Dickinson State wrestlers earn 39 wins at Tyler Plummer Classic Open

Jan. 29—DICKINSON — The Blue Hawks came away with the most points from the 2024 installment of the Tyler Plummer Classic Open, which saw 10 teams and about 70 competitors on Saturday at Dickinson State University, with Connor Bleymeyer earning the most points for DSU at 21.5 and Chase Nutting coming in close behind at 20 — all from the 285-lb weight division — while Samuel Adams earned 17.5, Dickinson native Tate Nordby took 16 and Caleb Nielsen rounded-out the Blue Hawk top-five at 15 points. Dickinson State earned the most wins in the event at 39, but took 30 losses, while North Dakota State had the highest winning percentage at .880 with 22 wins and only 3 losses.

"We've still got lots of work to do and lots of opportunities to create, but we're grateful to wrestle and we have some things to do yet," Blue Hawks head wrestling coach Justin Schlecht said. "It's a late-season match and we wanted to get some good matchups in today."

Currently, DSU has three wrestlers ranked nationally in the top-20: Jose Gonzalez at 125-lb, Edrich Nortje at 141 and Jackson King at 184, but the three were rested on Saturday for the event.

"We're making some good adjustments in the room and we're getting rolling," Schlecht said. "I think the guys are really coming into this part of the season and are starting to make some fine-tuning adjustments to their wrestling and that's great to see and we're excited for that."

Bleymeyer also earned the most team points during the bracketed, double-elimination tournament, while Northern State's Ryan Hirschkorn was in second with 21 — tied with Walker Bents out of North Dakota State — and Nutting tied in third at 20 points with two other competitors.

Dickinson State totaled the most pins of any team at 21 and combined that with 3 technical falls for 24, while the University of Mary came in with 11 pins and 4 falls and the total team points for DSU was tops at 299 while Mary secured second at 257. Third-place in the meet went to the University of Providence with 206 and North Dakota State rounded out the top-four with 204 on the afternoon.

Individually for Dickinson State, Chase Nutting came in with the only overall first-place win for Dickinson State and it was in the 285 bracket, earning a sudden-victory over Rafeal Leapaga from the University of providence. Meanwhile, Bleymeyer did his damage for DSU and came away with the third-place trophy in the 285-lb weight division with a fall over Aidyn Mitchell out of the University of Mary.

In the other weight categories for DSU, Wyatt Engwicht scored 9 points and took second in the 125-lb weight class for DSU and teammates Angel Cruz took sixth-place along with Dante Venema in the 133 and 141-lb classes. In the 149s, Caleb Nielsen earned third by tech fall, while Ian Mehrens took home sixth in the same division and Calvin Carroll also came away with sixth but in the 157-lb division. DSU had no placings in the 165s, but Tate Nordby was second in the 174-lb division and sixth-place was taken by Lance Kettering at 184-pounds. The division at 197 saw the best showings for the Blue Hawks coming from Samuel Adams at third-place and Lance Kuehl at sixth.

Next-up for DSU will be a home-meet on Tuesday, Jan. 30 versus Jamestown, which will precede the Red Raider Duals on Feb. 3 at Orange City, Iowa.

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