Bison upset nationally ranked Boise State

Written by Adam Sprengeler Friday, 22 January 2010 08:00

This past weekend on Friday, Jan. 15, the Bison wrestling team managed to take down the No. 6 team in the nation, Boise State, by the score of 25-22. The win is a marquee victory for the Bison wrestling team since the move to Division I.

“This win will definitely help in our recruiting,” Head Coach Bucky Maughan said. “We needed something like this to get people talking about us again.”

Coming into the match against NDSU, Boise State had a stellar showing on a national stage where they beat Cornell, the No. 3 team in the nation. The only loss on that weekend came against the University of Iowa followed by a victory over NDSU’s conference foes Northern Iowa.

The match took place at Montana State University in Bozeman, Mont. Montana State always brings in teams to wrestle as they currently do not have a program and are trying to restart the wrestling excitement.

In the match, NDSU recorded three pins. Justin Soleberg, 125-pounds, Vince Salminen, 149-pounds, and Drew Ross, 197-pounds, each stuck their opponent. Coach Maughan felt the biggest pin of all was Salminen’s.

“There was about three to four thousand people at the match and Vince’s pin really got the crowd behind us,” Maughan said. “He is a Montana boy.”

Salminen is a native of Billings, Mont. 

Maughan felt that NDSU once again out-conditioned their opponents.

“We’ve been doing the same thing all year,” Maughan said. “We get to the third period, and by that time our guys are conditioned well enough to keep wrestling strong where our opponents are breathing heavy.”

The Bison extended the win streak to two as they took down Western Wrestling Conference opponents Northern Colorado just two days after Boise State. The final score in that match was 21-19. 

NDSU will travel to Boston to take on Boston University this Saturday.