WWC title on the line for Bison
Eric Hoffman will be looking for vengeance this weekend.
After the team he grew up rooting for denied giving him a scholarship, Hoffman will be looking to show them they made the wrong decision.
Hoffman and the NDSU wrestling team will host Hoffman’s former-favorite team Northern Iowa on Friday before traveling to South Dakota State for a dual Sunday.
Both duals count for Western Wrestling Conference standings. The match with SDSU will be NDSU’s final regular season match.
Hoffman, NDSU’s 125-pound wrestler, has won his last five matches.
“I wasn’t wrestling very smart at the beginning of the year,” Hoffman said. “I worked with the coaches, changed my style a little bit and I feel like I am wrestling real well right now.”
Hoffman, who grew up in Davenport, Iowa, said that he used to cheer for the Panthers when he was younger, and knows most of the team this year.
Hoffman said UNI initially recruited him out of Iowa Central Community College – where he won a national championship – but never offered him a scholarship.
“I am real excited to wrestle (UNI). I think when we face them they will regret not recruiting me,” Hoffman said.
Whatever anger, bad blood or excitement Hoffman feels about wrestling UNI, he will need to use it.
Northern Iowa is 2-0 in the WWC and has a 5-8 overall record, but that doesn’t tell the whole story.
Many of those losses came to currently top-ranked teams, most notably No. 3 Missouri, No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 10 Iowa and No. 16 Oregon State.
Moreover, all nine of UNI’s losses came to teams currently ranked 18th or higher in the USA TODAY/NWCA NCAA Division I Coaches’ Poll.
The Bison recently traveled west for two non-conference matches.
The road trip included matches against Portland State and then Oregon State.
The Bison cruised through Portland State 33-9, but had some trouble with the Beavers of OSU.
The match started with the Bison leading 11-3 after the first four, but Oregon State’s upper weights won the next six for a 29-11 victory.
“We had a lot of success with our lower weights and we built a lead,” NDSU coach Bucky Maughan said of the match against OSU. “But at (higher weight classes) we were just outmanned. We are undersized with only one wrestler wrestling at his preferred weight, and with the injury to Matt Wetterling it was a tough deal.”
Wetterling, NDSU’s top 184-pound grappler, hasn’t wrestled in the past five matches and will be out again for this weekend’s dual.
“We are hoping to get Matt back by the Regionals,” Maughan said. “But he definitely will not be wrestling against Northern Iowa or South Dakota State.”
With a record of 3-1, NDSU is currently in a tie with Wyoming for second place in the WWC.
UNI leads the league. If the Bison win both of their matches this weekend, they will put themselves in position to win the conference title.
NDSU will have to wait until Wyoming finishes its last WWC dual next Wednesday for official results.
“With the conference title on the line, of course it’s a big match,” said Maughan of Friday night’s dual. “It may be the biggest match of the season.”