MINNEAPOLIS (3/6-7/09) -- The Augsburg College wrestling team
has qualified nine individuals to compete at the NCAA Division III
Wrestling National Championships, to be held this Friday and Saturday
at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, aiming for its
national-record 11th national title and a top-four national finish for
a national-record 21st straight time.
As a team, Augsburg has won 10 national titles in the previous 18
seasons, and has finished either first or second nationally 18 times
since 1975. Augsburg has earned an NCAA national trophy by finishing in
the top four in national tournament competition each of the last 20
seasons -- a record currently unmatched by any other NCAA wrestling
program in any division. Augsburg has also had five or more individual
All-Americans (top-eight finishers in each weight class) every season
since 1989.
Augsburg enters the national tournament ranked No. 1 in the most recent
Division III national poll, released on Feb. 10. Both Augsburg and No.
2-ranked Wartburg (Iowa), the defending national champion, have nine
national tournament qualifiers.
The Division III national tournament will be held at the U.S. Cellular
Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Friday’s two sessions (11 a.m. and 6
p.m.) eliminate the field to the final eight in each weight class,
which earn All-American honors. Saturday’s 10 a.m. session includes
championship semifinals, wrestlebacks and third-, fifth- and
seventh-place matches. Championship finals begin at 7 p.m.
Augsburg is competing at the national tournament for the first time
under new head coach Mark Matzek, a two-time national champion and
three-time All-American wrestler as an Auggie (2001-05). He spent three
seasons as an assistant coach at Augsburg before being named the ninth
head coach in program history in July 2008.
Four All-Americans return to the Auggie lineup for the national
tournament, including 125-pound defending national champion Seth
Flodeen (SR, Cannon Falls, Minn.), who is 20-5 this season and 98-32 in
his career. Defending 141-pound national runner-up Jason Adams (JR,
Coon Rapids, Minn.) is competing at 157 pounds this season, where he is
35-5. Willy Holst (SR, Prescott, Wis.) finished third at 149 pounds
last season and is 25-1 this year, while Travis Lang (SR, Bismarck,
N.D.) finished fifth at 133 pounds last season and is 31-1 this season.
Both Holst and Lang are ranked No. 1 nationally.
Five Auggies are making their national tournament debuts -- 141-pounder
Tony Valek (FY, Belle Plaine, Minn./Scott West), 165-pounder Orlando
Ponce (SO, Hialeah, Fla./Hialeah-Miami Lakes HS), 174-pounder Zach
Molitor (SO, Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti HS), 197-pounder Jared
Massey (JR, Circle Pines, Minn./Centennial HS) and heavyweight Andy
Witzel (JR, Fulda, Minn.).
Augsburg is one of only six NCAA schools -- and the only Division
III school -- to have won eight or more wrestling team national
championships. In Division I, Oklahoma State has won 34 team titles,
while Iowa has won 20 and Iowa State has won eight. In Division II,
California State-Bakersfield and Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo have won
eight national titles apiece. In NAIA history, two schools have won
eight national titles -- Adams State (Colo.) and Central State (Okla.).
Augsburg and Wartburg have been the powers of small-college wrestling
over the past decade. One or both of the two schools have finished
among the top two teams in the NCAA Division III national championship
race every year since 1990, while one of the two schools has won the
national title every year since 1995. Augsburg has won 10 of the last
18 Division III national titles (1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 1998, 2000,
2001, 2002, 2005, 2007), finishing second seven times; while Wartburg
has won six national titles (1996, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008),
finishing second eight times.
