McCarthy And Bouressa Lead Cobbers At Matman

MOUNT VERNON, Iowa (1/19/13)— Will McCarthy and Tom Bouressa won their weight class and helped Concordia claim second-place in the very tough Matman Invitational on Saturday.

McCarthy went 4-0 and Bouressa was 5-0 as they led a Cobber contingent that had nine top 3 finishes and 13 top 5 finishes. In addition to the wins by McCarthy and Bouressa, Cody Kasprick, Jake Long and Chris Harrison came away with runner-up finishes.

The meet was the first for the Cobbers after a two-week break and featured the return of All-American Nathan Schmitz who had been recovering from a leg injury since the beginning of the season. Schmitz went 4-1 at 197 and recorded a third-place finish. His only loss came against No.7-ranked Trent Flegel of Luther.

McCarthy, who entered the invite with a 4-7 record, posted a pair of pin falls on his way to four straight wins at 125. He pinned his first-round opponent in just 56-seconds. McCarthy then earned a pair of one-point decisions before getting a pin fall at 1:50 of the championship match against Scott Smith of Cornell.

Bouressa earned all five of his wins by a decision. He didn't give up a single point in his first two matches and outscored his foes 23-4 heading into the championship bout. His closest match came in the title match against teammate Kasprick. Bouressa squeeked out a 3-2 win in overtime to move his season record to 15-2. He is currently ranked seventh at 285.

Kasprick, using the momentum from his match-clinching win against the University of Mary in the team's last outing, won his first three matches before narrowly falling to Bouressa in the final. Kasprick scored a pair of pin falls in his first two matches and then won 3-1 in the semifinals. Kasprick is now 11-8 for the season.

The other two second-place finishers for the Cobbers were Long at 149 and Harrison at 184. Long was 3-1 and collected a pin fall, a major decision and a 9-8 decision in the semifinals before losing 7-3 in the finals against Brandon Welter of No.1-ranked Wartburg. Harrison started his day with a pin fall at the 42-second mark. He then had a 9-7 decision in the quarterfinals and a 14-8 decision in the semi's before being edged 7-4 in the title bout by No.10-ranked Ryan Sheldon of Coe.

Jacoby Bergeron, Kyle LeDuc, Jake Krogstad were the three CC wrestlers that finished in the top 3 of their weight class. The trio all finished third. Bergeron went 5-1 at 133 while LeDuc was 4-1 at 157 and Krogstad led all Cobbers at the meet with six wins. He was 6-1 at 165.

Concordia will now participate at Jamestown College for a pair of competitions. The Cobbers will face the Jimmies in a dual meet on Wednesday, Jan. 23 at 7 p.m. and then compete in the Jamestown Invite on Saturday, Jan. 26. CC will also be a part of the Minnesota Duals on Saturday, Jan. 26 which will be held at Augsburg.       

Final Team Scores
1. Luther College - 134.5
2. Concordia - 123.0
3. Wartburg (JV) - 104.0
4. Cornell - 102.5
5. Coe College - 72.0
6. UW-La Crosse - 47.0
7. UW-Osh Kosh - 43.0
8. UW-Eau Claire - 42.0
9. Lakeland College - 27.5
10. Loras College - 22.0
11. Simpson College - 3.0