No. 17 SJU at Jimmie Open Saturday
January 21, 2008
The Johnnies return to action at the Jamestown Open this Saturday, Jan.
24. The meet is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. in Jamestown. N.D.
SJU Pulls Away From Ridgewater, Lose Close Match To No. 12 SCSU
No. 17 Saint John's won the match's final four bouts enroute to a 27-10
win over No. 9 (NJCAA Division III) Ridgewater on Thursday, Jan. 15 in
Collegeville.
Entering the 174-pound match with the score 12-10 in favor of SJU,
sophomore Dustin Raygor (St. Croix Falls, Minn.) earned a 5-2 decision
over Ridgewater's Martin Hagen to increase the lead to 15-10. Freshman
Matt Pfarr (Le Sueur, Minn./Le Sueur-Henderson) followed with a pin at
the 6:36 mark at 184 pounds. Wins by sophomore James Carlson (Royalton,
Minn.) and freshman Cody Socher (Delano, Minn.) ended the scoring for
SJU.
Johnnies Fall To No.12 St. Cloud State
St. Cloud State redshirt-freshman Luke Munkelwitz recorded a takedown
in the first overtime to defeat Saint John’s sophomore Tony Willaert
(North Mankato, Minn./Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial) 6-4 and give the
No. 12 Huskies (NCAA Division II) a 17-16 come-from-behind win over the
No. 17 Johnnies (NCAA Division III) Friday, Jan. 16 in Collegeville.
SJU opened the dual with a 6-0 lead courtesy two wins from freshmen
Cody Socher at heavyweight (6-1 over Erik Rogness) and Chad Henle
(Spicer, Minn./New London-Spicer) at 125 (4-0 over Pat LeVasseur). The
Huskies answered with a decision from Josh Williams at 133 (3-0 over
Mogi Baatar) and a technical fall from Gabe Suarez at 141 (19-4 over
Jon Shellenberger) to take an 8-6 lead. SJU was without sophomore Minga
Batsukh (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia/St. Benedict's Prep, N.J.), ranked No. 5
in the Jan. 7 Division III poll, at 141 due to injury. The lead didn’t
last long, however. Sophomore John Vaith (Hastings, Minn.) recorded a
10-2 major decision over SCSU’s Jacob Roberts at 149 and fellow
sophomore Matt Baarson (Brooklyn Park, Minn./Champlin Park) tallied the
first of SJU’s two upsets on the night to take a 13-8 lead. Baarson,
ranked No. 8 in Division III, defeated the Huskies’ John Sundgren,
ranked No. 5 in Division II, 10-4. SCSU retaliated with two wins of its
own to regain the lead, 14-13. Tad Merritt, ranked No. 8 in Division
II, and Derek Skala each earned wins at 165 (12-6 over Matt Schrupp)
and 174 (9-2 over Grant Eustice), respectively. Sophomore Dustin Baxter
(Fairbanks, Alaska/West Valley) scored a takedown with 11 seconds
remaining in the match to edge SCSU’s Brad Padgett (ranked No. 3 in
Division II) 3-2 and regain the lead for the Johnnies, 16-14, heading
into the dual’s final match at 197. Baxter is now 3-0 in his career
against Padgett.
Head Coach Brandon Novak
Brandon Novak is in his fifth season as head coach of the SJU wrestling
program in 2008-09. Last year, Novak led the Johnnies to a 30th-place
finish (60 teams) at the NCAA Championships. Keeping the academic
standards high in 2005-06, Novak's SJU wrestling team had the
fifth-highest team grade point average in NCAA Division III at 3.334.
Prior to becoming the head coach in 2004-05, Novak assisted 2007 NCAA
Division III Wrestling Coaches’ Hall of Fame inductee John Elton, who
was head wrestling coach from 1981-2004. Novak, a 2001 graduate
of SJU, won the NCAA Wrestling Championship at 197 pounds in 2001 and
was a three-time All-American. Novak currently owns a 34-34 career dual
record as head coach of the Johnnies.
For all the latest news on Johnnie Wrestling and other SJU sports, visit the Saint John’s athletic Web site at gojohnnies.com
