UNI Wrestling Opens 2017 Dual Season at Home

UNI wrestling hosts University of Nebraska-Kearney and Utah Valley
UNI team rankings: #23 NWCA / #18 Intermat / #17 Flo / #18 WIN / #19 Trackwrestling

Site: Cedar Falls, Iowa
Venue: West Gym
Video: FloWrestling
Live stats: Trackwrestling
FULL NOTES - PDF

UNK vs. Utah Valley – 4 p.m. CT
UNK vs. UNI – 5:45 p.m. CT
Utah Valley vs. UNI – near 7:30 p.m. CT (will start 15 minutes after UNK vs. UNI dual)

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – UNI wrestling opens its dual season at home with two opponents Friday night on Military Appreciation Night.

Veterans will receive a hat, courtesy of Roling Ford.

Panther fans will be treated to three duals starting at 4 p.m. University of Nebraska-Kearney and Utah Valley will wrestle at 4 p.m. before UNI will compete against both teams in separate duals starting at 5:45 p.m.

All three teams competed in open tournaments last weekend, but this will be the first dual for all of them.

UNK is ranked sixth in Division II and has two wrestlers ranked in Intermat's top 10. UNK is led by No. 1 Destin McCauley, a two-time All-American. He took third as a sophomore and won last year at 149 pounds. He is a two-time region champ in Division II.

Zach Stodden is ranked eighth in the nation for the Lopers at 184 pounds. He was the MIAA conference runner-up last year.

LINEUPS (UNI / UNK / UTAH VALLEY):

125 POUNDS – Tanner Rohweder (2-2) or Jay Schwarm (5-1) / Vlad Kazakov (5-0) / Mitch Brown (3-1)
UNI: Rohweder placed in two open tournaments last year wrestling unattached. Schwarm took third at the Grand View Open last weekend. Last year, he earned bonus points in 19 of his 20 wins.
133 POUNDS – #16 Josh Alber (4-1) / JR Rader (1-2) or Bryce Shoemaker (0-0) / Jarod Maynes (4-2)
UNI: Alber qualified for nationals last year and was the highest Panther to place at Midlands last year, with a second-place finish.
141 POUNDS – Jake Hodges (4-1) or Jake Koethe (5-2) / Jeff Bizzle (4-2) / Trevor Willson or Chase Call (0-0)
UNI: Hodges took second at last weekend's Grand View Open. He was fourth two years ago at the MAC Championships. Koethe knocked off two top-20 wrestlers last year before tearing an ACL.
149 POUNDS – #18 Max Thomsen (4-0) / Walker Johnson (2-2) / Grant LaMont (1-2) or Matthew Ontiveros (2-2)
UNI: Thomsen won the Grand View Open last weekend, recording a fall and major decision. He won three open tournaments last year wrestling unattached. He was the 24^th wrestler to win four Iowa high school prep titles.
157 POUNDS – Paden Moore (4-0) or #13 Bryce Steiert (0-0) / #1 Destin McCauley (0-1) or Seth Harrington (1-2) / Raider Lofthouse (3-2)
UNI: Moore won the Grand View Open last weekend and placed in two open tournaments as a redshirt last year. Last year, Steiert was UNI's first true freshman to qualify for nationals since 2003. He had four wins over top-20 opponents last year.
165 POUNDS - #10 Cooper Moore (2-0) / Richie Miranda (1-2) / Dalton Harmon (0-0) or Koy Wilkinson (5-2)
UNI: Moore is a three-time national qualifier and the only Panther on the roster to have two MAC Championships to his name
174 POUNDS – Taylor Lujan (4-0) / Isaac Deaton (3-2) / Kimball Bastian (3-1)
UNI: Lujan is a four-time state champion as a prep wrestler in Georgia. He won last weekend's Grand View Open.
184 POUNDS – Drew Foster (3-0) or Jacob Holschlag (2-0) / #8 Zach Stodden (3-0) / Will Sumner (3-1)
UNI: Foster and Holschlag went 1-2 at the Grand View Open last weekend. Foster beat out No. 29 Andrew Romanchik for fifth place at the MAC Championships last year after moving up a weight. Holschlag knocked off No. 16 Matt Reed of Oklahoma competing unattached as a redshirt at Midlands.
197 POUNDS – Jared Bartel (0-0) or Tyler Hoffman (1-2) / Corey Van Dorn (0-2) / Tanner Orndorff (2-2)
UNI: Bartel was sixth two years ago at the MAC Championships. Hoffman is a two-time NJCAA national champion at 184 pounds. He transferred from Iowa Central this year.
285 POUNDS – JJ Everard (2-2) / Jarrod Hinrichs (3-1) / Jordan Karst (5-1) or Dustin Dennison (0-0)
UNI: Everard was a national qualifier in 2015 for South Dakota State before transferring to UNI and redshirting last season. He earned bonus points in eight matches last year.

HONORARY CAPTAIN
Former Panther wrestler and NCAA national champion Jim Sanford will serve as honorary captain. Sanford was inducted into the Colorado Chapter of the National Wrestling Hall of Fame in May 2013 and continues to follow UNI athletics.

Sanford returns from Colorado to watch the Panthers compete in Cedar Falls about three to four times a year.

"I've got that purple blood," he said. "I enjoy the West Gym experience. It has a lot of charm. I always tell people it's the Wrigley Field of college wrestling."

Sanford won an NCAA championship at 147 pounds in 1963 at UNI and helped lead his team to a third-place finish. He was a three-time league champion for the Panthers. He also competed in track and field for a short time while at UNI.

He coached at Central Elkader from 1964-67 having a 24-7-1 record and won the only two Upper Iowa conference wrestling titles in school history. The team was undefeated (13-0) in his final season there.

Sanford grew up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he became a two-time state high school runner-up in 1957 and 1958. He was also a two-time Midwest AAU champion and won the Omaha Open.

Sanford began his coaching career with Frank Guild at Logan Junior High School in Waterloo, Iowa in 1963. He took his first head coaching position in 1964. He coached at Central Elkader from 1964-67 having a 24-7-1 record and won the only two Upper Iowa conference wrestling titles in school history.

Sanford then went to the University of Colorado, receiving his master's degree in 1969 and was then hired as the head coach at Adams City High School in 1970. While with the Eagles, his teams won three Skyline League titles and the state championship in 1977. He then became the head coach at Rocky Mountain High School in Fort Collins and held that position until 1983.

At that point, Sanford became an assistant coach at Colorado State University for the next two years before the school dropped its program in 1985. He also served as a high school and college wrestling official. As an official, he worked the first USWF Junior National Tournament held at Colorado State University.

More than 20 of his former wrestlers have also become coaches. His awards are numerous including Colorado Coach of the Year in 1997. Also of note, he coached the first Colorado team to defeat the visiting Japanese All-star Select Team in 1976.

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