Presler And Schmitz Continue List Of All-Americans
LA CROSSE, Wis. (3/10/12)—Ben Presler and
Nate Schmitz added their names to the growing list
of Cobber All-Americans as they both finished fifth at the NCAA
National Meet in La Crosse, Wis. on Saturday.
The pair helped Concordia earn 27.5 teams points and finish in
13th place. It marks the third straight season that the
Cobbers have finished in the top 15 of the nation. Presler and
Schmitz continue the great streak of Concordia All-Americans. CC
has now had nine athletes earn All-American honors in the past five
years.
Presler and Schmitz were part of a contingent of four Concordia
athletes that earned a spot at the national meet. Daron
Hohbein and Tom Bouressa also competed at
the meet but failed to finish in the top eight to earn All-American
honors.
Presler, who was unseeded entering the national meet, went 4-2 at
125 to earn his first All-American award. He started the tournament
by dominating No.8-ranked Stephen Hinton. Presler
posted a 17-0 technical fall to earn a spot in the quarterfinals.
He then lost a tough 9-6 decision to No.1-ranked Nathan
Fitzenreider of North Central.
Presler started the wrestleback portion by pinning Brandon
Gauthier of Rhode Island College. He then posted a 10-2
major decision over Charlie Frankel of Delaware
Valley in the all-important match to earn All-American honors.
Presler lost 5-0 in the wrestleback semifinals before coming back
to record a 3-0 win over No.3-ranked Jimmy Gotto
of Coe in the fifth-place match. Presler has now won 33 matches in
the past two seasons.
Schmitz, like Presler, went 4-2 at the NCAA Meet. He also won
his first match, lost the second and then made a run in the
wrestlebacks to earn his first All-American honor. Schmitz, seeded
sixth at 197, beat Reid Mosqueara of Johns Hopkins
5-2 in the opener. He then lost the closest match of the tournament
by any CC wrestler when he lost 5-4 in an instant classic to
No.3-ranked Dustin Baxter of St. John's.
Schmitz started his wrestleback streak by recording a 10-2 major
decision over Andrew Lovins of Heidelberg.
That set up a match for All-American honors against #7
William Meaney of Elizabethown. Schmitz controlled
the match from the start and went on to win 8-1. Schmitz lost a 1-0
nailbiting decision against No.4-ranked Brad Baus
of Augsburg. He then capped his national meet by beating #5
Trent Flegel of Luther 5-3. Schmitz finished his
junior season by recording a team-high 30 wins.
The bad break award of the NCAA Meet goes to Bouressa who was
upset in the first round at 285 but then had to face the
No.1-ranked Derick Hesson of Mount Union who was
also upset in the first round. Bouressa lost both his matches by a
combined total of two points. He fell 4-3 in the opener and then
lost 4-3 to Hesson who went on to earn third-place honors and had
41 wins on the year.
Hohbein was upset in the opening round in overtime. He came into
the national meet seeded fourth but then lost 8-6 in OT to
Joe Mileski of UW-Stevens Point. Hohbein started
the wrestlebacks by getting a 10-1 major decision over Eric
McCann of Delaware Valley. Then, like Bouressa, Hohbein
had to face one of the top 2 wrestlers in the weight division after
a startling early-round upset. Hohbein had his national meet ended
when he lost 9-3 to No.2-ranked Corey Brown of
Thiel.
Final Top 20 Team Scores
1. Wartburg - 141.5
2. Augsburg - 86.5
3. Coe - 74.0
4. UW-La Crosse - 65.0
5. Ithaca - 61.5
6. The College Of New Jersey - 47.0
7. Elmhurst - 39.5
8. UW-Whitewater - 35.5
9. North Central (IL) - 32.0
10. SUNY-Cortland - 31.5
11. St. Johns (MN) - 29.5
12. York (PA) - 28.0
13.Concordia-Moorhead - 27.5
14.Wisconsin-Oshkosh - 26.0
15.Mount Union - 25.5
16.Delaware Valley - 23.5
16. Springfield - 23.5
18.Ohio Northern - 21.5
19.Messiah - 20.0
20. King`s (PA) - 18.0