Presler And Schmitz Continue List Of All-Americans

LA CROSSE, Wis. (3/10/12)—Ben Presler and Nate Schmitz added their names to the growing list of Cobber All-Americans as they both finished fifth at the NCAA National Meet in La Crosse, Wis. on Saturday.
 
The pair helped Concordia earn 27.5 teams points and finish in 13^th place. It marks the third straight season that the Cobbers have finished in the top 15 of the nation. Presler and Schmitz continue the great streak of Concordia All-Americans. CC has now had nine athletes earn All-American honors in the past five years.   
Presler and Schmitz were part of a contingent of four Concordia athletes that earned a spot at the national meet. Daron Hohbein and Tom Bouressa also competed at the meet but failed to finish in the top eight to earn All-American honors.

Presler, who was unseeded entering the national meet, went 4-2 at 125 to earn his first All-American award. He started the tournament by dominating No.8-ranked Stephen Hinton. Presler posted a 17-0 technical fall to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. He then lost a tough 9-6 decision to No.1-ranked Nathan Fitzenreider of North Central.

Presler started the wrestleback portion by pinning Brandon Gauthier of Rhode Island College. He then posted a 10-2 major decision over Charlie Frankel of Delaware Valley in the all-important match to earn All-American honors. Presler lost 5-0 in the wrestleback semifinals before coming back to record a 3-0 win over No.3-ranked Jimmy Gotto of Coe in the fifth-place match. Presler has now won 33 matches in the past two seasons.

Schmitz, like Presler, went 4-2 at the NCAA Meet. He also won his first match, lost the second and then made a run in the wrestlebacks to earn his first All-American honor. Schmitz, seeded sixth at 197, beat Reid Mosqueara of Johns Hopkins 5-2 in the opener. He then lost the closest match of the tournament by any CC wrestler when he lost 5-4 in an instant classic to No.3-ranked Dustin Baxter of St. John's.   

Schmitz started his wrestleback streak by recording a 10-2 major decision over Andrew Lovins of Heidelberg.  That set up a match for All-American honors against #7 William Meaney of Elizabethown. Schmitz controlled the match from the start and went on to win 8-1. Schmitz lost a 1-0 nailbiting decision against No.4-ranked Brad Baus of Augsburg. He then capped his national meet by beating #5 Trent Flegel of Luther 5-3. Schmitz finished his junior season by recording a team-high 30 wins.

The bad break award of the NCAA Meet goes to Bouressa who was upset in the first round at 285 but then had to face the No.1-ranked Derick Hesson of Mount Union who was also upset in the first round. Bouressa lost both his matches by a combined total of two points. He fell 4-3 in the opener and then lost 4-3 to Hesson who went on to earn third-place honors and had 41 wins on the year.

Hohbein was upset in the opening round in overtime. He came into the national meet seeded fourth but then lost 8-6 in OT to Joe Mileski of UW-Stevens Point. Hohbein started the wrestlebacks by getting a 10-1 major decision over Eric McCann of Delaware Valley. Then, like Bouressa, Hohbein had to face one of the top 2 wrestlers in the weight division after a startling early-round upset. Hohbein had his national meet ended when he lost 9-3 to No.2-ranked Corey Brown of Thiel.          

Final Top 20 Team Scores
1. Wartburg - 141.5
2. Augsburg - 86.5
3. Coe - 74.0
4. UW-La Crosse - 65.0
5. Ithaca - 61.5
6. The College Of New Jersey - 47.0
7. Elmhurst - 39.5
8. UW-Whitewater - 35.5
9. North Central (IL) - 32.0
10. SUNY-Cortland - 31.5
11. St. Johns (MN) - 29.5
12. York (PA) - 28.0
13.Concordia-Moorhead - 27.5
14.Wisconsin-Oshkosh - 26.0
15.Mount Union - 25.5
16.Delaware Valley - 23.5
16. Springfield - 23.5
18.Ohio Northern - 21.5
19.Messiah - 20.0
20. King`s (PA) - 18.0