Psyched And Hyped For Regionals
MOORHEAD, Minn. (2/27/14)—Concordia is about to next step after their remarkable 2013-14. "regular season". The Cobbers will head to the NCAA postseason when they wrestle in the West regional Meet on Saturday, Mar. 1 at Augsburg College.
Concordia is coming off its best-ever dual-meet season. The Cobbers went 15-5 in dual meets in 2013-14 which set a school record for dual-meet wins in a season. In addition to their record-setting win total, Concordia also achieved their highest ever national ranking during the season. CC climbed to the No.2 spot in the country. The Cobbers were ranked second in the NWCA national rankings on Jan. 15. Concordia will head into the regional ranked fifth in the latest NWCA poll.
The Cobbers have also achieved individual success to go along with the team accolades. Concordia heads into regions with six of their starting 10 wrestlers having at least 20 wins on the season. CC has had as many as four wrestlers ranked in the top 10 of the nation and will head into Saturday with a pair of nationally-ranked athletes. Cody Kasprick is currently ranked third at 285 and Jacoby Bergeron is eighth at 133.
Kasprick and Bergeron are two of the six Cobber wrestlers with 20 victories on the year. Kasprick is 21-9 heading into the regionals and Bergeron owns a team-best 23-7 overall record. Kasprick has won six straight matched heading into Saturday with five straight coming by pin fall.
The middle weights have been dominated the "L-Train" combination of Jake Long and Kyle LeDuc. Long went 23-8 at 147 for the year and LeDuc is 23-9 at 157. Long has been one of the hottest wrestlers for CC since the new calendar year. He has recorded a 9-1 mark since Jan. 1. Both wrestlers have spent time in the national rankings during the season.
Sebastian Gardner and Chris Harrison have been the keepers of the transition weights to the "bigs". Gardner is 22-11 at 174 and Harrison has gone 22-8 at 184. Gardner is 6-1 in his last seven matches while Harrison is 5-2 in his last seven.
Rounding out the regional team for Matt Nagel's squad on Saturday will be Gabe Foltz at 125, Yonas Gebreab at 141, Jake Krogstad at 165 and Delson Saintal at 197. Foltz is 17-12 on the year and owns a huge win over No. 3-ranked Mike Fuenffinger from Augsburg. Gebreab will be the next CC wrestler to step into the 20-win club. He is 19-16 on the year. Like Long, Krogstad has really pured it on at the end of the year. He is 9-2 in his final 11 matches and 16-8 on the year. Saintal has the ability to get on a roll and rattle off several wins in a row. He is 14-14 this season and at one point had won seven straight.
Nagel is excited to see the team make even more history at the regional meet. "We have a realistic chance to qualify eight wrestlers for the national meet," he said. "That would be a school record and there is also the possibility of winning the region championship which would be a program first."
The NCAA West Regional Meet starts at 9 a.m. on Saturday at Augsburg.
NCAA West Regional Website