It was a long weekend, but that’s no excuse for Doug Schwab, and it’s no excuse for UNI.
“Nope. Not at all. That is not an excuse. End of that story,” was Scwhab’s response when asked if the travel was a factor. “It doesn’t matter.”
But the Panthers didn’t really need an excuse today. After falling to Cornell 30-17 last Friday night the Panthers were able to keep North Dakota State at bay, winning 21-19. The dual came down to the last match of the day and Josh Alber came up with the tech fall in his first dual meet win of the year.
“It didn’t matter where I was in the lineup, I made up my mind this morning that I was just going to come out and whatever happened, I was gonna try to score,” Alber said after the meet. “To win a dual there are a lot of cogs that have to go into play. I was just fortunate to be the last guy.”
It certainly makes for a more exciting dual, when it comes down to the last match of the night. Had the dual started at 125 pounds UNI would have dropped the final two matches of the night sending the crowd home a tad unhappy.
But it didn’t. The teams first squared off at 149 pounds and Max Thomsen go the Panthers on the scoreboard first, getting a 6-1 win over Kyle Gliva. Thomsen had over four minutes of riding time but couldn’t work Gliva over for any nearfall points.
UNI would lose the lead in the next match, where Paden Moore dropped a major decision to NDSU’s #13 Clay Ream. Moore was down 8-1 in the first period, but came back two within three before dropping the match.
Andrew Fogarty extended the NDSU lead with a fall over UNI’s Isaiah Patton in sudden victory. Patton took #19 Andrew Fogarty to overtime after a great second period ride that included a two-point nearfall. The two went to the third tied at 2, but Patton was unable to get out from bottom forcing sudden victory. The Panther was in on a single leg, but caught caught and thrown to his back to drop the match.
Taylor Lujan got the crowd going with pinfall victory over Dylan Urbach in the 3rd period. Lujan had dominated the match, getting seven takedowns to that point, but that wasn’t enough for the sophomore as he locked up a cradle and finished things early.
At 184 Drew Foster got his first dual win of the year, racking up 2:36 of riding time on the way to an 11-6 win. Foster looked good in the early periods, then faded a bit as he would give up two takedowns in the 3rd.
Neither of the upper weights went UNI’s way as Izaak Shedenhelm fell 11-5 to NDSU’s Cordell Eaton, and Carter Isley lost 7-1 to Dan Stibral. Both men showed well, but neither was able to score enough points to get the win. In Shedenhelm’s case he had the opening takedown and some good scrambles, but wasn’t able to hold off Eaton. In Isley’s case Stibral was just a lot bigger than he was. The Panther was in on a couple shots, but Stibral used heavy hips to get out and around for his own points.
In what was probably the most exciting match of the day NDSU’s (and Carter Lake, Iowa’s) McGwire Midkiff had his redshirt pulled by head coach Roger Kish. Midkiff did not disappoint his coach and came away with a 11-6 win over Jack Wagner. The match featured some really exciting scrambles, and Wagner has a style unlike any previous UNI 133 pounder in recent memory.
Jay Schwarm also had a bonus-point win for UNI. He won 10-2 over Paul Bianchi with over six minutes of riding time.
The Panthers will next be in action at the Las Vegas Invitational the first weekend in December.
#12 UNI 21, NDSU 19
149: #3 Max Thomsen dec Kyle Gliva 6-1
157: Clay Ream Maj dec Paden Moore 15-7
165: #19 Andrew Fogarty won by pinfall over Isiah Patton in 7:20
174: #9 Taylor Lujan won by pinfall over Dylan Urbach in 5:59
184: #4 Drew Foster dec Tyler McNutt 11-6
197: Cordell Eaton dec Izaak Shedenhelm 11-5
285: Dan Stibral dec Carter Isley 7-1
125: #20 Jay Schwarm major dec Paul Bianchi, 10-2
133: McGwire Midkiff dec Jack Wagner 11-6
141: #12 Josh Alber tech fall Sam Hampton 19-4
[…] Panthers haven’t seen dual action in nearly a month. A fourth place finish at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas and the UNI Open were sandwiched […]
[…] really good weekend in Las Vegas. After experiencing a loss in Ithaca, New York to Cornell and then winning a tight battle with North Dakota State, the Panther Train was a little slow out of the station, but it looks like […]
[…] of his own which pulled UNI to within one at 10-9. Those bonus points were critical in the Panthers 21-19 victory, which will go down as the team’s first victory as members of the Big 12 […]
See what that little game of possum with Cornell yielded for us against those suckers from NDSU!? They came in thinking that we were soft, and stuck it to ’em without them even knowing what happened. 😉
Sorry I haven’t been replying to comments, I just figured out that my notification thing was off, so I didn’t know people were leaving them.
I agree the Cornell loss – especially the way they lost – was bad. Like we-need-to-reevaluate-the-expectations-for-UNI-this-year-bad, at least in my eyes. They are still a VERY young team (two juniors is the oldest the starting lineup gets) so maybe that’s a little bit of an explanation for the slow start but I really thought that with everything they did last year they would be ready to go right out of the box this season. And with the very limited amount of dual exposure they’re going to have this year they need to maximize their opportunities.
My expectations were perhaps too high at the start of the year too – I really thought the only dual that they would lose was to Okie State, and maaayyyybbeee Missouri. But it’s got to be nice to be undefeated in conference.
Thanks for commenting. I was obviously being a bit facetious, as I always try to gloss over UNI’s performances for those who see only doom and gloom.
We’re probably also finding out just how big Yates, Steiert, and to a lesser degree, Holschlag being out of the lineup really is. I feel confident in saying that Yates and Steiert would have been wins both nights.
With all of that said, I think what I learned is that Cornell may just be tougher than most are expecting, which shouldn’t have been a surprise, given their resources, environment, and the ability to recruit.