Viking wrestlers qualify for nationals in first dual meet
Annie WIlliams - STAFF WRITER
Issue date: 11/21/08 Section: Sports
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This weekend the Viking's wrestling team had their first duel meet on Friday, Nov.14, and tournament on Saturday, Nov. 15, in Galesburg, Ill.
On Friday, the Vikings wrestled against Wisconsin-Oshkosh, the men started the meet strong by winning four straight matches: Travis Evans (125), Nick Coffman (133), Jon Henslee (141) and Matt Burns (149) all won their match. Evans won 9-4, Coffman 8-0, Henslee won by fall (6:23), and Burns won 12-0.
Nick Mitchell, head wrestling coach, said, "Overall, I think we learned a lot about our team this weekend. One thing we learned on Friday night is that we have to find a way to win the close matches. You're going to have close matches and you have to make something good happen."
Matt Burns, criminal justice junior and 149-pound, said, "We had a lot of little things that went wrong that we will need to fix."
Fifteen teams competed in the tournament on Saturday. It was a different story for the Vikings on Saturday. The Vikings showed up to compete and started the tournament at 9 a.m. and did not finish until 9 p.m. that night.
Eight Vikings placed in the tournament including: Adam Houser sixth 165lb, J.P. Williams fifth 174lb, Bryce Skaggs sixth 174lb; Tyler Knowler fourth 165lb and Barrett Eller fifth heavy-weight.
Grant Turner, assistant wrestling coach said, "Knowler didn't get the chance to wrestle on Friday night, but he came through for the team on Saturday and finished fourth."
The Vikings also had three wrestlers win their weight bracket; Nick Coffman, freshman 133-pound; Matt Burns junior 149-pound and John Henslee junior 141-pound.
Turner said, "It was great to see some guys step up this weekend. For Coffman, this was his first collegiate wrestling meet ever and to win it is really something."
Mitchell said, "Saturday I thought our guys wrestled a lot better. We've still got a lot of work to do, but we have a good foundation."
Coffman, Henslee, Burns, Knowler, Houser, Williams and Skaggs have all qualified for nationals held March 5-7 in Oklahoma City, Ok. Every Tournament the top 25 percent of each weight bracket has the opportunity to qualify for nationals.
The Vikings will wrestle this weekend Saturday, Nov. 22, in Minneapolis, against Augsburg College.
Turner said, "I really hope the students will come out and support the team and embraces us like they did the football team because wrestling is new to the school I think that a lot of people don't understand all of the hard work that goes into this sport."
The Vikings will host their first home meet at 7 p.m. on Dec. 3, versus Northwestern College.
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