A daunting task ahead
Wrestling team to face No. 10-ranked Penn State
Wrestling coach Bucky Maughan wanted his team to travel to the Virginia Duals this season to give the Bison a taste of the top competition in the nation.
After the team’s first match today, the Bison might feel like they had a full course meal of top-tier wrestling.
The NDSU wrestling team is scheduled to face 10th-ranked Penn State today at 8 a.m. in Hampton, Va. to begin the Virginia Duals, a two-day tournament featuring some of the top-ranked college wrestling teams in the country.
“This will be a great start,” Maughan said, whose team has its first Western Wrestling Conference match January 19. “This is one of the premier events in the country.”
The Bison competed in the same event the last two seasons. The team finished with a 1-2 record each of the years. Last year they defeated The Citadel and Virginia in 2005.
NDSU has had tough opening-round draws the last two years, drawing No. 25-ranked Penn last season and Penn State this year. Penn crushed the Bison 38-3 in that match.
Although the Bison have improved since their 2005-06 campaign, Penn State might be a tougher dual than Penn.
The Nittany Lions enter the Duals as the top seed and have a record of 6-1.
Five of the Penn State wrestlers are nationally ranked, while the Bison have one.
NDSU junior Eric Hoffman is ranked No. 16 in the country at 125 pounds.
Maughan says Hoffman’s match will be key to NDSU’s success against the Nittany Lions. He will have his hands full, however, as he is set to face No. 2-ranked Mark McKnight.
“I don’t know if I will be able to face another wrestler like (McKnight) the rest of the season,” Hoffman said. “So it will be a good test for me.”
Hoffman, a transfer from Iowa Central Community College, is 9-2 on the season.
The Bison haven’t competed in nearly a month, since they defeated South Dakota State 30-14 in their first dual of the year.
Despite the long break, Maughan thinks that his team will be ready to wrestle.
“We came back a week early from break and have done two-a-days since then to prepare,” Maughan said. “You don’t lose that much in two weeks.”
Maughan said with the wrestling season being so long, it actually helps to have a break in the middle of the year.
No matter the outcome of the Penn State dual, the Bison are guaranteed three duals this weekend.
“This will be a good gauge for us to see where we are at,” Hoffman said.