Wrestling
Tigers Give #1 Ranked Lopers A Tough Dual But Take The Loss
Feb. 15, 2007
The Fort Hays State wrestling team traveled to Kearney, Neb., Wednesday night for their final dual of the season against the #1 nationally ranked Lopers of Nebraska-Kearney. The Tigers fought valiantly throughout the night, but their upset bid would come up a bit short against the Lopers. The Tigers lost the dual 27-3, but the action was much tighter than what the score indicated.
All of the matches on the evening resulted in decisions, with Nebraska-Kearney taking nine of the ten matches. FHSU’s Mikel Delk, ranked #3 in NCAA Division II, edged #8 ranked Matt True by a 3-2 decision in the 149-pound match for the Tigers’ only win on the evening.

For UNK, the winning did not come easy as their largest margin of victory in a match was an 11-5 decision for #1 ranked Brett Allgood over FHSU’s Derek Patterson by an 11-5 decision. In fact, the Tigers lost by only two points or less in six of the nine wins UNK posted. If FHSU could have taken four of the very tight matches that UNK won, the Tigers and Lopers would have ended in a tie. It was a night of many near upsets for the Tigers, but it was not to be as the Lopers went on to finish undefeated in conference dual action and win the conference dual title outright once again.

The Tigers Andrew Ubben, ranked #4 in the nation, wrestled #1 ranked Tervel Dlagnev very tough in the opening match of the night at heavyweight, losing only by a 5-3 decision. Devin Schwartz also wrestled very well at the 125-pound match losing only by a 3-2 decision to #2 ranked Trevor Charbonneau. James Annon also wrestled tough at 141 as he fell by a tight 8-6 decision to #5 ranked Jeff Rutledge.

Danny Grater tried to get two wins in a row for FHSU after Delk’s win at 149 pounds, but #7 ranked Joe Ellenberger would score a takedown in sudden victory time of overtime to claim a 3-1 decision. Blake Malloy gave Paul Sutton all he could handle at 174 pounds as he lost by a tight 7-6 decision. Tyler Gonzales also came up on the short-end of a one-point decision in the 197-pound match, losing to #8 ranked Kelsey Empting.

The Tigers finished their dual season at 7-6 overall and 4-3 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. The Lopers moved to 17-1 overall and finished 7-0 in the conference. FHSU gave UNK a taste of how tough they could be and could give the Loper wrestlers a tough go once again a couple of weekends from now at the RMAC Championships/NCAA Division II West Regional. The Tigers qualified a school record eight wrestlers for the NCAA Division II Championships last year and will look to qualify as many as they can again this year.