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LeVesseur finishes 10th at World University Championships
LODZ, POLAND (6/7/04) -- Augsburg College wrestler Marcus LeVesseur (So., Minneapolis, Minn./Bloomington Kennedy HS) went 1-2 in his three matches to place 10th in the freestyle 74-kilogram (163-pound) weight class at the FISU World University Wrestling Championships, held in Lodz, Poland, over the weekend.
LeVesseur lost his opening match 7-3 to Semen Semenov of Russia, the eventual sixth-place finisher. In his second match, he lost 6-0 to Fahrettin Ozata of Turkey, the eventual fourth-place finisher and World University champion in 2002. In his final match, LeVesseur defeated Micha Rom of Poland 3-2.
It was LeVesseur's first major international competition of his senior freestyle career. LeVesseur won five matches over NCAA Division I wrestlers to claim the USA Wrestling University National Freestyle Championship in May to qualify to represent the United States in the world championships.
LeVesseur has won two NCAA Division III national titles at 157 pounds at Augsburg while compiling a perfect 84-0 record, having not lost a match in his two-season collegiate wrestling career.
LeVesseur has built an outstanding reputation as an amateur wrestler. He was one of only 12 wrestlers in Minnesota history to win four state high school titles -- titles at Minneapolis Roosevelt HS in 1998, 1999 and 2000 and at Bloomington Kennedy HS in 2001. He finished his high-school career with a 218-12 record (now fourth-best in state history), including a state-record 141 straight victories to close his career.
He was named Minnesota's "Mr. Wrestler" in his senior season, and was ranked as the nation's No. 2-ranked recruit, among all weight classes, in the InterMat online wrestling service Top 200 Recruit Rankings in 2000-01. LeVesseur originally enrolled at the Division I University of Minnesota, but did not compete as a Gopher and transferred to Augsburg after one semester.