked in the pre-season to ranked in FloWrestling's polls as of week nine.
Soldier Salute: The Solider Salute begins Sunday, Dec. 29th and will feature action at all 10 weight classes in a bracket format. At last year's Soldier Salute, Luke Rasmussen and Cael Swensen finished as runner-ups in their division, and Alek Martin finished third at 149 pounds.
Offseason work: Cael Swensen finished second at the U23 National Duals in Geneva, Ohio, over the summer in the 74-kilogram division. Fellow Jackrabbits Marcus Espinoza Owens, Kail Wynia, Thomas Dineen, Derrick Cardinal and Brock Fettig competed at the event, with Wynia and Dineen placing fourth in their respective divisions.