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Heavyweight Darveaux wrestles to finish third
Third year SCSU heavyweight Dustin Darveaux is living up to high early season expectations as he was able to place third in the Northern Iowa Open on Dec. 2.
Darveaux’s only defeat came at the hands of University of Illinois’ John Lockhart, last year’s Division I national champion. In the third place match, Darveaux knocked off the reigning Division II national champion, Nick Severson of NDSU.
“Dustin is really hitting his stride right now,” said head coach Steve Grimit. “He’s really coming into his own and wrestling extremely well.”
“The team as a whole did good,” Darveaux noted. “We showed a lot of stuff for being so early on in the year. We want to keep progressing because once this semester ends is when the season will really heat up.”
Other Husky grapplers to have big days on the mat were 174-pound freshman Jon Duncombe and 165-pound junior Matt Neumueller. Duncombe finished in the top eight. Neumueller pinned Nebraska-Omaha’s J.J. Holmes to cap off his 6-2 tourney and lock up sixth place honors.
It was an all around good day for the rest of the Husky roster as well as everybody came away with at least two wins.
“We really wrestled well,” Grimit said. “This tournament was probably tougher than the Division II Nationals and to have all of our guys come out with at least two wins is pretty impressive. I’m really proud of the way we wrestled.”
Rounding out the day for SCSU was senior 184-pound Nate Whiting with a 4-2 mark while Derek Miller, John Dirksen, Joe Sathre, Justin Wrek, Black Christopherson, Dan Duch, and Paul Breth all finished with 2-2 marks.
Next up for the Huskies is the SCSU Invite which is set to take place this Saturday, Dec. 8, in the SCSU Fieldhouse. The SCSU Invite traditionally attracts many top programs from across the nation. This year is no exception as the defending Division III National Champions from Augsburg College and the defending Division II champs from NDSU are part of the 15-team bill.
Grimit noted that it will take more than physical talent to have a successful tourney on their home turf this Saturday, “We’ve really been stressing the importance of being mentally tough,” he said. “If we want to have a successful meet on Saturday we will have to be mentally tough and continue to work our offense and stay aggressive.”
Darveaux was clear in stating his goal for the tourney, “I want to win it,” he said. “That’s as plain as I can put it. I’m wrestling decent and feel that I can take the whole thing.”
Darveaux narrowly missed winning the SCSU Invite last year as he lost a tough, 5-4 battle to Augsburg’s Ben Bauer in the championship. Huskies looking to have repeat performances from last years tourney include Paul Breth who was second at 197 pounds and Matt Neumueller who placed third at 157 pounds.
Adam Czech can be reached at: [email protected]
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