Concordia finished the NCAA Meet with one national champion, three All-Americans and placed ninth as a team. Phil Moenkedick won the national championship at 184 by earning a 7-4 decision over Brennan Ward of Johnson and Wales to become the first Cobber national champion since Barry Bennett in 1978. He is only the second NCAA wrestling champion in program history and it marks the fourth time that a CC wrestler has won any national title. Moenkedick also becomes the first national champion in any sport at Concordia since women's diver Annie Cullen won the NCAA title in 2006.

The three All-Americans at one national meet is the most in school history and the ninth-place finish ties for the highest finish by a CC team in program history. The Cobbers also claimed 10 wins at the national meet which is another program first. All, in all, not a bad two days of work for head coach Clay Nagel and his crew.

Moenkedick needed to post two wins on Saturday to earn the national championship. He started the historic day by blanking Josh Wake of Oneonta State 5-0 in the semifinals. He then had to face the physical style of the No.8-seeded Ward in the finals.

Moenkedick was at the exact same spot last season and lost to the same style of wrestler in the championship match. On Saturday he refused to be denied his first-ever title. Moenkedick started the match by gaining a takedown of Ward in the first period. He then battled to stay on top and gained valuable riding time for the remainder of the period.

Ward decided to take the neutral position to start the second period and both wrestlers spent the frame trying to get a decisive takedown. Moenkedick was able to get two more points when he brought Ward to the mat and ended the period up 4-0.

Moenkedick started the third period in the up position and tried to keep Ward pinned to the mat. His tactic was paying off before it nearly backfired. With a little over a minute to go in the match, Ward was able to muscle is way out of the hold and reverse positions. He then took Moenkedick to the mat on his back and had his shoulders pinned. The referee was about to come down with his hand to signal the pin but in the nick of time Moenkedick was able to somehow flip over and get onto his stomach.

Escaping the near tragic loss, Moenkedick then dug deep into his endless hours and days of training and slipped out of the hold and reversed positions with Ward to record the match-winning two-point reversal. He was then able to stay on top of Ward for the final minute and withstand all the counter moves that Ward tried to come up with.

Juniors Justin Berns and Ross Dankers completed the trio of Cobber All-Americans. It is the first All-American honor for both wrestlers. Berns lost in the wrestleback quarterfinals but then came away with a 7-5 win in the seventh-place match. Dankers also lost in the wrestleback quarterfinals but then fell in the seventh-place match and finished in eighth place to earn his All-American award.

As a team Concordia finished with 31.5 points and placed ninth. That ties the 1978 team for highest finish at a national meet.

The Cobbers have now recorded five All-American awards in the past three seasons.

There will be a national championship reception for Moenkedick and the Cobber wrestlers on Monday, Mar. 8 at 10 a.m. in the Centrum.