Max Steigauf / Sports Director / @MSteigauf

The St. Cloud State Huskies Wrestling team is now 2-1 in the NSIC after a dominant 40-0 shut out against rival Minnesota State.

Saturday was alumni night for St. Cloud Wrestling and the Huskies certainly didn’t disappoint with three bonus point victories.

The match started at 165 lbs. Anthony Herrera took down Minnesota State’s Kole Marko three times on his way to a 7-3 win giving the Huskies their first win of the match.

At 174 The Huskies’ #1 ranked wrestler Abner Romero continued to heel pick his competition. He dominated the Mavericks’ Mike Smith 9-0 giving the Huskies their first bonus point victory of the day.

At 184 the Huskies would go back to Bryce Fitzpatrick after Shayden Scheidt wrestled for the Huskies against Augustana. The first period would be one of the wildest Halenbeck Hall has ever seen with three reversals scored in the first two minutes of the match. By the time the dust settled Fitzpatrick would take a wild 16-9 victory.

197 #10 Dominic Murphy faced Max Villnow. Murphy wasted no time scooping up a single leg take down. Murphy twisted Vilnow’s head into a nearside cradle and pinning the Mavericks’ 197 pounder in the first period.

By this point the Huskies had built a healthy 16-0 lead heading into the heavyweight match. The Huskies’ True Freshman Eli Novak faced the Mavericks’ best wrestler on their team, Darrell Mason. Last year Mason won the NCAA Division 2 heavyweight title and won the NWCA Division 2 Wrestler of the Year. After the first period the score was tied at zero, but Mason would quickly escape in the second to gain a 1-0 lead. That lead would hold heading into the third period. To start the third Novak would try to escape multiple times, but each time he would get to his feet Mason would bring him back down. Finally, Novak would hit a beautiful switch escaping tying the match at one. Novak would snatch one of Mason’s legs and push the heavyweight straight to his back for a six-point move. Novak would knock off the #7 ranked wrestler 7-1.

To start the second half of the match the Mavericks would forfeit the 125-pound weight class. Moving to 133 #11 Sam Spencer would continue the Huskies roll taking down Isaiah Mlsna four times on his way to a 9-5 victory. 141 would be similar to 133 with #11 Alyeus Craig working over #12 Brock Luthens to a 6-0 win.

149 #8 Joey Bianchini started strong getting a take down and a two-point near-fall to start the match. Bianchini wrestled a strong match through two different takedown reviews to win 7-2 Caleb Meunier.

To wrap up the dual “Tricky Nicky” Novak would send the Husky fans home with something to talk about with a quick nearside cradle pin to finish the match with a bang. The Huskies would shut out the Mavericks for the first time in the 71 years of the rivalry. St. Cloud is now 9-1 in duals and 2-1 in the NSIC with their next match at Moorhead against the Minnesota State Moorhead Dragons on Friday. Then on Saturday the Huskies will travel to Aberdeen to face the Northern State Wolves.