FARGO, N.D. - North Dakota State wrestling heads back on the road and begins a three-week stretch away from home to wrap up the regular season. NDSU will travel to Utah Valley and Wyoming this week. The Bison wrestle Utah Valley on February 6 in Orem with an 8 p.m. CT start, before taking on Wyoming in Laramie on February 8 at 2 p.m. CT.
 
Dual Coverage
The Utah Valley will be streamed on YouTube. The dual at Wyoming will be on FloWrestling and the Mountain West Network. Live results will be through TrackWrestling. Links for coverage are available on GoBison.com.
 
Ranked Bison
Four Bison are ranked heading into this week's road trip. Max Petersen (149) leads the way for the Bison, sitting at #16 in the InterMat rankings and also sits at #24 by FloWrestling. Ezekiel Witt (125) comes into the rankings this week at #19 in InterMat and #22 in the Flo rankings. Aidan Brenot (184) climbed one spot up to #28 in InterMat, while Devin Wasley (197) held firm in the rankings, sitting at #28 in Flo and #33 in InterMat.
 
North Dakota State Probable Lineup
125: #19 Ezekiel Witt (18-8)
133: Tristan Daugherty (11-10)
141: Michael Olson (7-11) or Devon Harrison (8-5)
149: #16 Max Petersen (11-5)
157: Gavin Drexler (8-8) or Gabriel Gallardo (8-3)
165: Boeden Greenley (12-13)
174: Max Magayna (12-11)
184: #28 Aidan Brenot (10-6) or Andrew McMonagle (16-6)
197: #33 Devin Wasley (18-6)
285: Shilo Jones (9-9)
 
Utah Valley Probable Lineup
125: Bridger Ricks (9-10)
133: Jake Castagneto (13-9) or Geronimo Rivera (7-9)
141: #18 Haiden Drury (17-5)
149: #14 David Evans (11-4) or Jason Worthley (6-7)
157: Ian Fritz (8-5) or Mark Takara (13-14)
165: Zyon Trujillo (7-13)
174: Trevor Frank (3-4) or Hudson Rogers (10-9)
184: Caleb Uhlenhopp (12-10) or Christian Smoot (11-11)
197: Kael Bennie (11-11)
285: #33 Jack Forbes (16-9)
 
Series History - Utah Valley
NDSU will meet Utah Valley for the 19th time in series history on Friday, with the Bison holding a 13-5 record all-time against the Wolverines. However, the series is even since both teams moved to the Big 12, with each team winning four duals a piece. Utah Valley has claimed the last two duals, winning 24-19 in Fargo last season and 24-14 the last time the two teams met in Orem in 2024.
 
Wyoming Probable Lineup
125: Sefton Douglass (6-11)
133: #29 Luke Willochell (11-7)
141: David Saenz (11-7) or John Alden (7-10)
149: #27 Gabe Willochell (11-6)
157: Jared Hill (8-8)
165: Sloan Swan (8-10)
174: Riley Davis (5-7)
184: #11 Eddie Neitenbach (13-5)
197: #5 Joey Novak (11-2)
285: #11 Christian Carroll (15-4)
 
Series History - Wyoming
NDSU and Wyoming will face off on the mat for the 25th time on Sunday, with Wyoming holding a 15-9 series advantage over the Bison. NDSU is just 3-6 against the Cowboys in the Big 12 era, with Wyoming claiming the last two duals; a 27-12 win last season in Fargo and a 30-13 win the last time the two teams wrestled at the Uniwyo Sports Complex in 2024.
 
Bison Facing Some of the Best
Including this weekend, seven of NDSU's 14 Division I opponents so far this season are currently ranked in the USA Today/NWCA Coaches Poll. NDSU had the fifth strongest strength of schedule in the fall semester and the 12th strongest currently. Counting Wyoming, three of the four NDSU opponents for the remainder of the season are currently ranked in the NWCA Top 25.
 
At the beginning of the season, the Bison were set to face seven programs that started the 2025-26 season in the top 25, along with three other programs that received votes in the opening rankings of the year. The Bison have six traditional Power 4 programs on the schedule, with four of those duals coming in the first two months of the season.
 
Wasley Taking Control at 197
Devin Wasley moved up two weight classes in 2025-26, making the jump from 174 to 197, and the junior has begun to develop some momentum. After a pair of tough defeats to start the year, Wasley reeled off eight-straight victories, including a title at the Daktronics Invitational and avenging a loss from earlier in the season in the dual at Minnesota.
 
Wasley has continued to impress, topping #29 Wolfgang Frable of Army at the Southern Scuffle and has won seven-straight duals, including a 5-0 win over then #10 Dillon Bechtold of Bucknell in mid-January. Since the turn of the year, Wasley is 10-2, with both defeats coming to currently ranked wrestlers. He has recorded 35 near fall points on 17 takedowns and has also scored two reversals. In his 10 wins during the span, he has secured six bonus-point decisions with three tech falls and three majors. In all seven of his non-tech fall wins, Wasley has secured a riding time point.
 
700 Club for Petersen
With his 11-2 major decision against California Baptist, Max Petersen reached 700 career match points earned. The junior is the NDSU active leader for the Bison in points earned (714), Big 12 dual wins (14), and takedowns (168).
 
Drexler Takes Ranked Win #10
Gavin Drexler scooped up his 10th career ranked victory against California Baptist, as the junior upset #29 Drayden Morton. It was also his 20th career dual win. Drexler is tied with Aidan Brenot for the active lead at NDSU with 10 career ranked wins and is also the active leader for NDSU in wins (63), Big 12 dual wins (12), bonus-point wins (29), major decisions (21), near fall points (121), reversals (25) and riding time points (36).
 
Petersen Recording Key Wins with Tough Schedule
Max Petersen secured a 6-5 win over #16 Caleb Rathjen of Northern Iowa to start his season. Since then, Petersen has wrestled the ninth toughest schedule at 149 in the country and reeled off an 11-5 record. All five of Petersen's losses have come to wrestlers currently in the top 20 of the performance index.
 
Petersen has recorded multiple upsets, including an 8-3 win over #20 Lucas Kapusta at the Davidson Duals to go along with his season-opening win. Petersen has wins against four wrestlers currently in the Top 33, which also included a key win in his home state at Minnesota against Drew Roberts. Petersen also has seven wins against the top 50 of 307 wrestlers in the weight class.
 
Mr. Gator Bacon
Ezekiel Witt has used the gator bacon moves to secure multiple victories this season, beginning at the Southern Scuffle to defeat Andrew Binni of Navy in the semifinal. Witt then pulled the move again at the Davidson Duals, using it to secure a pin of Bucknell's Kade Davidheiser, which proved to be the decisive point in a win for NDSU.
 
Witt has recorded two Top-15 victories this season, beginning with an upset of #14 Trever Anderson of Northern Iowa and #12 Nico Provo of Stanford. Witt also had narrow defeats to #8 Jore Volk at Minnesota, and a 6-5 loss to Penn State's #2 Luke Lilledahl in Nashville. At the Southern Scuffle, Witt reached the final, taking two-time All-American #4 Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech to sudden victory.
 
Magayna, Brenot Generating Momentum
Redshirt Freshman 174 Max Magayna and sophomore 184 Aidan Brenot have started to develop some momentum together in the last two weeks, with the duo sweeping through the last three duals. Magayna picked up a major decision against Northern Colorado and Brenot has recorded bonus points in all three duals, starting with a pin before two major decisions last week. The last three duals are the first time Magayna and Brenot have won together when both in the lineup.
 
Looking Ahead
North Dakota State heads back on the road, traveling to the west coast to take on Oregon State in the final non-conference dual of the season. The Bison will wrestle at Oregon State on Friday, February 13, taking on the Beavers at Gill Coliseum with the dual set to get underway at 8 p.m. CT.