MARSHALL, Minn.- The Southwest Minnesota State wrestling team (4-11, 0-3 NSIC) will make its first road trip since beginning the bulk of its conference schedule later this week as it travels to face Minot State on Thursday at 7 p.m., followed by a match on Friday at U-Mary at 7 p.m.  The Mustangs hope to rebound after suffering two home NSIC losses last weekend to Upper Iowa and Augustana.

THE SCHEDULE (all times central):
SMSU at Minot State (3-11, 0-3 NSIC), Jan. 26, 7 p.m.
SMSU at U-Mary (5-5, 1-2 NSIC), 3 p.m.

ABOUT MINOT STATE:
Minot State last competed in Kutztown, Pa., where it went 1-4 with the Beavers' only win coming over LIU Post winning, 23-18. Minot State has faced seven ranked opponenets already this year going 1-6 in those duals. 

ABOUT U-MARY:
U-Mary enters the week coming off of a 33-7 defeat at the hands of Minnesota State Mankato last Friday night. U-Mary has lost three straight matches after also dropping its final two matches at the Nebraksa-Kearney Midwest Duals.

SERIES HISTORY (Minot State):
Southwest Minnesota State is 5-1 all time versus Minot State and has won the previous four meetings including a 39-9 victory over the Beavers last year. SMSU swept Minot State 40-0 back in 2013-14.

SERIES HISTORY (U-Mary):
SMSU is 7-3 all time against U-Mary and has won the previous three matches that includes a 24-15 victory last year. The last win for U-Mary came in back in the 2012-13 season.

LIVE STATS:
Live stats coverage will be available from smsumustangs.com

SMSU HEAD COACH: 
Jesse Nelson is in his 10th season as head coach at SMSU in 2016-17. Nelson was named the fourth coach in the program history on Aug. 22, 2007. Nelson, the 2013-14 NSIC Coach of the Year, has a dual record of 58-72-1, including 19-40 in conference matches. During his tenure, Nelson has groomed 19 national qualifiers—11 in the last three seasons alone—seven All-NSIC wrestlers, including three two-time NCAA qualifiers and three three-time NCAA qualifiers.

SEASON LEADERS:
Cole Hennen is 15-10... Cortez Arredondo is 15-13... Kegen Fingalsen is 16-13... Jackson Ryan has posted an 11-10 mark... Cameron Henning has eight wins by fall so far for the Mustangs.

LAST TIME OUT:
The Mustangs dropped a pair of home matches last weekend as they fell to Upper Iowa and Augustana. Upper Iowa, who came in at No. 24 in the latest Division II national coaches' poll released earlier on Friday, had two major decisions and one win by tech fall in the first five weight classes to jump out to a big lead. Kegen Fingalsen won by sudden victory for SMSU at 165 and Cole Hennen won by decision at 184 but the Mustangs fought from behind for much of the night in its second home conference loss of the year. 

SMSU and Augustana had several close bouts throughout the afternoon, but the match fell out of reach after Cortez Arredondo lost a 3-1 decision at 149 and Jake Slocum lost a 5-4 decision in the next bout class at 157.

Kegen Fingalsen (16-13) earned a 5-3 decision over Bruce Lemon to get SMSU on the scoreboard as Augie still led 26-3. The win helped Fingalsen to a perfect record 2-0 on the weekend.

PRESEASON NSIC POLL
Southwest Minnesota State was picked to finish tied for seventh in the NSIC preseason poll.
 
UP NEXT
Following its pair of road matches this weekend, SMSU will travel to face Minnesota State on Feb. 2 at 7 p.m. The Mustangs will then travel to Northern State on Feb. 5 at 2 p.m