Concordia NCAA Championship Meet Preview
MOORHEAD, Minn. (3/14/13)-- No.15-ranked Concordia sends a record-setting six wrestlers to the NCAA Division III National Meet starting on Friday, Mar. 15 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Cobbers will be looking to better their 13th-place finish at last year's national meet.
Will McCarthy, Jacoby Bergeron, Jake Long, Kevin Fynboh, Nathan Schmitz and Tom Bouressa will be looking to add to the long list of Cobber All-Americans in the past several years. Schmitz and Bouressa have already earned All-American honors and are favorites to finish in the top 8 at this year's meet as well.
Complete NCAA Meet Brackets
McCarthy, Bergeron, Long and Fynboh are all making their first appearance at the NCAA Meet. McCarthy finished second at 125 in the West Regional two weeks ago and brings a 14-10 record into nationals and has won five of his last six matches. He will face No.7-ranked Brandon Preston of Trine University in the first round on Friday morning. Preston is 29-10 on the season.
Bergeron was probably the biggest surprise of the regionals. He went 4-0 and won the 133-lb weight class division. He was 9-2 before the regional meet and has now won 12 of his last 13 matches. He will face No.4-ranked Dalton Bullard of Elmhust in his opening match of the meet. Bullard is a returning All-American and is 16-7 on the year.
No.10-ranked Long finally realized his potential at the West Region Meet where he went 3-0 and won the title at 149. He was 14-8 before the start of the regions and has now won seven of his last eight matches. Long is seeded eighth for the NCAA Meet and will square off against Jorge Lopez of Williams College. Lopez is 28-6 on the season and has nine wins by pin falls.
Fynboh was rewarded for a stellar career at Concordia by placing second at 157. The senior is 20-13 on the season and is one of five Cobber wrestlers with at least 20 victories for the season. Fynboh, who posted the second 20-win season of his career, narrowly missed going to nationals his freshman season when he went 27-15 and finished fifth at the regional meet. Fynboh has drawn the toughest first-round opponent of any Cobber at the NCAA Meet. He will wrestle No.2-ranked Chris Burdge of Centenary College (N.J.). Burdge is a two-time All-American and named the most dominant wrestler at 157 in Division III.
Schmitz is the newest member of the Cobber 100-win club. He earned his 100th career win in the semifinals of the West region Meet. Schmitz is the ninth wrestler in the history of the program to eclipse the 100-win mark and has a career record of 100-36. Schmitz earned All-American honors last season and has won eight of his last nine matches. He is the "feel good" story of the year. Schmitz suffered through a knee injury and subsequent staph infection at the start of the year and didn't start wrestling until the middle of January. After finding his strength in his first couple of matches, he has gone 10-2 since the start of February. Schmitz will begin his trek for repeat All-American honors when he goes up against No.2-seeded Alex Coolidge of Cornell College. Coolidge is 29-3 on the season and has not lost to a Division III opponent. He won the Central Region championship and has won 11 consecutive matches.
Bouressa is the top ranked athlete for the Cobbers entering the national meet. He was ranked sixth at 285 in the last NWCA poll. He is also seeded sixth for the NCAA Meet and is 17-2 since Dec. 2. Bouressa is making his third appearance at the national meet and earned All-American honors in 2010. He has a 68-26 career record. He is 23-4 this year with his only losses against Division III opponents coming against No.1-ranked Chad Johnson of Augsburg. Bouressa starts his NCAA journey on Friday when he faces Corey James of Cortland University (N.Y.). James is 24-4 on the season and is making his second NCAA Meet appearance in the last two seasons.
Fans can follow along with all the action as Cornell College, the host institution, will be providing live video. Clink the link to access the live video links: http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule/2013/03/15.