Cobbers Grind Through Minnesota Duals

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. (1/28/12)—No.18-ranked Concordia went 1-2 at the Minnesota Duals Meet held at Augsburg on Saturday. The Cobbers beat St. Olaf but lost close matches to No.2-ranked Augsburg and No.8-ranked St. John's.

The Cobbers, who won the inaugural Minnesota Duals last season, opened the day by falling 23-18 to the Johnnies. CC was then edged 18-13 by the Auggies before cruising past the Oles 29-12.

Concordia freshman Jake Kostik had the most impressive day of any CC wrestler. Kostik went 2-0 at 133 with a major decion over No.7-ranked Tom Kuehn of Augsburg and a pin fall against Ian Peppel of St. Olaf.

Kostik was one of four Cobber athletes to record two wins for the meet. Kyle LeDuc, Josten Coleman and Christian Harrison also had a pair of wins on the day.  

The Cobbers started the day by falling to St. John's. Concordia opened up a 6-0 lead with decisions by Jacoby Bergeron and Daron Hohbein. After a loss at 141, LeDuc scored a pin fall at 149 to put CC up 12-3. SJU would then win five straight matches to take an insurmountable 23-12. Cody Kasprick then had a pin fall at 285 to close the final margin to 23-18.

A slow start cost Concordia against perennial power Augsburg. The Cobbers dropped four of the first five matches and trailed 12-4 before they rallied to win three of the next four to cut the lead to 15-13 heading into the match at 285. Kasprick then fell 9-2 to No.1-ranked Chad Johnson in a solid match at 285. Kostik's win was followed by Coleman at 165, Harrison at 174 and No.5-ranked Nathan Schmitz at 197. Schmitz' win was the most impressive as he edged No.4-ranked Brad Baus 2-1.

Concordia fell behind St. Olaf 7-6 after the first three matches. CC then won five of the final seven to earn the 17-point win. LeDuc started the rally by pinning his opponent at 149. Jake Long then earned a 9-7 decision at 157 and Coleman recorded an 8-3 win at 165. Harrison pinned his opponent at 184 and finally Tom Bouressa claimed a 16-0 technical fall at 285. It was Bouressa's first match of the season after earning All-American honors last year.

The Cobbers will head back to multi-team invitational wrestling when they compete at the Jamestown Invite on Saturday, Feb. 4.            

No. 18 Concordia-Moorhead (5-9) 29, St. Olaf (5-5) 12
Official: Byron Olson
125 – Wesley Azariah (STO 14-10) dec. Jacoby Bergeron (CON, 12-14) 4-3 (OT-TB2) (St. Olaf 3-0)
133 – Jake Kostik (CON, 15-6) pinned Ian Peppel (STO, 9-13) 5:40 (Concordia 6-3)
141 – No. 7 Ryan Timmerman (STO, 22-4) dec. Mike Holman (CON, 1-6) 7-6 (St. Olaf 7-6)
149 – Kyle LeDuc (CON, 16-18) pinned Carl Elmer (STO, 12-7) 0:56 (Concordia 12-6)
157 – Jake Long (CON, 11-16) dec. Jacob Bohler (STO, 17-10) 9-7 (Concordia 15-6)
165 – Josten Coleman (CON, 10-10) dec. Dylan McDonough (STO, 2-9) 8-3 (Concordia 18-6)
174 – James Roach (STO, 25-6) dec. Sebastian Gardner (CON, 9-8) 9-4 (Concordia 18-9)
184 – Christian Harrison (CON, 14-12) pinned Elliott Courchane (STO, 4-13) 3:40 (Concordia 24-9)
197 – Joseph Schlueter (STO, 12-6) dec. Danny Pike (CON, 3-10) 12-8 (Concordia 24-12)
HWT -- Tom Bouressa (CON, 1-0) tech. fall Mark Shepard (STO, 0-8) 16-0 at 5:00 (Concordia 29-12)