SJU travels to Pennsylvania for Budd
Whitehill Duals The Johnnies
will compete at the 13th annual Budd Whitehill Duals hosted by Lycoming
College on Jan. 12-13 in Williamsport, Pa. Eight of the 20 teams are
currently ranked in the top 30 according to the Brute/Adidas NWCA
Division III Team Rankings released on Jan. 7: #11 College of New
Jersey, #13 Springfield, Mass.; #14 York, Pa.; #16 Loras, Iowa; #22
Ithaca, N.Y.; #23 John Carroll, Ohio; #24 Lycoming, Pa.; and #30
Wis.-Whitewater.
Batsukh ranked third nationally
Freshman Minga Batsukh (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia/St. Benedict's) is
currently ranked #3 in the nation at 141 pounds in the Jan. 7
Brute/Adidas NWCA Division III individual rankings. Batsukh did not
compete at last week’s Cornell Invitational.
Johnnies finish 11th at Cornell
MT. VERNON, Iowa – Saint John’s finished 11th out of 14 teams at the
Cornell Invitational on Jan. 5-6 in Mt. Vernon, Iowa. After a promising
opening night of competition when the Johnnies found themselves in
fifth place overall, SJU lost a number of close matches and fell to
11th overall when the Invite ended.
SJU Head Coach Brandon Novak
Head Coach Brandon Novak is in his third season as the head wrestling
coach in Collegeville. A 2001 graduate of SJU, Novak won the NCAA
Division III Championship at 197 pounds in 2001 and was a three-time
All-American. As a football player at SJU, Novak was named MIAC Most
Valuable Player as a linebacker in 1999 and a two-time firstteam
All-America selection. Last year, Novak led the Johnnie grapplers to a
16th place finish at the NCAA Championships. In 2005-06, Novak's SJU
wrestling team had the fifth-highest team grade point average in NCAA
Division III at 3.334.