Wrestling: Huskers Snag Another Impact Transfer

After hitting the transfer portal to solidify their 125-pound spot, the Huskers grabbed another NCAA qualifier from the portal late in Owen Pentz from North Dakota State.

After NDSU’s head coach Roger Kish left for the job at Oklahoma, junior-to-be Pentz entered the transfer portal and eventually landed in Lincoln earlier this week. A three-time NCAA qualifier for the Bison, Pentz has had a solid career so far at 197 pounds. He has an available redshirt and two years of eligibility remaining.

With Nebraska already having sophomore-to-be Silas Allred, a Big Ten Champion, at that weight, it was first unclear how Pentz fit in. But the word out there is that Pentz will come in and compete at heavyweight.

A big 197-pounder who is often around the 230-pound mark when not cutting weight during the season, Pentz will be able to bulk up in Lincoln and compete with redshirt freshman Harley Andrews for the spot at 285 pounds.

While at NDSU, Pentz went 45-24 in three years of competing. In the shortened 2021 season with the free year of eligibility, Pentz went 9-6 and made it to the Round of 16 at NCAAs. In fact, Pentz delivered the upset of Nebraska’s 2-seed Eric Schultz in the first round of the tournament.

As a freshman again in 2021-22, Pentz went 18-9 and qualified for NCAAs before going 18-9 again this past year while again qualifying for NCAAs.

Pentz has had a reputation as a guy who can knock off top-level guys. In addition to beating the Huskers’ All-American Eric Schultz, Pentz also owns career wins over All-Americans Yonger Bastida, Ethan Laird, Jake Woodley and Stephen Buchanan. See his upset win via pinfall of then-No. 2 Laird earlier this year at the Southern Scuffle below.

I don’t know that it’s a sure thing that Pentz starts for Nebraska, as Andrews went 22-2 while redshirting last year, but this sure injects some real competition into the room at the heaviest of weights. If he loses the spot to Andrews, Pentz would likely use his available redshirt.