Drexler heading to Big 12 college
Stratford junior decides future wrestling plans
By Casey Krautkramer
Stratford junior Gavin Drexler decided two weeks ago to commit to wrestle for the Division 1 North Dakota State (NDSU) Bison after he graduates from high school next year. He made his announcement public on Monday.
NDSU handed Gavin Drexler a partial scholarship for wrestling, and he’ll earn more scholarship money toward his college education based on the amount of success he has during his college wrestling career. He plans to major in business and finance.
Gavin Drexler and his parents, Dan and Cara Drexler of Stratford, took unofficial tours of NDSU and the other four Division 1 colleges that gave him scholarships to wrestle: University of Arkansas at Little Rock, Northern Illinois, Minnesota and Wisconsin. He felt most comfortable with the NDSU wrestling coaches and the city of Fargo, N.D.
“The NDSU coaches are such great people and I can’t wait to be under their wing and have success in college,” Gavin Drexler said. “Fargo isn’t too overwhelming of a city for me, and I’ve spent time in Fargo in the past wrestling in national freestyle and Grego Roman tournaments.”
Gavin Drexler has a 116-2 high school career wrestling match record thus far. His only match defeats came in the Division 3 individual sectional during his freshman season; he hasn’t lost since then. He won his second straight Division 3 individual state wrestling championship this season.
He’s excited to have an opportunity to compete in the Big 12, which is one of the top wrestling conferences in the country. The four Big 12 member colleges of Iowa St., Oklahoma, Oklahoma St. and West Virginia join eight affiliate colleges in NDSU, Air Force, Fresno State, Northern Colorado, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, Utah Valley and Wyoming to form the wrestling conference.
Roger Kish just concluded his 10th season as NDSU’s wrestling coach. Kish is a native of Lapeer, Mich., and a four-time Michigan state wrestling champion. He was a two-time All-American and two-time NCAA runner-up for the Minnesota Gophers during his college wrestling career.
He coached the Bison to a 7-3 overall match record this season. NDSU lost all three of its dual matches to highlyranked opponents Missouri, Northern Iowa and Iowa St. NDSU finished its season tied for 35th place with Fresno State in the NCCA championships. Iowa won this year’s national wrestling championship, Penn State placed second and Oklahoma State third.
Sam Stuhl of Ellsworth is a sophomore wrestler on NDSU’s squad. Stuhl became the 16th wrestler in Wisconsin high school history to win four individual state wrestling championships in 2018, right after Stratford alum Jeremy Schoenherr became the 15th wrestler in Wisconsin high school history to win four state titles in the same tournament.
Gavin Drexler’s oldest brother, Jake Drexler, is a junior on the UWEau Claire wrestling team this season. Jake Drexler became the first Blugolds wrestler in 15 years to win a Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) title this season.
Jake Drexler won the 149-pound WIAC title this season, after finishing runners-up last season. He qualified for the Division 3 national championships last season, but they were canceled because of COVID-19. This season, WIAC wrestling teams weren’t allowed to compete at nationals.
