Cobbers Poised For Record Run After Day 1 At NCCA Meet
March 5, 2010
At the end of the first day of competition at the NCAA Division III National Meet Concordia
still had three wrestlers standing. One of the wrestlers has already
earned All-American honors and is in the chase for the national
championship and the two others are one win away from earning
All-American honors.
As a team Concordia is poised for one of their best finishes in program
history. Heading into the final day of competition, the Cobbers are
tied for eighth place with 19.5 points. They have already bettered last
year's total of 17 points. The highest finish by any CC team at the
national meet was ninth place back in 1978. The most NCAA All-Americans
that Concordia has ever had in a single season was two - also in 1978.
Cobber junior Phil Moenkedick, seeded third in the meet, won his
quarterfinal match at 184 with a dominating 8-2 decision over unranked
Ben Adams of John Carroll. The win assured Moenkedick of his second
consecutive All-American award. He now sets his sights on the prize
that eluded him last season. The national runner-up in 2009, Moenkedick
needs only two more wins to become the first CC national champion since
Bary Bennett captured the title in 1978. Moenkedick's path to the
championship was made a little easier when the No.1 and No.2 seeds fell
in the quarterfinals.
Concordia juniors Justin Berns and Ross Dankers remain in the hunt for
their first All-American award. Both wrestlers entered the meet
unseeded and won their first round match. They then lost in the
quarterfinals and then rebounded by picking up a win in the third round
of the wrestlebacks.
Berns started the day by beating No.7-seeded Jacob Groth of Wartburg
8-4. Berns then lost to No.2-seeded Tony Valek in the quarterfinals.
Berns quickly got back on track for one of the top eight spots by
beating Mark Carey of Coe 6-2. He will now face No.6-seeded John Marsh
of Bridgewater State in the wrestleback quarterfinals with the winner
being assured of finishing in the top eight - and tereby earning
All-American honors.
Like Berns, Dankers started the day by pulling off an upset. He downed
No.8-seeded Colin Lenhardt of Johnson and Wales 6-2. Dankers then ran
into top seeded, and defending national champion, Evan Brown of Dubuque
in the quarterfinals and lost by pin fall. True to his form in the
final month of the season, Dankers responded with another win over a
top seed. He posted a 10-4 decision over No.6-seeded Robert Bishop of
the Stevens Inst. of Tecnology. Dankers will face unseeded Dylan
Azinger of Wartburg in the wrestleback third round with the winner
earning All-American honors after being unseeded to start the meet.
Ben Anderson was the final member of the Cobber contingent at
nationals. Anderson went 1-2 on Friday. He started the meet by losing a
thrilling 2-1 decision to two-time All-American Matt Kelly of Wartburg.
Anderson returned to the mat in the afternoon and downed Chris LeClere
of Coe 2-1 in the first round of wrestlebacks. Anderson's goal of
earning All-American honors was dashed in overtime in the second round
of wrestlebacks when he lost 3-2 to No.3-seeded Aaron Bautista of
UW-Whitewater. Anderson finishes his junior season with a 28-6 record
and has 87 career wins.
