Article by Luke Paider. Photo by Nathaly Delgado.
Short of winning a national title it’s truly difficult to have a better week than Head Coach Steve Costanzo and the St. Cloud State wrestling squad just had. It started with coach Costanzo getting announced to be joining the division two wrestling Hall of Fame. Of course, coach Costanza was quick to give praise to others.
“It’s a collective award for everyone within the St. Cloud State wrestling program.”
The team followed up that news with a 28-6 win at Northern State and winning two titles at the Don Parker Open. All of this led to Friday night vs Minot State, which happened to be senior night for the Huskies. What a celebration of the veterans it was as the Huskies put on a clinic finishing with their second biggest margin of victory on the season beating the Beavers 48-0 and clinching their 18th NSIC title. The elongated success is not taken lightly by the team.
“It says a lot about the tradition, all the guys that wrestled before these guys and all the guys who wrestled before them” said Coach Costanza.
That winning tradition was certainly shown in full on Friday night. Connor Knopick set the tone of the match with a lightning first matchup, earning a takedown just 20 seconds into the match and then transitioned with incredible speed to earn a fall 37 seconds into the match to defeat Dylan McDonald and put the Huskies up 6-0.
Sam Spencer was out next and continued the momentum. The match had a slower pace to begin but Spencer was able to grab and lift one leg of Wayne Joint. Joint wouldn’t go down easy but after 30 seconds of pogo sticking on one leg, Spencer finally tallied the takedown. With another takedown later in the frame Spencer went into the second up 6-1. After Joint escaped early from the down position, the two had a stalemating second until Joint went for a takedown with 15 seconds left. Spencer saw it coming and caught his leg, repeating the same move from earlier in the match. He grabbed a takedown with 9 seconds left to lead 9-2 into the final period. Spencer and Joint again battled hard in the third, but Spencer was just a step faster grabbing two takedowns in the final minute of action before finally vanquishing his opponent with a pin with just five seconds remaining, furthering the Huskies advantage 12-0.
Alyeus Craig was next up for St. Cloud against Adrian Chavez and despite the fact Craig did not earn a fall, it was very possibly the best technical wrestling seen on Friday night. Craig got his first takedown 24 seconds into his match. Chavez quickly scrambled and was able to escape in under 30 seconds but Craig was right back on the attack. Taking a lesson from Spencer before him, Craig shot down and was able to get a hold of one of Chavez’s legs and then lifted him up. He earned the takedown at 1:19 and earned riding time until the end of the first period. Craig started in the down position and after escaping tallied another takedown with 51 seconds left and again earned riding time till the buzzer. Finally, in his most impressive wrestling of the match, Craig started on top in the third and held control for the entire final two minutes even forcing Chavez into a stalling penalty to win the match by major decision, 12-1 final pushing the overall score to 16-0.
Colby Njols and Joel Jesuroga got the next two victories for St. Cloud. The two matches both finished in the opening round, finishing by pinfall sending the Huskies to the five minute intermission with the lead 28-0.
Nick Novak picked the Huskies up right where they left off battling Brendan Barnes. Novak continued the trend of single leg grabs and lifts leading to falls when he snagged Barnes’s leg under 10 seconds in and finished the takedown at 2:41. Novak took advantage and added a near fall, taking his 7-0 lead to the second period. Novak repeated the same formula in the next period getting a takedown before adding another near fall to finish the second up 12-0 and finishing the match early with a technical KO in the third up 15-0.
Ethan Hendrickson made his way to the mat next and wrestled a great match even with a tighter final scoreboard. Following the suit of his team he scored first with a takedown at 1:20, and taking note of Craig, held riding time the rest of the period. Hendrickson started down and escaped the grasp of Gavin Turk in a mere seven seconds for the only point of the second as Ethan led 4-0. Hendrickson would mimic Craig again, starting the third on top and keeping it that way until there was only 48 seconds left in the match. Turk ran out of time and Hendrickson walked away victorious, extending the Huskies led 36-0.
Next, a 184 match between Bryce Fitzpatrick and Minot’s Marcus Allen. Fitzpatrick attacked early, getting a takedown 12 seconds in and simply overpowering Allen to get the pinfall win in 47 seconds.
In the 197 Dominic Allen used a strong first period that included two takedowns to ride his way to a 10-3 decision victory and give St. Cloud a 45-0 lead. Giving way to the most competitive matchup of the night in the 285 between La’Ron Parks and Jack Swirple.
The two heavyweights jockeyed for positioning in the opening three minutes but no advantage was grabbed still 0-0 after one. Parks started in the down position next and crucially Swirple picked up his stalling warning 20 seconds in. 10 seconds later Parks would successfully escape to score the matches first point and hold that lead into the third. Swirple was fast at the whistle to start the third grabbing his escape point six seconds in leading to another lockup knotted up at one apiece. But Swirple would make one more crucial mistake with 51 seconds left being assessed a second stalling penalty which awarded Parks a point now leading 2-1. What followed was a frenetic final 30 seconds with Swirple taking shot after shot to get a winning takedown but Parks kept his feet and finished the shutout winning 2-1 and St. Cloud dominated with a 48-0 final to clinch their 18th NSIC title.
It was all smiles for the Huskies who’ve done it again but the reality of senior night was also in the air. 13 wrestlers said goodbye to Hallenbeck on Friday, six of which wrestled Minot.
“It’s tough,” said Coach Costanza, “They are good people, not just great wrestlers.”
Looking forward, St. Cloud will look to carry the momentum into regionals and beyond as they chase their sixth national championship.
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