The Johnnie wrestling team travels south to Iowa for a pair of competitions this weekend, beginning with a 4 p.m. dual at Buena Vista Friday, Jan. 10, in Storm Lake. SJU then competes at Central’s Under Armour Invitational at 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, in Pella. – Live Video (Friday) | Live Results (Saturday)

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John’s (1-2 dual record) suffered a 47-3 dual loss at No. 3 Augsburg last Saturday (Jan. 4) in Minneapolis. The Auggies recorded seven bonus-point wins, including four pins and a pair of technical falls.

The lone win for SJU was a big one, as senior Noah Becker (Browerville, Minn.) handed No. 1/2 Victor Gliva (14-1 record) his first loss of the season with a 6-3 decision at 133 pounds. Gliva was ranked No. 1 nationally in the D3wrestle.com rankings (Dec. 18) and No. 2 by the National Wrestling Coaches’ Association (NWCA, Nov. 27).

Becker gained a 3-2 lead thanks to a late takedown with five seconds left in the first period. He was down to start the third period, tied at 3-3, and scored a reversal with 1:28 remaining and rode Gliva for the remainder of the match to earn the additional point.

NOAH THE DETHRONER: Saturday’s win over a top-ranked wrestler was the second of the week for Becker, who is 7-1 on the year. He defeated Levi Englman of Ferrum (Va.), the top-ranked wrestler according to the NWCA (No. 2 by D3wrestle.com), 4-2 to earn third-place honors last Monday (Dec. 30) at the Citrus Invitational in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

NEW RANKINGS: To little surprise, Becker joined the national top 10 in both sets of rankings released Jan. 7. He is ranked as high as No. 4 by D3wrestle.com and is No. 5 on the NWCA chart. Gliva is now ranked No. 2 in both polls, while Englman slipped to No. 10 by D3wrestle.com and fell out of the top 10 completely in the NWCA rankings.

A LOOK AT THE BEAVERS: Buena Vista (2-3 dual record) returns to competition after going 2-1 nearly a month ago (Dec. 14) at the Nebraska Wesleyan Duals. The Beavers defeated the Milwaukee School of Engineering (35-12) and Fontbonne (45-9) before falling to Concordia-Moorhead, 30-9. Both BVU and SJU return five wrestlers from last year’s meeting, though only two of the Beavers’ seven wins are on this year’s roster.

LAST YEAR: The Johnnies opened the 2018-19 season with a 31-13 loss to Buena Vista last Nov. 16 (2018) in Collegeville. Becker put SJU, which had five freshmen in the lineup, on the scoreboard with a 4-2 decision at 141 pounds, but the Beavers answered with five straight wins.

Luke Dodd ’19 stopped the bleeding with a 13-4, major-decision win at 197 pounds and senior Quincy Spiering (Mounds View, Minn./St. Thomas Academy) ended the dual with a pin (2:47) at heavyweight.

Sophomore Jacob Scherber (Buffalo, Minn.) nearly earned his first collegiate win at 174 pounds, thanks to four penalty points, but riding time broke the 6-6 tie.

Buena Vista (BVU) 31, Saint John’s (SJU) 13
125: Byron Fleming (BVU) pinned Josh Clark, 1:43 [0-6]
133: Nate Vento (BVU) tech. fall Zack Zavadil, 16-0 [0-11]
141: Noah Becker (SJU) dec. Colin Stilson, 4-2 [3-11]
149: Jack Kyle (BVU) major dec. Anthony Hennen, 14-6 [3-15]
157: Teyler Bruch (BVU) dec. Caleb Jungling, 6-0 [3-18]
165: Brad Kerkhoff (BVU) pinned Camden Tschudi, 2:14 [3-24]
174: Shane Vaughan (BVU) dec. Jacob Scherber, 7-6 [3-27]
184: Dylan Huntoon (BVU) major dec. Dominic Skawiniak, 9-1 [3-31]
197: Luke Dodd (SJU) major dec. Don Phillips II, 13-4 [7-31]
285: Quincy Spiering (SJU) pinned Nick Mitchell, 2:47 [13-31]

UNDER ARMOUR INVITE: In addition to SJU and the host (No. 17) Dutch, other schools scheduled to be at Saturday’s tournament include (as of Thursday morning) NAIA Briar Cliff (Iowa), Buena Vista, NAIA Graceland (Iowa), NAIA Grand View (Iowa), NAIA Morningside, North Iowa C.C., Simpson (Iowa), St. Olaf, No. 2 Wartburg (Iowa), NAIA William Penn (Iowa) and Wisconsin-Platteville.

A YEAR AGO: Becker led the Johnnies with his third tournament win of the season at last year’s Central Invitational on Jan. 5 (2019). He started the day with a pin and registered an 8-4 decision in the semifinal. Becker won the tourney with a 10-1 major decision of Wartburg’s Tyler Fleetwood.

Scherber bounced back from an opening-round technical fall with three bonus-point wins to win the consolation title at 174 pounds. He tallied pins in his first two consolation bouts and ended the day with an 11-2 major decision over Simpson’s Damon Piatt.

Senior Dominic Skawiniak (Rogers, Minn.), like Scherber, suffered a bonus-point loss in the first round but answered with a pair of shutouts to win the consolation title at 184 pounds. He tallied a 5-0 decision in his first wrestleback and finished with an 11-0 major decision over Wartburg’s Justin Henry.

Spiering went 3-1, all pins, to claim fifth place at heavyweight. His lone loss, in the quarterfinal, was to Scott Dollison from NAIA Briar Cliff (Iowa).

Check out Johnnies Wrestling at gojohnnies.com.

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