Article by Luke Paider. Photo by St. Cloud State Athletic Department.
It was a historic season for the St. Cloud State wrestling team. They finished the regular season ranked No. 2 in the nation, won their ninth straight Super Region Championship, and qualified eight wrestlers to the national championship tournament. Head coach Steve Costanzo was named to the Hall of Fame and won National Coach of the Year for the fourth time.
But, there was still one goal this Husky pack was tracking down, a sixth national championship. St. Cloud had their chance over this past weekend to put that ultimate stamp on this incredible year.
The Huskies put up an excellent performance but fell just short of the national championship finishing third overall. At the tournament five wrestlers earned the right to be called All-American.
St. Cloud’s day was highlighted by Joel Jesuroga, who won his first two matches by major decision including an 8-0 shutout against Thomas Nichols in his opening match. Jesuroga won another 4-3 decision over Adam State’s Aaden Valdez in his semifinal. The top ranked Jesuroga would come face to face with the No. 2 ranked wrestler and defending National Champion in the 157 weight class, Gabe Johnson from Central Oklahoma for all the marbles.
The match lived up to the National Championship billing and the third round ended with a 1-1 tie. The title match would be decided in sudden victory. Unfortunately, for Jesuroga a missed grab of Johnson’s right leg led to a lightning counter from the defending champ that eventually secured him a takedown and a second national crown over Jesuroga.
In other divisions both Nick Novak and Bryce Dagel would just miss out on personal podium finishes, each landing in the fourth spot in the 165 and 174 respectively.
Novak started the tourney strong with back to back decision victories. But in his semifinal bout No. 1 David Hunsberger proved to be too much to handle and sent the former national champ to the consolation bracket winning 4-2. Novak earned his way to the third place match with a tight win 4-3 over Corey Peterson but couldn’t muster a final victory over Dajun Johnson to find a podium spot.
Dagel took his only defeat on Friday via a tiebreaker vs Jacobi Deal. Dagel was sent to the consolation bracket after the quarterfinal match but rattled off three straight wins including a 17-3 win vs No. 2 Josh Kenny. But, he too fell in the third place match finishing in fourth place after a 4-3 finish vs Drake Hayward.
Dominic Murphy finished 2-3 on the weekend and eighth overall. A 5-4 decision loss to No. 8 Tereus Henry in the quarterfinals was the first slip up for Murphy. Followed by a 14-8 loss to Augustana’s Max Ramberg that put Murphy in the seventh place match. Murphy would fall one more time to Marvelous Rutlege 4-1 in sudden victory.
Sam Spencer in the 133 was the final Husky to earn All American Honors. He was taken down in the quarterfinals as well, but went on a tear in the consolation bracket including an 18-3 win over Thierno Diallo. In the consolation semifinal and fifth place match Spencer came up short and finished in sixth place.
Finally, for the Huskies Conor Knopick, Colby Njols, and Bryce Fitzpatrick were all unable to place in their respective weight classes.
It was a historic season for the St. Cloud State Huskies and they were able to add a bit of hardware to the overgrowing trophy case back at Halenbeck Hall.
It didn’t end the way the Huskies had hoped, but nonetheless this is a team that was able to contribute to the legacy of Huskies wrestling.
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