Results
MEQUON, Wis. – Saint John’s finished fourth out of 15 teams at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional on Saturday, Feb. 21, in Mequon, Wis. SJU has now placed in the top five each of the past seven seasons at the regional.
A total of seven Johnnies finished in the top six of their respective weight classes, including four that are headed to nationals: sophomore Matt Baarson (26-8 record at 157; Brooklyn Park, Minn./Champlin Park), junior Mogi Baatar (25-7 record at 133; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia/St. Benedict’s, N.J.), sophomore Minga Batsukh (15-4 record at 141; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia/St. Benedict’s, N.J.) and sophomore Dustin Baxter (25-7 record at 184; Fairbanks, Alaska/West Valley).
SJU has now qualified two or more wrestlers to the NCAA Championships 19 of the last 20 seasons.
Both Baatar and Batsukh claimed regional championships to advance to the 2009 NCAA Division III Championships on Saturday-Sunday, March 7-8, at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. For Baatar it is his third consecutive trip and second for Batsukh.
Baatar, ranked No. 9 nationally, defeated Augsburg's Travis Lang, ranked No. 1 in the nation, 9-5 in the championship match. Batsukh, unranked, defeated Augsburg's Tony Valek, ranked No. 4 nationally, 7-3 before posting a 9-4 win over the Milwaukee School of Engineering's Virgil Pope in the finals. Pope defeated Concordia-Moorhead's Ben Anderson, ranked No. 3, 3-2 in the semifinals.
Baarson, ranked No. 6 nationally, defeated Concordia-Moorhead's Lane Lunde, ranked No. 7, 4-3 for third place at 157 and later earned a wild card entry to nationals.
Baxter went 5-1 on the day, including a 7-5 overtime win over North Central’s (Ill.) Gabe Youel, ranked No. 4 nationally, in the true second match to earn his second consecutive appearance.
Senior Grant Eustice (Shoreview, Minn./Mounds View) and sophomore Tony Willaert (North Mankato, Minn./Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial) each claimed fourth place at 174 and 197, respectively, while senior Matt Schrupp (Watertown, Minn./Watertown-Mayer) ended his career with a sixth-place finish at 165. Eustice fell to the eventual champion, Zach Molitor of Augsburg (No. 7 in the nation), 9-1 in the semifinals.
125 – Freshman Chad Henle (Spicer, Minn./New London-Spicer): 2-2
133 – Baatar: 4-0 (Champion)
141 – Batsukh: 3-0 (Champion)
149 – Sophomore Drew Larson (Willmar, Minn.): 2-2
157 – Baarson: 4-1 (Third)
165 –Schrupp: 3-3 (Sixth)
174 – Eustice: 3-2 (Fourth)
184 – Baxter: 5-1 (Second)
197 – Willaert: 2-2 (Fourth)
Hwt – Freshman Cody Socher (Delano, Minn.): 1-2