A LOOK AT THE WEEK: Minot State will host Jamestown and St. Cloud State this week at the MSU Dome. Jamestown will come to Minot to compete on Tuesday, January 26 while St. Cloud State visits on Friday, January 29. Both events are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

RECORDS: The Beavers are 3-8 this season and are currently riding a seven-match losing streak after traveling to the Midwest Duals only to return with four losses. Jamestown is also on a seven-match skid and have an overall record of 3-9. St. Cloud State has only suffered one loss this year and hold a 10-1 record and have yet to lose in a Northern Sun matchup.

COACHES CORNER: Minot State head coach Evan Forde is in his first season at the helm of the wrestling team. He is the eighth coach in MSU history and the second coach since the reinstatement of the team and the move to NCAA Division II. Forde comes to Minot State after spending last season with fellow NSIC member Minnesota State University Moorhead where he competed as a wrestler from 2006-11. Before returning to his alma mater, Forde was an assistant coach at Southwest Minnesota State, also a Northern Sun member, for three seasons. As a college athlete he compiled 63 wins and earned NCAA Division II Academic All-American honors four times. Dan Lovell is in his first season as the head coach the head coach of the University of Jamestown. Lovell was an assistant with the wrestling team from 2012-13 before taking a head coaching job at Itasca Community College last season. He began coaching in 1997 as an assistant coach with the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In 2006 he served as the co-head coach at Great Oak High School in California before moving on to become the head coach at Marshalltown High School in Iowa where he coached until 2012. Steve Costanzo is in his 10th season as the head coach at St. Cloud State and his 17th season overall as a college head coach. With a career record of 197-56-2 he has coached 134 national qualifiers, 70 All-Americans and six national champions. Last season St. Cloud State won its first NCAA Division II wrestling championship under the leadership of Costanzo.

RANKINGS: St. Cloud State was voted the No. 2 team in the country in both the January 5 NCAA Division II coaches poll and the January 14 d2wrestle.com poll. Jamestown is the No. 25 team in the NAIA rankings as of January 20. Minot State did not appear in any polls.  

ALL-TIME AT A GLANCE: The Beavers are 2-0 against Jamestown and 0-3 against St. Cloud State since joining the Division II ranks in 2011.  

LAST TIME OUT: Minot State won 35-15 last season against Jamestown with all of the current Beavers having won their matches. Three of the projected starters won their matches against the Jimmies in the 2014-15 season, all by pinning their opponents. St. Cloud State won their match last season 44-2. Both teams received negative points at the end of the match for misconduct.

NOTING THE BEAVERS: Minot State has struggled recently losing its seventh straight match to begin 2016. With injuries and spots shifting due to weight troubles the Beavers introduced freshman Hunter Hart (Gallatin Gateway, Mont.) at the 197 weight class at the Midwest Duals along with sophomore Anthony Raupp (Winlock, Wash.) making his first dual appearance at 174. MSU did tie Newman in its third match at the duals, but lost by one point due to a tie breaker.

NOTING THE JIMMIES: Jamestown has seen a slump of its own with a seven-match losing streak. The last win for the Jimmies came on November 17 against head coach Dan Lovell's former team Itasca Community College. Jamestown sports the fourth ranked wrestler in the 165 weight class in the NAIA with Michael Nord.

NOTING THE HUSKIES: Coming off of its national championship season St. Cloud State has picked up where it left off last season going 10-1 so far this season. Having spent a majority of the season as the second ranked team in the country the Huskies have multiple ranked wrestlers including three No. 1 wrestlers in Tim Prescott at 125, Clint Poster at 165 and Austin Goergen at 285. Other ranked wrestlers on the Huskies roster are No.4 Clayton Jennissen at 174 and No. 6 Jay Hildreth at 149.

COMEBACK KID: After not wrestling in the 2014-15 season, Marcus Polak (157, Sr. Minot, N.D.) now is tied for the second most wins on the team with 12 after going 3-1 at the Midwest Duals hosted by Nebraska-Kearney. Polak earned his first pin of the year in his first match at the Midwest Duals against Chadron State. He has also recorded two wins by tech. falls and one by major decision.

EULL BE THERE: Junior heavyweight Mitchell Eull (Buffalo, Minn.) has had a successful season so far in 2015. Eull competed in two matches at the Midwest Duals, going 1-1, and earned two forfeits. Totalling 17 wins this season he has the most wins by a Beaver this season by a margin of five. Eull will compete this week against the No. 1 wrestler in the country in St. Cloud State's Austin Goergen.

Eull in his three seasons (2013-2015)    
Year          Wins     Losses    Falls      Team Points
2013-14     11          22           2             13
2014-15     26         15            6             42
2015-16     17         7              5             37
Total         54         44           13            92

FIRST TIMERS: Three Beavers may be making their home debuts this week with Anthony Battle (133, Jr., Wahiawa, Hawaii), Anthony Raupp (174, So. Winlock, Wash.) and Hunter Hart (197, Fr., Gallatin Gateway, Mont.) all projected to compete in their first home events. Raupp competed for Chadron State before joining the Beavers this season and wrestled last week in the Midwest Duals where Hart made his first dual appearance of his college career. Battle competed for MSU last season going 5-21 in his first season after coming to Minot from St. Andrews University.

TWO TO TANGO: For the first time this season the Beavers have had two wrestlers in the top six in the Super Region III Coaches' Poll. With Tanner Crissler (141, So., Belcourt, N.D.) and Mitchell Eull (HWT, Jr., Buffalo, Minn.) both ranked at No. 6, Minot State has moved up from 14th to 12th as a team. Crissler has an overall record of 12-10 while Eull sports a 17-7 record.

BY THE NUMBERS

5: Beavers with more than 15 team points this season. Four of the five are projected to start this week.

5: Underclassmen projected to start this week. Minot State has a total of 14 underclassmen on its roster compared to eight upperclassmen, including just two seniors.

5: Wins earned by fall by Mitchell Eull (HWT, Jr., Buffalo, Minn.). The Beavers have a total of 20 wins by pinning their opponents this season.