Rodriguez, Zillmer Advance to Midlands Championships Semifinals; Knutson in Consolation Round
EVANSTON, Ill.—North Dakota State University 125-pound Josh Rodriguez and 184 Hayden Zillmer advanced to the semifinals of the 52nd annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships held Monday, Dec. 29, at Northwestern University’s Welsh-Ryan Arena. NDSU 285 Evan Knutson is still alive in the consolation bracket.
North Dakota State with 34 points is eighth in the Midlands Championships team standings. Iowa leads with 110, Illinois is second at 89.5 and Northwestern is third with 62 points.
The third session is scheduled to start at noon Tuesday, Dec. 30. The matches are being streamed live on BTN2Go.com. The finals are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. and carried live on the Big Ten Network.
Rodriguez, a sophomore from Guadalupe, Calif. (Righetti HS), won three matches to advance to the 125-pound semifinals against Virginia Tech’s 7th-ranked Joey Dance. Dance has dealt Rodriguez two of his three losses this season.
Rodriguez opened with a 9-5 decision over Cal State Bakersfield’s Sergio Mendez. He then defeated Johnny Jiminez of Wisconsin 4-3 in tie breaker-1 overtime and outdistanced Brown’s Billy Watterson 6-1. Rodriguez improved to 9-3 including his second wins over Jiminez and Watterson this season.
Zillmer, a junior from Crosby, Minn. (Crosby Ironton HS), won at both ends of the spectrum. He recorded a 16-0 tech fall over Northern Illinois’ Quinton Rosser in the opener. The 10th-ranked Zillmer (20-2) then upended Wisconsin’s 18th-ranked Ricky Robertson 4-3 in tie breaker-1 overtime to reach the semifinals against Penn’s 2nd-ranked Lorenzo Thomas.
Knutson, a senior from Wausau, Wis. (Wausau West HS), won two of three matches. He pinned Maryland’s Sean Twigg at 5:25 and edged Garret Goldman of Indiana 2-0. The 13th-ranked Knutson lost 4-3 in tie breaker-1 overtime to 7th-ranked Ty Walz of Virginia Tech. Walz defeated him for the third time this season. Knutson is now 13-5 this season.
NDSU 149-pound redshirt freshman Clay Ream went 2-2 during the tournament and is 15-9 on the season. Ream pinned Kevin Johnson of Old Dominion at 6:40 and recorded a 12-7 decision over Columbia’s Connor Sutton. He lost by 12-1 major decision to top-ranked Jason Tsirtsis of Northwestern and was trimmed 7-6 by Wisconsin’s Rylan Lubeck.
North Dakota State 174-pound senior Kurtis Julson lead a group of four wrestlers who went 1-2 on Monday. Julson lost his opening match 5-4 to Messiah College’s Josh Thomson. He rebounded to defeat Wisconsin’s Ben Cox 2-1 in tie-breaker 1 overtime. Julson’s tournament ended with a 3-2 loss to Binghamton’s Steven Schneider. He entered ranked 14th nationally and is now 10-7.
NDSU 197-pound redshirt freshman Tommy Petersen went 1-2. Petersen (8-9) opened with an 8-6 decision over Joe Rau of the Minnesota Storm, but lost 5-3 to Jeff Koepke of Illinois and 5-2 to Iowa’s Kris Klapprodt.
Bison 141-pound sophomore Clay Cathey and redshirt sophomore Steven Keogh each won their first match at the Midlands Championships. Cathey defeated Harper College’s Matt Conrad 7-1, while Keogh pinned Wheaton College’s Mark Savenok at 4:33. Cathey (9-7) dropped a 10-2 major decision to Penn’s Jeff Canfora and 13-10 decision to Devin Tortorice of Poeta Training, while Keogh lost a 13-3 major to Old Dominion’s Devin Geoghegan and 11-4 to Princeton’s Kevin Moylan.
NDSU 141-pound redshirt freshman Mitch Bengtson lost his opener 9-4 to Frank Goodwin of Maryland, but bounced back with a 9-0 major decision over unattached Samuel Gross. Bengtson (15-8) lost a 3-1 decision to South Dakota State’s Lucas Zilverberg.
Hunter Weber, a 133-pound sophomore, dropped a pair of decisions. Weber (9-12) lost 7-0 to 19th-ranked Kevin Norstrem of Virginia Tech, and then 5-0 to unattached Josh Alber. Unattached 133-pound freshman Nick O’Brien (9-4) lost by fall to Northwestern’s Dominick Malone at 1:14, and dropped a 5-3 decision to unattached Ben Gillette.
At 149-pounds, NDSU redshirt freshmen Mitchell Friedman (8-10) and Joe Umlauf (3-7) lost a pair of matches. Friedman fell by a 14-5 major decision to 10th-ranked Brady Sorensen of Iowa and then 6-2 to Wisconsin’s Rylan Lubeck. Umlauf dropped a 5-2 setback to Air Force’s Jerry McGinty, and a 5-3 loss to Columbia’s Connor Sutton.
Grant Nehring, a 157-pound redshirt freshman, lost 7-2 to Indiana’s Alex Gregory, and then 10-6 to Wheaton’s Savenok; while 165-pound redshirt freshman Trevour Chavez dropped a 4-2 decision to Mark Mabry of Adams State and was pinned by Grand View’s Nate Stadeker at 4:17.
Jeff Schwartz
Director of Athletic Media Relations
NORTH DAKOTA STATE UNIVERSITY
GEM Building
1301 39th St N
Fargo, ND 58102
Dept. 1200, PO Box 6050
Fargo, ND 58108-6050
Office: 701.231.8332
Cell: 701.793.0538
Jeff.Schwartz@ndsu.edu