Locked In And Ready To Roll At Regionals
MOORHEAD, Minn. (2/27/15)---No.6-ranked Concordia will be looking to continue its recent regional success when it participates at the NCAA West Regional on Saturday, Feb. 28 beginning at 9 a.m. at Augsburg College in Minneapolis.
The Cobbers, who are ranked sixth in Division III in the latest NWCA national rankings, had seven wrestlers qualify for the NCAA National Meet from last year's regional competition. Concordia has had 13 athletes qualify for the national meet in the past two season and has had at least four wrestlers qualify for five consecutive seasons. Last year's seven national qualifiers helped CC head coach Matt Nagel earn Region Coach of the Year honors.
NCAA West Regional Links
- 2015 NCAA West Regional Meet Website
- Live Results
- Live Video for Semifinals (12:30 p.m.)/Finals (3:15 p.m.)
- 2014 Cobber West Regional Recap
Concordia enters this year's West Regional Meet with three wrestlers ranked in the top 4 of the nation in the latest NWCA DIII rankings. CC also has seven of its athletes ranked in the top 15 of the nation in the latest D3wrestle.com extended national rankings.
The Cobbers' regional contingent will be led by the senior trio of All-American Jacoby Bergeron, Jake Krogstad and Sebastian Gardner. All three are ranked in the top 4 in Division III, all three carry win streaks into the meet and all three placed in the top 3 at last year's West Regional to advance to the national meet.
Bergeron is ranked fourth at 141 and is 31-6 on the year. He has won 20 straight matches and hasn't lost since Nov. 15. Bergeron finished third at last year's regional meet to earn his second straight trip to the NCAA National Meet where he placed sixth to earn All-American honors.
Krogstad is currently ranked third at 165 and is 18-8 on the year. He has won nine straight matches. Krogstad also placed third at last year's regional meet. He then went on to post a 2-2 record at the national meet.
Gardner has moved all the way up to the No.3 national ranking at 174. He is 21-6 in 2015 and is 15-2 in his last 17 matches. Last year Gardner finished third at 174 after scoring a major decision in the third-place match. He moved on to his very first NCAA Meet where he went 2-2.
Concordia's other seven wrestlers will all be looking to earn their first-ever trip to the national meet. Wrestlers have to finish in the top 3 of their weight class to punch their ticket to Hershey, pa. – the site of this year's national meet.
Jakob Stageberg, Jake Kostik, Ben Cousins, Dane Ringquist, Danny Pike and Justice Davis will all be competing in their very first regional meet while Gabe Foltz is the only other repeat regional participant for the Cobbers as the seven try to help match last year's seven national qualifier total.
Stageberg and Davis – the two bookends on the weight class sheet are the only 20-match winners among the group. Both wrestlers are ranked in the top 15 in the D3wrestle.com poll. Stageberg is one of two freshmen on the starting 10 for CC. He is 23-10 on the year and 9-2 in his last 11 matches at 126. Davis is 22-9 as the team's entrant at 285. He is 5-2 in his last seven matches and owns several big wins over regional opponents this year.
Foltz has been coming on during the later stages of the season. He recently won the starting nod at 133 and is 7-2 in his last nine matches. Foltz is 12-10 on the year. He narrowly missed qualifying for nationals last year after finishing fourth at 125.
Kostik and Cousins have been solid for Concordia all season long and both have been in the CC starting lineup since the very first meet. Kostik has 10 wins on the year as the team's No.1 at 149. He has won two straight and three of the last four entering regions.
Cousins is one of the team's hardest working athletes and has grown into a top 15 national wrestler at 157. He has a career-best 17 victories this year and has won three of the last four.
The two wild cards in the Concordia starting 10 are Ringquist and Pike. Both wrestlers earned their spot in the lineup late in the season. Both wrestlers have single-digit win totals for the year but have been posting quality wins in the past few weeks. Ringquist is the other freshman in the starting lineup. He has faced some tough nationally ranked competition throughout the year at 184 and that will help him in his first collegiate postseason.
Pike doesn't have many wins on the year at 197 but has recorded some really big victories for the team. His biggest win of the season came in Concordia's dual-meet win over No.3-ranked Wabash in the third-place match at the Mat Mayhem National Duals Meet in January.
Concordia NCAA West Regional Lineup
125 – Jakob Stageberg (23-10)
133 – Gabe Foltz (12-10)
141 – No.4 Jacoby Bergeron (31-6)
149 – Jake Kostik (10-12)
157 – Ben Cousins (17-19)
165 – No.3 Jake Krogstad (18-8)
174 – No.3 Sebastian Gardner (21-6)
184 – Dane Ringquist (8-13)
197 – Danny Pike (6-9)
285 – Justice Davis 22-9)
