Marauders start strong, Mystics return to action
Two collegiate wrestling teams from Bismarck made their way to Jamestown last Saturday, Nov. 1, to compete in the Jimmie Open.
The first, the University of Mary, has long made the tournament their opening competition of their season, and had a dominant performance.
The second was the Bismarck State College wrestling team, which used the Jimmie Open to announce its return to competing in wrestling for the first time since the 1997-98 season.
"We saw a lot of positives from this weekend," Marauders head coach Adam Aho said. "Things we've been working on and stressing through practice and preparation, that was exciting to see. Guys had success and overall I was really pleased."
"We competed and we'll compete as hard as we can," Mystics head coach Jeff Schumacher said. "We're working to get guys down to their hydration weights, which will be a factor, because it's tough to wrestle guys a weight class above you. Get into it a little and we'll be fine."
U-Mary wins five titles, place 17
The Marauders didn't have some of their best wrestlers on the mat as their season got underway on Saturday.
Their large contingent of competitors made sure the missing wrestlers, which included starters Reece Barnhardt and Matt Kaylor, weren't missed too badly, as U-Mary racked up a tournament-high five championships in the 10 weight classes.
"We knew going into the weekend that we wouldn't have some of those guys," Aho said. "Some guys are in PT school, so they didn't compete, Reese was in clinicals all last week so he didn't compete because of that. It was awesome to see our younger guys and newer guys step up in this tournament."
Returning wrestlers were responsible for three of Mary's five titles.
Kaden DeCoteau, who is expected to redshirt this season at the conclusion of the open invitational part of Mary's schedule, racked up a pin, two tech falls and two decision wins in his first collegiate competition at 149 pounds, a weight class up from the 141 he competed at last season. DeCoteau won a 5-0 decision over Northern State's Carter Ban for the win.
"Kaden bumped up a weight class and he's wrestling unattached because he'll be redshirting this year," Aho said. "It was good to see him compete. He is a guy, if you watch him in the room, you wonder how he can win because he can be a little funky, but it's fun to watch him be in some positions in competition and get it done."
In his first full action after escaping the shadow of several talented teammates, Dante Roggio claimed the title at 184 pounds.
Roggio pinned his first two opponents, won by tech fall in the semifinals, then toppled a Northern State transfer that had a D-I pedigree, a run of wins that particularly pleased Aho.
"Dante, this is his fourth year with our program, he won his tournament at 184," Aho said. "He's been behind Max Bruss and Wyatt Lidberg the last few years, so for him to get in and be established as our starter at 184, he wrestled really well. I think there's even another level to where he's at and I think he'll gain some confidence going forward and look good for us."
Luke Tweeton was Mary's final returning champion, starting his first season since earning All-American status with a bang at heavyweight, winning via decision in all four of his matches.
"Luke didn't put up a ton of points this weekend, but he's gritty and finds ways to win, and that's valuable," Aho said. "He showed up, kept his composure even though he was down, and he found a way to turn it around. Hopefully we can light a fire under him and get some more offense from him this year, but it's hard to argue with him with the success he has."
A pair of newcomers were also victorious for the Marauders.
North Dakota State transfer Sean Solis submitted a strong opening for a shot at the 141-pound roster spot, escaping an overtime match against Wayne Joint of Minot State in the quarterfinals before winning by major decision and tech fall in the semis and finals to start his U-Mary career on a high note.
"Sean wrestled well, he's a new guy into our program who wrestled really solid," Aho said. "He doesn't get out of position much, he stays solid in every position."
Mary's final champion was true freshman Michael Murillo at 197 pounds, who will likely join DeCoteau in redshirting.
Murillo collected a pin, a tech fall and two decision wins on his way to a title, beating Minot State's Cannon Potts 10-4 in the championship.
"Michael's a freshman from Bakersfield, Calif., and he wrestled unattached and he's a stud," Aho said. "He'll be something that's special for this program. His credentials are good and he's a high-character kid. He'll represent the program on and off the mat well."
The Marauders had two second-place wrestlers, with Kaden Renner (165 pounds) and Mason Gutenberger (125 pounds) each falling in championship matches against North Dakota State-aligned wrestlers.
"Mason's a true freshman, he's kind of similar to Murillo, we had some true freshmen that impressed us," Aho said. "He beat another NDSU kid to get to the semifinals and his wrestling IQ is there. He's never out of a match, he's stingy and gritty and wears on people.
"Renner at 165, he bumped up two weight classes, he skipped 157 to go to 165 and he wrestled really well. He beat (Brendan) Barnes from Minot State in the semis, Barnes beat Braydon Huber and Leo Mushinsky last year, so that was a big win for Kaden to get under his belt. Kaden looked a little tentative early which hurt him, but other than that he wrestled well and competed through the rest of the match."
All told the Marauders had 17 wrestlers compete in a placement (first-sixth) match in Jamestown, a strong opener against talent that ranged from Division I (NDSU) to the juco level (Bismarck State).
The field was somewhat small in the Jimmie Open, something that will certainly not be the case in Mary's next competition this Saturday in Mitchell, S.D.
"We've had our redshirts and unattached guys go down there in the past," Aho said. "They run a good tournament that goes efficiently. It's a little chaotic, we may have five guys on our team wrestling at once, but it's a good tournament and it'll be good to see other teams from our conference there."
Mystics back on the mat
For the first time in more than a quarter of a century, Bismarck State competed in a wrestling tournament.
The Mystics had 13 of their rostered wrestlers in attendance in Jamestown, as was Schumacher, back in the green and gold for the first time since running the program during its twilight years in the 90s.
"It's still new to me, it's been 30 years since I've coached college, but wrestling is wrestling," Schumacher said. "I enjoy coaching at the higher levels because of the higher-level technical skills you can teach. You have to be really sharp."
Unlike the Marauders, however, the Mystics were unable to crack a placement match.
The best they could do was reaching consolation semifinal matches on two occasions, with 133-pound wrestler Jack Coles going 0-2 but receiving a pair of byes that got him as far as a matchup with Northern State's Rayden Zens and Dale Spillman being the only BSC wrestler to hit a .500 record, going 2-2 before falling to U-Mary's Joey Mushinsky in the consolation semis.
"Dale hasn't been at the collegiate level, and he's 25, 26 years old, he's jumping back in full speed ahead," Schumacher said. "He's my team captain, he's fantastic, he's a leader by example, a super human being, and we're happy and lucky to have him on our squad.
"Jack's a year out (of high school), he didn't wrestle last year, he's back at it this year. He's got a lot of skills, he can go a long way for us."
With a roster made entirely of non-scholarship wrestlers for this final year before Bismarck State moves to the NAIA and four-year competition, Schumacher was pleased with how his team did against a wide range of competition.
"We've got 15, 16 guys that are doing a great job of working hard and trying to get better," Schumacher said. "None of these guys are scholarship, they're all coming out to wrestle for the experience, no money is backing them. They're putting out a hard work ethic and they're doing a good job."
Along with duals against most of the in-state schools - U-Mary on Sunday, Nov. 17, Jamestown on Wednesday, Dec. 4 and Tuesday, Jan. 14, Minot State on Saturday, Jan. 11, and Dickinson State on Thursday, Dec. 12 - the Mystics will spend much of their season getting action in a variety of tournaments around the region.
"We expect to win, as we get our weights down, we're expecting to win and compete hard," Schumacher said. "Sometimes we'll get beat because the other guy is better technically than we are, guys are ahead of us now, but if we can close down some scores, get it closer every time we go out and shake hands, we'll be proud of that.
"We need time on the mat, which is the biggest thing. We want to get on the mat three, four, five times in a weekend so we can evaluate more matches. Then when you get towards the end of the year, you have to wrestle that much at nationals."
Their season leads into a competition to try and advance to the junior college national tournament by competing out in Minnesota in mid-February, a competition that Schumacher feels his group will be more than ready for.
"We have to be able to last two strong days and every time you go out there, you're trying to give your peak performance," Schumacher said. "We go out to the Minnesota conference, which has six other teams, and then we have seven or eight guys in a weight class and two to three qualify for the national tournament, so you have to be either one or two or maybe three if you get a wild card."
The Mystics will join the Marauders in heading to the Dakota Wesleyan Open on Saturday, mixing in again against a host of four-year competition.
"It's a long distance down there," Schumacher said. "It's a big open, there are a lot of teams down there, a lot of mats that will be filled. Last weekend we had five, this weekend will be 12. It'll be one big day of wrestling, last weekend there was maybe 150 athletes, this weekend will be 400-500 athletes."
