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Hansen propels wrestling team to victory over No. 2 Lassen
by Ryan Hope
Scroll Staff
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| Viking wrestler Lex Case (left) begins to wrestle in his 165-pound match. Timothy Robison / Scroll |
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It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t nice. In fact, it was downright ugly, but No. 2 Ricks managed to hold on to defeat the No. 4 Lassen College Cougars last Tuesday 27-21.
Lassen forfeited three matches, spotting Ricks 18 points, which ended up being the difference in the match. The Vikings won only two other matches on the night.
Tied 21-21 after nine matches, it all came down to the final match of the night between heavyweights Ryan Hansen of Ricks and Randall Brown of Lassen. Brown much smaller and quicker than Hansen, successfully used a bull rush technique to take Hansen down in the opening seconds of the match.
“I knew what he was going to do,” Hansen said. “I just tried to stay close to prevent the bull rush.”
After the initial takedown, Hansen got back on his feet and managed to tie up Brown. It wasn’t long before Hansen executed a perfect hip toss, putting Brown on his back. Moments later, using a head-and-arm pinning combination, Hansen successfully pinned Brown to secure the victory for the Vikings.
“I like to use the hip toss whenever I can.” Hansen said after the match. “I’d rather throw them than know them.”
Travis Marx was the only other Viking who scored a victory on the mat after he defeated Brandon Cleaves 8-2 in the 149-pound weight class.
“We’re not wrestling with the intensity we need to,” Ricks coach Bob Christensen said. “We’ll figure it out though.”
Whatever intensity the Vikings lacked on Tuesday they found it in time for the Dickinson State tournament in Dickinson, North Dakota Friday and Saturday. The Vikings were the top placing junior college team in the tournament and finished third overall.
Individually, Hansen and Marx placed first, 165-pounder Lex Case finished second, Tod Wever was fourth at 174 pounds, and Ty Rollins at 125 pounds and Jeremy Lewis at 197 pounds finished fifth in their divisions.
On Thursday the Vikings lost 30-12 to tough Montana State University-Northern a four-year school and the two-time defending NAIA champions.
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