North Dakota State athletics had quite a seven days as performances across five different sports as some outstanding performances led to wins and momentum moving forward.
Football
Even in the offseason, the football program continues to make strides in its first offseason program under new head coach Tim Polasek. The new coach recently signed his contract and his deal is worth 1.6 million dollars over five years. That figure comes out to 300K a year which is about what former coach Matt Entz made per year during his time in Fargo.
Baseball
The Bison baseball team opened its season with some rough games against UC Irvine and two more tough losses at Cal Poly and dropping the series opener with Pacific the Bison were able to win the series with Pacific by winning the last two games of the series to get the teams first series win of the season. In game two Jack Steil went 3-for-3 at the dish, he scored and knocked in a run. Sam Canton knocked in three runs in the win. In the series finale, the Bison showed their power as a two-run blast from James Dunlap gave the Bison a 3-1 lead. Colton Becker followed up Dunlap’s bomb with one of his own to stretch NDSU’s lead to 4-1. Pacific would comeback to tie the score at four but Jake Schaffner would knock in two runs late with a single to put the Bison ahead for good. NDSU totaled 10 hits in the win but hits could be hard to come by as they visit #7 Oregon State for a four-game set starting on Thursday.
Softball
NDSU’s softball program left North Carolina for Texas as they competed in the Texas A&M Invitational but during the North Carolina trip NDSU’s Bella Dean was named Summit League Ticket Smarter Peak Performer of the Week for her 12 hits including two doubles, two homers, seven RBIs and six runs scored. The trip to Texas didn’t yield any wins as against really good competition as NDSU lost all their games at the invitational to Southeastern Louisiana, #18 Texas A&M, and Kansas. Anjolee Aguilar-Beaucage was a bright spot as she had two of NDSU’s seven hits in the loss to Kansas. The softball team will head to Nashville, Tennessee for the Purple/Gold Challenge hosted by Lipscomb University. Their games will start on March 1st against Georgetown and Libscomb.
Wrestling
NDSU’s rough season on the mat continues as #11 South Dakota State won the border bell again by winning 34-6. Fernando Barreto pulled an upset of #18 Derrick Cardinal by a 7-2 decision. SDSU rolled from there as NDSU now focuses on the Big 12 Championships in two weeks. NDSU will make the trip to Tulsa, Oklahoma for the two-day event, which is set for March 9th and 10th at the BOK Center.
Men’s Golf
NDSU men’s golf is off to a strong start with a -13 round of 275 for a five-shot lead at the Loyola Intercollegiate held at the Palm Valley Golf Club. In a 20-team field, NDSU sits atop the leaderboard with Northern Colorado, Loyola Maryland, SIU Edwardsville, and Delaware rounding out the top five teams. Jake Skarperud was the man of the hour for the Bison as he led the way with a -7 opening round which makes him the leader after the first round. NDSU continues the event on Monday and they will tee off at 8:45 AM.