NDSU’s Josh Rodriguez Named WWC Wrestler of the Week

OREM, Utah — North Dakota State University 125-pound sophomore Josh Rodriguez (Guadalupe, Calif./Righetti HS) has been named the Western Wrestling Conference Wrestler of the Week following an outstanding performance on the mat last week. The conference award was announced Monday by the league.

Rodriguez recorded a pair of overtime wins against nationally-ranked competition to lead North Dakota State to WWC dual victories at Air Force (28-11) on Jan. 30 and at No. 18 Wyoming (22-21 on criteria) on Feb. 1. He defeated ninth-ranked Josh Martinez of Air Force 6-4 in overtime after trailing 3-1 entering the third period. Rodriguez then posted a 9-7 tiebreaker-2 decision over 13th-ranked Tyler Cox of Wyoming. That win gave the Bison a 21-17 lead over the Cowboys heading into the final match.

Rodriguez, who was ranked 20th by InterMat last week, has won nine of his last 11 matches to improve to 14-5 overall and 9-1 in dual action. He is now 4-3 against nationally-ranked opponents this season.

As a team, NDSU has won six straight duals to improve to 7-3 overall and 3-0 in the WWC.

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The conference honor is Rodriguez’s first of the season and first of his career.

The Western Wrestling Conference, which is in its ninth year of competition, is comprised of six schools including the Air Force Academy, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, South Dakota State, Utah Valley and Wyoming.

Other Nominees
UNC: Mitchell Polkowske, 165, Sr., La Jara, Colo./Centauri HS (1-0 w/ a MD over GCU’s Casey Larson)
SDSU: Cody Pack, 157, Sr., Quincy, Calif./Quincy HS (2-0 w/ a pair of MD’s over Wyoming’s Archie Colgan and AFA’s Sam Kremier)
UVU: Chasen Tolbert, 125, Jr., Delta, Utah/Delta HS (1-1 w/ a 3-0 dec. over No. 15 Evan Silver of Stanford)
UW: Dakota Friesth, 165, Sr., Adel, Iowa/Adel-DeSoto-Minburn HS (2-0 w/ fall and tech fall in WWC action)

2014-15 WWC Wrestlers of the Week
Nov. 4 – Cody Pack (South Dakota State)
Nov. 11 – Jesse Stafford (Air Force)
Nov. 18 – Hayden Zillmer (North Dakota State)
Nov. 25 – Cody Pack (South Dakota State)
Dec. 1 – Cole Mendenhall (Wyoming)
Dec. 8 – Hayden Zillmer (North Dakota State)
Dec. 15 – Evan Knutson (North Dakota State)
Dec. 22 – Tyler Cox (Wyoming)
Jan. 5 – Cody Pack (South Dakota State)
Jan. 12 – Josh Martinez (Air Force)/Issac Andrade (South Dakota State)
Jan. 20 – Hayden Zillmer (North Dakota State)
Jan. 26 – Cody Pack (South Dakota State)
Feb. 2 – Josh Rodriguez (North Dakota State)

[eztable caption=”2014-15 WWC Dual Standings” th=”0″ width=”300″]
School,Conf.,Overall
North Dakota State,3-0,7-3
#18 Wyoming,3-1,7-3
South Dakota State,2-1,9-7
Utah Valley,1-1,2-6
Northern Colorado,0-2,2-5
Air Force,0-4,6-6
[/eztable]

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