Pinber

MOORHEAD, Minn. (12/08/17)---Cobber freshman Ethan Kimber, whose name rhymes with timber, chopped down his opponent in the first minute of his match and earned the decisive pin in Concordia's 20-17 win over Division II Northern State.

Kimber's pin at 197, the second-to-last match of the night, broke open a 14-14 tie and gave the Cobbers' a huge six-point lead with the single bout at 285 left in the dual.

The three-point victory ends a four-match losing skid for Concordia and pushes their dual-meet record to 2-4 on the season. Northern State drops to 1-3 on the season.

Both teams won five individual bouts in the match but it was Kimber's six-point pin that proved to be the difference. Both squads had a pair of major decisions during the dual and matched three-point decisions.

The Cobbers started the dual by winning three of the first four matches to take an 11-4 lead. Freshman Jake Nohre started the night by grinding out a 4-0 win at 125.

After a major decision win by the Wolves at 133, Aaron Dick and Ty Johnson recorded back-to-back major decisions of their own to push the lead to seven points. Dick scored the majority of his points in the first period as he came away with a takedown and then a four-point near fall. He won 11-2 to earn the four points in the team score.

Johnson was in control of his match from the opening whistle. He scored a pair of takedowns in each of the first and second periods and then let his opponent escape to try and earn more points to come up with the 15-5 bonus point victory.

Concordia dropped the next three matches and suddenly found themselves down 14-11. Nick Gravdahl then earned the "momentum swinging match" of the night award as he rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the first period and won 4-2 at 184. The win was Gravdahl's fifth in only six matches this year. His only loss came at the hands of a Northern State wrestler in the season-opening Jimmie Open.

That set the stage for Kimber and he wasted little time getting an edge. He went on the offensive right away and scored a takedown which put his opponent on his back. He then finished off the match with the pin at the 1:00 mark.

The Cobbers lost the final match of the night at 285. It turned out to be the closest bout of the dual with Kody Van Den Eykel gaining a late takedown in the third period to force overtime.

PINBER: Ethan Kimber has had the knack for putting his opponents on their back this season. The first-year wrestler from Hewitt has now won eight matches and six of those have come via the pin. He leads the Cobbers in pins this season.

A FINE NINE: Aaron Dick won his team-leading ninth match of the year. Dick is now 4-2 in dual meet competitions.  

WHAT'S NEXT:  Concordia will have a 10-day break for final exams and then head west to take part in the Desert Duals in Las Vegas, Nev. The annual dual meet is hosted by Wartburg.