FAYETTE, Iowa- After coming off their worst loss of the year, the Minot State University wrestling team showed signs of improvement against the No. 5 Upper Iowa University Peacocks.

The Beavers (1-11 overall 0-4 NSIC) fell to the Peacocks (6-2 overall 2-0 NSIC), 40-11, Sunday afternoon in Dorman Gymnasium.

Ricard Avakovs (Fr., 149/157, Riga, Latvia) picked up his second win of the season.. Avakovs was wrestling up four weight classes (184 lbs.), but that didn't stop him from dominating the match with a 19-2 technical fall victory.

Sophomore Bobby Bartz (285, Harvey, N.D.) also picked up points for MISU, as he pinned UIU's Jeremy Brazil at the 4:13 mark. For Bartz, it was his fourth pin of the season, pushing his overall record to 6-7.

"Bartz did a nice job putting his guy on his back," said MISU head coach Robin Ersland. "We will look for him to do that more going forward."

Both Joshua Douglas (So., 133, Kissimmee, Fla.) and Marcus Polak (So., 157, Minot, N.D.) wrestled well against their UIU opponents, but just didn't have enough to gain the victory. Douglas fell 7-3 at 133 pounds while Polak fell 8-5 at 157 pounds.

"Marcus had a tough loss to natioanlly ranked guy today," said Ersland. "We were down one (6-5) when he tried to win and ended up giving up a takedown. I am proud of the way he competed today and hopefully he will learn from this experience."

Minot State will now prepare for their second home NSIC dual of the season, as they host Minnesota State University-Moorhead on Thursday Jan. 24 at 7 p.m. in the MSU Dome.
 
Upper Iowa 40, Minot State 11
125- Chris Paulus, UIU, wins by forfeit
133- Tanner Schmidt, UIU, def. Joshua Douglas 7-3
141- Matt Paulus, UIU, pinned Flynn Stormer 0:33
149- Jordan Rinken, UIU, tech. fall Donovan Williams 22-7
157- Bryce Lumzy, UIU, def. Marcus Polak 8-5
165- Wade Gobin, UIU, pinned Eric O'Neill 1:09
174- Blake Sorensen, UIU, pinned Devon Flores 1:49
184- Ricard Avakovs, MISU, tech. fall Duane Richardson 19-2
197- Carl Broghammer, UIU, pinned Joe Johnson 1:07
285- Bobby Bartz, MISU, pinned Jeremy Brazil 4:13