No. 22 UNI Wrestling to Host Northern Illinois

Sunday, January 8

West Gym

1 p.m.

University of Northern Iowa

Northern Illinois University ($5 tickets for UNI faculty/staff)

Tickets

No. 22 UNI Wrestling to Host Northern Illinois

1/6/2017 4:03:00 PM | Wrestling

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PDF OF FULL NOTES - note MAC standings will change with other teams' duals Friday/Saturday

UNI wrestling at Pat Flanagan Open

9:30 a.m. start – Jan. 7, 2017
Graber Sports Center – Dubuque, Iowa

Northern Illinois (2-3 / 0-1 MAC) at No. 22 UNI (3-2, 1-0 MAC)

1 p.m. CT Jan. 8, 2017
Cedar Falls, Iowa • West Gym
Watch on FloWrestling ($)
Stats on Trackwrestling

CEDAR FALLS, Iowa – UNI wrestling looks to defend its perfect MAC record when Northern Illinois visits the West Gym Sunday.

UNI also will send wrestlers to Dubuque, Iowa, to compete in the Pat Flanagan Open Saturday. Action starts at 9:30 a.m. at Loras College.

Max Thomsen will have an opportunity to improve in the next MAC rankings with a win over No. 18 Steve Bleise, who is ranked third in the MAC. Thomsen is ranked fourth in the conference and jumped up to eighth in national rankings after a third-place finish at the Southern Scuffle.

Thomsen knocked off three ranked wrestlers in the two-day tournament. He topped No. 7 pat Lugo of Edinboro after beating No. 9 Laike Gardner of Lehigh in sudden victory and No. 15 Matt Cimato of Drexel.

The Panthers are 35-1-5 against the Huskies. Last time the two teams met, UNI won 24-12. The lineups will be dramatically different for both teams.

Dual results from Jan. 8, 2016:
    141 – Jake Koethe (UNI) dec. #12 Steve Bleise, 8-4
    149 – Gabe Morse (NIU) dec. Jake Hodges, 5-3
    157 – #20 Bryce Steiert (UNI) pinned Austin Culton, 2:12
    165 – Taylor Berger (UNI) dec. Shaun'Qae McMurty, 6-5
    174 – Trace Engelkes (NIU) dec. Kyle Lux, 10-9
   184 – Cody Caldwell (UNI) dec. Quinton Rosser, 9-5
    197 – Shawn Scott (NIU) dec. Jared Bartel, 3-1 SV1
    285 – #15 Blaize Cabell (UNI) pinned Arthur Bunce, 2:27
    125 – Alijah Jeffery (NIU) dec. Leighton Gaul, 10-3
    133 – #18 Josh Alber (UNI) dec. Austin Eicher, 9-3

UNI faculty and staff can receive tickets at the door for $5 if they present their ID.

HONORARY CAPTAIN

The honorary captain is Dylan Long. Long was the 141-pound runner-up at the 2003 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships.
As a Panther, he was a four-time Western Regional champion. He is still ranked seventh among all Panthers for career (.808) and single-season (.885) winning percentages. He is 18th on the all-time list of most career wins at UNI, with 101 wins.
He graduated from UNI in 2004 with a marketing degree. He was a conditioning specialist and marketing coordinator at UNI until May 2006.
Long competed for two years with the Cyclone Wrestling Club where he finished fifth in the 66K weight class at the 2006 World Team Trials.
He served as an assistant coach and graduate assistant with the Iowa State wrestling team. Long graduated from Iowa State in 2010 with a master's in business administration.
Upon graduation, he started at Wells Fargo as a mortgage consultant and
co-founded The Academy Wrestling Club for youths. In September 2015, he was promoted to sales supervisor for Wells Fargo in the Des Moines area.
He is married to Angela. The couple have 9-month-old twins, Delaney and Dexter.

PROBABLE LINEUPS (overall, dual, MAC record) (FloWrestling rankings):

125 pounds

NIU – Brock Hudkins, Fr (12-6, 3-1, 1-0)
UNI – No. 10 Dylan Peters, Sr (4-3, 2-1, 0-0) / Tanner Rohweder, RFr (8-6, 0-0, 0-0) / Jay Schwarm, RFr (11-6, 1-1, 0-0)

133 pounds

NIU – Alijah Jeffery, So (9-8, 2-2, 0-1)
UNI – No. 16 Josh Alber, So (13-3, 4-1, 1-0)

141 pounds

NIU – Angel Velasquez, RFr (7-7, 0-1, 0-1)
UNI – Jake Hodges, Jr (9-5, 3-2, 1-0) / Tyler Willers, Sr (7-7, 0-0, 0-0)

149 pounds

NIU – No. 18 Steve Bleise, So (15-4, 4-0, 1-0)
UNI – No. 8 Max Thomsen, RFr (18-2, 4-1, 1-0)

157 pounds

NIU – Caden McWhirter, RFr (13-5, 4-1, 1-0)
UNI – Paden Moore, RFr (13-7, 2-3, 1-0)

165 pounds

NIU – Shaun'Qae McMurtry, Sr (3-4, 2-2, 0-1) / Andrew Scott, So (4-5, 1-1, 0-1)
UNI – No. 12 Bryce Steiert, So (9-2, 3-1, 1-0) / Isaiah Patton, RFr (11-6, 1-0, 0-0)

174 pounds

NIU – Trace Engelkes, SR (8-1, 4-0, 0-0) / Marco Orlandi, RFr (2-2, 0-0, 0-0)
UNI – No. 12 Taylor Lujan, RFr (16-3, 4-1, 1-0)

184 pounds

NIU – Michael Aldrich, RFr (6-6, 2-0, 0-0) / Dylan Dobzanski, Jr (4-3, 0-0, 0-0) / Bryce Gorman , So (12-6, 1-1, 0-1)
UNI – No. 15 Drew Foster, So (13-2, 4-0, 1-0) / Jacob Holschlag, RFr (9-4, 1-1, 0-0)

197 pounds

NIU – No. 13 Shawn Scott, Sr (12-3, 4-1, 0-1)
UNI – Jared Bartel, Sr (0-4, 0-4, 0-1) / Chase Shedenhelm, Jr (4-3, 0-0, 0-0)

Heavyweight

NIU – Jacob Cochrane, Jr (5-5, 0-1, 0-0) / Caleb Gossett RFr (9-7, 1-3, 0-1)
UNI – JJ Everard, Sr (5-6, 2-2, 0-0)

UPCOMING PROMOTIONS

Teams that submit rosters will get free admission to the Feb. 5 dual against Oklahoma in the McLeod Center. Coaches are asked to email MilkeR@uni.edu.

Fans looking to buy NCAA tickets must apply by Jan. 31 at UNIPanthers.com.

All-session tickets for the MAC championships are on sale now at UNIPanthers.com. The NCAA qualifying event will be held in the McLeod Center, March 4-5.