Minot State University's first-ever Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference wrestling dual started with a win by major decision and concluded with Bobby Bartz pinning his heavyweight opponent.
In between, the Beavers dropped every match that wasn't forfeited in a 28-16 loss to the University of Mary on Wednesday at the MSU Dome.
"We didn't wrestle very well in the middle," MSU coach Robin Ersland said. "We gotta do better than that or we gotta have different people, one or the other, because we didn't wrestle very well.
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Mike Kraft/MDN
Minot State University wrestler Marcus Wilson put a hold on the University of Mary’s Landon Della Silva during Wednesday’s meet at the MSU Dome.
Mary junior Trevor Johnson pinned Beavers' junior Cody Carpenter at 141 and Brock Krumm got a major decision over MSU junior Jean Augustin. But most bouts came down to the end.
Marcus Wilson, Jon Wilson and Cody George were all within two points in the final frame of their matches. But each time, the Marauder grapplers rallied to close things out.
"There were just points in matches that we just threw away," said sophomore Josh Douglas, who won his match at 133. "It's a thing of conditioning. A lot of our guys falter in the third period and that's something we need to work on as a team."
MSU (1-1, 0-1 NSIC) won by forfeit at 174 to close the gap to 25-10. But Mary senior Brady Anderson's 7-6 victory against Beavers senior Cody George put the dual mathematically out of reach.
Nonetheless, Bartz took care of business against Linton native Levi Roemmich in the final bout of the meet. The eager sophomore recorded a fall just one minute, 22 seconds into the match.
"I just got into a situation where I took him down, got in a pinning situation," Bartz said. "I knew I could take it from there."
The Beavers participate in the St. Cloud State University Open at 9 a.m. Sunday.