Mustang Pair Travel to Texas for NCAA Championships
March 11, 2009
MARSHALL, Minn. - The Southwest Minnesota State wrestling team
will travel a pair of grapplers to the NCAA Championships in Houston,
Texas, this weekend. The duo includes 133-pounder Michal Barrie and
149-pounder David Albrecht, who both qualified by posting top-four
finishes at the NCAA Super Regional Three in Marshall on March 1. The
NCAA Championship runs this Friday and Saturday.
How it unfolded: Barrie qualified at 133 pounds, grabbing a
third place finish. He went 3-1 on the day, notching victories over
Northern State's Jimmy Marx, Minnesota State Moorhead's Kelly Janke and
Minnesota State, Mankato's Tim Haneberg. The senior entered the
tournament as the No. 2 seed. Albrecht qualified at 149 pounds, going
2-2 en route to a fourth-place finish. The redshirt freshman was
victorious against Upper Iowa's Derek Stolarzyk and NSU's Jacob
Butrous. He entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed.
Team finish: SMSU compiled 36.5 points to fins seventh in the
team standings. Minnesota State, Mankato took home the team title with
135.5 points. The Mavericks qualified 10 for nationals and had five
individual champions.
Webcast: The NCAA Championships will be broadcast via Webcast on
the NCAA Web site. The NCAA and CBS College Sports are teaming upto
provide coverage for a number of NCAA Championships being held in
Houston this weekend. Log onto www.SMSUmustangs.com and follow the link
to the video feed.
Results: Updated brackets and results from this year’s NCAA
championships can be found by logging on to www.NCAA.com. And be sure
to check www.SMSUmustangs.com for up-to-date stories about SMSU’s
participating wrestlers.
Newbies: Both Barrie and Albrecht are new to the NCAA Division
II national tournament scene as this year’s championships are their
first ever qualifying experiences. Barrie, however, was a national
qualifier at the NJCAA level while he wrestled at Ridgewater College,
also under head coach Jesse Nelson.
An improved squad: SMSU’s three wins this season means an
improved campaign in 2008-09 for the Mustangs, who went winless last
season. Those three wins for SMSU include a pair of conference wins,
the most NSIC victories since the 2000-01 season when the Mustangs went
a perfect 3-0 in conference action.
