JACKS HEAD WEST FOR PAIR OF BIG 12 DUALS

Thursday, January 16

Riverside, Calif.

8 p.m.

South Dakota State University

California Baptist

Photo by: Evan Patzwald

1/15/2025 1:17:00 PM | Wrestling

#12 South Dakota State at Cal Baptist, Air Force

Date

Thurs. Jan. 16 (Cal Baptist), Sat. Jan. 18 (AF)

Time (CT)

8 p.m.

Location

Riverside, Calif. (Cal Baptist), USAFA, Colo. (AF)

Site

Van Dyne Gym (Cal Baptist), Clune Arena (AF)

TV / Stream

FloWrestling (CBU), FloWrestling (AF)

Live Stats

TrackWrestling (CBU), TrackWrestling (AF)

South Dakota State

Game Notes | Home Page

Brookings, S.D. - The South Dakota State wrestling program is heading west this week as they take on Cal Baptist and Air Force on Thursday and Saturday. These are the first two Big 12 conference duals for the Jackrabbits since their dual with Northern Iowa in November, where they lost a narrow contest, 16-15 on criteria.

THE LINEUP: This is the probable lineup against Cal Baptist and Air Force:

125: No. 15 Tanner Jordan
133: No. 27 Derrick Cardinal
141: No. 24 Julian Tagg
149: Avery Allen or Colin Dupill
157: No. 20 Cobe Siebrecht
165: Marcus Espinoza-Owens
174: No. 11 Cade DeVos
184: No. 6 Bennett Berge or Brock Fettig
197: Thomas Dineen
285: No. 28 Luke Rasmussen
*Flo Rankings used

NWCA National Duals Recap

The Jacks took second at NWCA National Duals this weekend as they split their matches against No. 17 Little Rock and No. 7 UNI on Saturday.

In their first dual of the day, SDSU went up against No. 17 Little Rock. Tanner Jordan started the day for the Jacks with bonus points as he scored a 9-1 decision over Jayden Carson to give SDSU an early lead. Julian Tagg added to the lead at 141 pounds when he took down Brennan Van Hoecke 14-5 to add another four points to the Jacks lead.

SDSU dropped their matches at 149 and 157 pounds by decision allowing Little Rock to take a slight lead after five matches, 10-8. Marcus Espinoza-Owens got the Jacks back on the right track by upsetting No. 24 Joseph Bianchi at 165 pounds with a 13-6 decision.

Cade DeVos followed up Espinoza-Owens with a dominant 8-2 decision against Tyler Brennan. In the highlight match from the dual, No. 6 Bennett Berge took on No. 10 Brock DelSignore. Each wrestler had one point from an escape coming down to the last minute of the match when Berge scored a huge takedown to take a decision 5-1 over DelSignore. This put the Jacks up 17-10 with two matches left.

Thomas Dineen put up a good fight against No. 6 Stephen Little, holding the top-ranked 197-pounder to a 7-3 decision. No. 25 Luke Rasmussen finished the dual with an impressive pinfall victory over Keith Miley at 5:45 of the match to secure the victory for the Jacks, 23-13.

In the championship dual, the Jacks wouldn't fare as well. After a late takedown by Tanner Jordan put the Jacks on the board with a decision win, the Jacks would drop the rest of the matches, allowing UNI to take the bout 31-3.

Derrick Cardinal, Marcus Espinoza-Owens, and Cade DeVos had tightly contested matches at 133, 165 and 174 pounds. Cardinal gained an early lead against Julian Farber with a takedown but couldn't build any momentum, dropping a decision 6-3. Marcus Espinoza-Owens faced a tough challenge going up against No. 18 Jack Thomsen. After each wrestler scored an escape, Thomsen was able to push through a takedown and take a decision over Espinoza-Owens. DeVos battled with No. 16 Jared Simma for the third time this year. After scoring a late takedown to go up 5-4 in the match, DeVos gave up a late reversal, allowing Simma to take the 6-5 decision and go 2-1 against DeVos for the year.

WRESTLER TO WATCH: Julian Tagg
Julian Tagg has become the starter by committee for the Jacks at 141 pounds. The junior has two top-10 ranked wins over No. 5 Cael Happel and No. 9 CJ Composto this year. Tagg's win over No. 9 CJ Composto of Penn, helped jumpstart the Jackrabbits in their dual after dropping the first two matches at 125 and 133 pounds. After Tagg's decision win, the Jackrabbits would take five of the seven remaining matches to win the dual, 21-16.

Tagg enters the rankings for the first time this year at No. 24 in FloWrestling's rankings and No. 31 in Intermat's rankings. The junior from Lodi, Ohio, will be the starter at 141 pounds for the Jacks this week as they take on Cal Baptist and Air Force. He will be one to watch going forward for the Jackrabbits this season.

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. 12 in the NWCA Coaches Poll this week. They are up two spots from last week when they were ranked No. 14 The Jacks come in ranked at No. 3 in the NWCA Coaches Mid-Major Poll.
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, Familiar 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 nine of 10 weight classes as we hit week 11 of the college wrestling season. Drake Rhodes, Luke Rasmussen, Julian Tagg, and Derrick Cardinal have been the biggest movers, going from unranked in the pre-season to ranked in FloWrestling's polls as of week 11.
Series vs. Cal Baptist, Air Force: SDSU is 2-0 all-time against Cal Baptist, with the last meeting between the two schools in 2024. SDSU dominantly took the dual that day, 39-3. The Jacks are 9-9 all-time against Air Force, the last meeting between the two schools took place in 2024 and featured a dominant 32-9 Jackrabbit victory. The Jacks will look to take a lead in the all-time series against the Falcons this weekend.
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.

A Look Ahead

The Jacks will return to action on Jan. 31st after this weekend against Utah Valley, followed by Wyoming on February 1st. This will be the Jacks' first time back home since Dec. 1st against Minnesota.

-GoJacks.com-