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Augsburg's Swenson to be inducted into MN Wrestling Hall of Fame
MINNEAPOLIS (3/19/04) -- Augsburg College wrestling head coach Jeff Swenson will be inducted into the Minnesota Wrestling Coaches Association/David Bartelma Wrestling Hall of Fame in its annual induction ceremony, to be held on March 28.
Joining Swenson in the 2004 class of inductees will be University of Minnesota head coach J Robinson, wrestlers Gordy Morgan and John Morgan, and contributor Dale Lund.
The induction banquet and ceremony will be held on Sunday, March 28 at the Christensen Center on the Augsburg campus. Social hour will begin at 4 p.m., with dinner at 5 p.m. and the induction ceremony to begin at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $25, and can be purchased by contacting Steve Ricard at 320-843-2710 or by e-mail at sricard@benson.k12.mn.us.
Swenson, a 1979 Augsburg alumnus, has developed a reputation as one of the best amateur wrestling coaches in America and has built his alma-mater into a small-college wrestling powerhouse.
As a competitor at Augsburg from 1975-79, Swenson produced a 102-17 competitive record, earning NAIA All-American honors three times (1977-78-79) and winning the national title at 167 pounds in 1979. He earned the school's senior Honor Athlete award in 1979 and was inducted into the school's Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.
Swenson served one year as an assistant coach at Augsburg under legendary coach John Grygelko, then assumed head coaching duties in the 1980-81 season. Since then, Swenson has coached 133 All-Americans, including 32 individual national champions. Augsburg has earned 20 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference team championships and eight national team titles. He left Augsburg in the 1984-85 and 1985-86 seasons to coach at Rosemount (Minn.) High School. His collegiate coaching record of 292-38 is among the best of active coaches in the nation.
Under Swenson, Augsburg has won a record eight NCAA Division III wrestling national championships in the last 14 years. Augsburg has had top-two national finishes in 15 of the last 16 years, top-four finishes the last 16 seasons in a row and top-20 national finishes every year since 1971. Augsburg finished second in the national team race this year, with an NCAA-record-tying four individual national champions and a school-record-tying nine All-Americans.
In 2000-01, Swenson was named Lutheran College National Coach of the Year (all sports) from Lutheran Brotherhood, and in 2002, he earned National College Coach of the Year honors (all divisions) from Wrestling USA Magazine.
Swenson is just as proud of his team's success in the classroom as he is of their success on the wrestling mat. Augsburg has had 80 Scholar All-Americans (awarded by the National Wrestling Coaches Association), the most of any college in any division in the nation. In 1998-99, Augsburg earned the Division III academic national championship with a team grade-point average of 3.48. This season, Augsburg finished third in the academic team race with a team grade-point average of 3.39. Augsburg is the only school in Division III wrestling to be in the top 10 both academically and on the mat every year of the seven the NWCA has awarded an academic national championship in Division III.
In 2001, Swenson was named interim assistant dean for athletics and recreation at Augsburg. In this role, he supervises the men's and women's intercollegiate athletic departments, the athletic facilities department, and the college's intramural athletic program.
Swenson served as an assistant coach on the football staff for 10 years. Swenson earned Augsburg degrees in health and physical education in 1979, and earned a master's degree in health from the University of Minnesota in 1982.