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MINNEAPOLIS (7/9/01) -- Augsburg College wrestling coach Jeff Swenson has been named the 2000-01 Lutheran Brotherhood Lutheran College Coach of the Year, the organization announced on Monday.
This season, Swenson led Augsburg to its seventh NCAA Division III wrestling national championship in the last 11 years, and second national title in a row. The seven national titles are the most earned in Division III history. The Auggies dominated the 2001 national meet, earning three individual national titles and eight All-American honors.
Just as impressive, Swenson's wrestlers have succeeded off the mat as well. The Auggies finished fourth in the National Wrestling Coaches Association academic team national championship, with a team cumulative grade-point average of 3.37. In total, Augsburg had seven NWCA Scholar All-Americans-including three of the team's eight All-Americans.
In the four seasons the NWCA has sponsored a Division III academic national team championship, the Auggies have finished first once and second twice, in addition to this year's fourth-place finish. Augsburg is the only school to place in the top four both academically and on the mat each of the last four years. Augsburg has had 67 NWCA Scholar All-Americans since 1983, including 44 in the last four years and a national all-divisions record 12 in 2000.
"While there are a lot of successful coaches at Lutheran colleges, few have been able to match Jeff's team tradition of winning championships while maintaining academic success," said David Angstadt, Lutheran Brotherhood's chief marketing officer.
This is the second year that Lutheran Brotherhood has sponsored a program to honor outstanding athletes and coaches at the nation's 46 Lutheran colleges and universities. Lutheran Brotherhood names Lutheran College All-America teams in football, volleyball, men's basketball and women's basketball, and names a coach and student-athlete of the year. Last year, Pacific Lutheran football coach Frosty Westering earned Coach of the Year honors.
Swenson credits the Augsburg wrestling program's on and off-the-mat success to his mantra, "achieve one percent improvement a day."
"The kids have their own goals, but our goal as a program isn't any different than last year or any other," Swenson said. "We just have to improve one percent a day. When the kids believe it, you know it because it translates to every workout session, every practice and every day in the classroom."
Swenson has a 252-32 career record, and has coached at Augsburg since the 1980-81 season (He took a two-year sabbatical in the mid-80s to coach at Rosemount, Minn., High School). The Auggies finished the 2000-01 season with a 16-1 dual-meet record. The Auggies' lone dual-meet loss was a setback to the Division I University of Oregon, at the time ranked 14th in Division I, in the Oregon Classic Duals in Portland in January. Augsburg defeated two-time Division II national champion North Dakota State 19-12 at Fargo, N.D., in February, and scored seven other victories over Division II opponents this season.
Swenson has coached 112 All-Americans at Augsburg, including 26 individual national champions. He has coached 120 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference individual champions.
In his 19 seasons at Augsburg, the Auggies have won the MIAC title 18 times (Augsburg has won the MIAC title 25 of the last 27 years and the last 15 in a row), and the MIAC Team Duals title every year of the 11 it has been held (winning every match of 58 contested in its MIAC Team Duals history by a total margin of victory of 2,771-124). Since 1975, Augsburg is 177-2 against MIAC opponents and currently has a 78-match winning streak against MIAC opponents (dating to 1986). Against Division III and Division II scholarship opponents, Augsburg is 149-7 since 1989-90, and has just lost two matches against non-Division I competition (both to Division II opponents) since the 1995-96 season.
A three-time All-American wrestler at Augsburg (his collegiate record was 102-17), Swenson has also been named NWCA Division III National Coach of the Year five times and MIAC Wrestling Coach of the Year 10 times. Swenson was inducted into the Augsburg College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.
Augsburg has won the MIAC wrestling title in 18 of Swenson's 19 seasons, has finished in the top four in the NCAA Division III national tournament in each of the last 13 seasons, and finished in the top 20 nationally every year since 1971.
Lutheran Brotherhood is an organization of 1.2 million Lutherans joined together for financial security, charitable outreach and volunteer service. The organization helps Lutherans link faith, values and finances in their everyday living.