Wolves Wrestling Wrap-up

The Northern State Wolves wrestling team finished the season 4-12 and 2-2 in the NSIC. The Wolves started off strong, but youth and injuries hampered them as the season progressed. As a team, Northern ended the season on a two-match winning streak as they defeated the SW Minnesota State Mustangs 27-16 and the University of Mary 31-13. The Wolves’ other two victories came against Sioux Falls University (35-3) and SIU-Edwardsville (28-11) at the Central Missouri Duals.

The Wolves had some great individual performances on the season. In the first tournament of the season at South Dakota State, the Wolves’ Chas Welch (Jr., Rapid City, SD) won the championship at 125 lbs, going 4-0 and defeating Chris Trampe of Dana College 7-4 in the championship match. At the Dakota Wesleyan Open on November 11, the Wolves continued to do well as Chas Welch won his second consecutive tournament and was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament. Andy Sinclair wrestled in his first tournament of the year and come out victorious at 174lbs, winning five matches on the day to win the tournament. Several freshmen also performed well at the DWU tournament.  Dustin Bonn went 4-2 and Jared Little and Corbin Surat each went 3-2. 

On November 21, the Wolves got their first NSIC Wrestler of the Week award. Chas Welch received the honor as he defeated the #1 wrestler in NCAA Division III, Nate Hanson of Luther College, 5-3. The victory also improved Welch to 9-0 on the young season. Todd Naasz (Jr., 197, Mobridge, SD) would go on to receive the same honor on February 13, 2007 as he defeated Concordia, Moorhead’s Theo Gagner 10-2 and pinned SW Minnesota State’s Cody Chamberlin just 47 seconds into the match.

On December 8, the NCAA DII Wrestling Coaches Association released the first individual rankings of the season. The Wolves’ Chas Welch was ranked 7th in the nation at 125lbs and Andy Sinclair was ranked 6th in that nation at 174 lbs. As the season went on Sinclair, would drop out of the rankings due to a season-ending injury and Welch would move up to fifth in the nation with a record of 17-1.

The Northern State wrestling team advanced two wrestlers to the NCAA Division II National Tournament. The top four placewinners in each class at the regional tournament advanced to the national tournament. Welch finished fourth at the regional tournament, hosted by MSU Moorhead, in the 125lb weight class and Cale Cornemann (Fr., Yankton, SD) finished 3rd in the 184lb weight class to advance to the national tournament. The other two wrestlers to place in the top six were Todd Naasz, who finished 5th at 197lbs, and Dave Schiley, who finished 6th in the 141lb weight class. As a team, the Wolves finished in 7th place in the region with 31.0 points.

Welch and Cornemann found mixed success at the 2007 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championship, held March 9-10 in Kearney, NE. In his second career national tournament appearance, Welch was matched up with top-ranked Trevor Charbonneau of UN-Kearney in his first meeting of the weekend. He kept the score close, but ultimately fell 7-4. Welch’s next match was also close, as he defeated UW-Parkside’s Brandon Kircher in a tiebreaker of the first overtime period, gaining the 5-4 win. A familiar foe was due up next in Upper Iowa’s Tyler Mumbulo. Mumbulo kept Welch without a score and took the 6-0 win, knocking Welch out of tournament play.

Cale Cornemann also had a tough draw in his first NCAA Nationals appearance, meeting up with #1 Mike Corcetti of the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown in the first match of the weekend. Cornemann made it to the third period before he was pinned at the 6:34 mark of the match. In his next bout, Cornemann kept Central Missouri’s Jeremy Hudson to just five points, but posted only three points of his own for a 3-5 loss.