Wrestling Heads to South Dakota to Dual North Dakota State

#24 North Dakota State Bison (5-3, 3-2 Big 12)
Saturday, Feb. 13 | 10 a.m. MT
Frost Arena | Brookings, S.D.

THIS WEEK: The Air Force Academy wrestling team is back on the road for its final dual meet of the season against #24 North Dakota State, Saturday, Feb. 13, in Brookings, S.D. The Falcons will battle the Bison in the neutral site match-up, while also wrestling bonus matches against the host SDST Jackrabbits, as well as Utah Valley. Action from Frost Arena is set to begin at 10 a.m. MT.

FOLLOWING THE ACTION: The dual and bonus matches on mats one and two will stream with a subscription through FloWrestling. Action on mat three is expected to stream on SDSTs YouTube page. All results can be found on TrackWrestling. Fans can also follow results live on Twitter by following @AF_Wrestle.

TAKING OUT RANKED COMPETITION: Last Saturday was a banner day for the Falcon wrestling program, as it upset #21 nationally ranked Northern Colorado for AF wrestling's first ranked dual win since 2002. That was when the Falcons upset #14 Northern Iowa, 18-17, via criteria.
In addition, Air Force also had several upset wins over nationally ranked opponents to highlight the day. Against UNC, junior #16 Jared Van Vleet knocked off #7 Mosha Schwartz, senior #33 Cody Surratt defeated #15 Jackson Hemauer, and junior Kayne Hutchison pinned #15 Jacob Seely. Then against WVU, junior Bradley Bitting defeated #32 ranked Jeff Boyd.

NATIONALLY RANKED FALCONS: Coming into week five, Air Force has six wrestlers ranked by national wrestling outlets:

125: Cody Phippen - #30
133: Jared Van Vleet - #13
141: Lenny Petersen - #19
174: Cody Surratt - #24
184: Jake Thompson - #28
HWT: Wyatt Hendrickson - #28

The Falcons also had six grapplers ranked in the first NCAA Coaches Panel, which is a primary benchmark for at-large NCAA Tournament selection.

125: Cody Phippen - #27
133: Jared Van Vleet - #16
141: Lenny Petersen - #22
149: Dylan Martinez - #33
174: Cody Surratt - #25
HWT: Wyatt Hendrickson - #28

ALL-TIME VERSUS NDSU: Sunday will mark the 19th meeting between the two programs dating all the way back to 1964. NDSU leads the all-time series, 16-2, including winning the last nine meetings. Air Force won the first ever meeting in 1964, 25-3, and last claimed victory in 2011, 22-19.

LAST TIME VS THE BISON: Air Force Academy concluded its road dual schedule with a 31-6 setback to North Dakota State, Sunday afternoon, Feb. 16, at the Scheels Center. The Falcons picked up two bout wins, and had a couple of razor thin decision losses.

North Dakota State 31, Air Force 6
125: McGwire Midkiff (NDSU) over No. 14 Sidney Flores (AF) (Dec 8-7)
133: No. 10 Cameron Sykora (NDSU) over Jared Van Vleet (AF) (MD 14-2)
141: Dylan Droegemueller (NDSU) over No. 33 Lenny Petersen (AF) (Dec 8-7)
149: Jaden VanMaanen (NDSU) over Dylan Martinez (AF) (Dec 8-4)
157: No. 13 Jared Franek (NDSU) over Trey Brisker (AF) (TF 16-0 3:58)
165: No. 9 Andrew Fogarty (NDSU) over Vincent Dolce (AF) (Fall 3:52)
174: Cody Surratt (AF) over Luke Weber (NDSU) (Dec 10-4)
184: Jake Thompson (AF) over Noah Cressell (NDSU) (Dec 3-2)
197: No. 33 Cordell Eaton (NDSU) over Casey Jumps (AF) (Dec 6-1)
HWT: Dan Stibral (NDSU) over Kayne Hutchison (AF) (MD 11-1)

NEXT WEEK: Air Force will host the final regular season event of the year, as they welcome in Northern Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah Valley for the USAFA Round Robin. Action inside the East Gym is set to begin at 10 a.m. MT.

Wrestling Heads to South Dakota to Dual North Dakota State

Next Event

Players Mentioned

Bradley Bitting

Trey Brisker

Vincent Dolce

Sidney Flores

Wyatt Hendrickson

Kayne Hutchison

Casey Jumps

Dylan Martinez

Lenny Petersen

Cody Phippen

Cody Surratt

Jake Thompson

Jared Van Vleet

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