Concordia Results

This past weekend the Trojans headed up north for the Concordia Open. This is one of the largest tournaments we attend, and we had a good showing. Dan Capp had another good weekend as he took 5th place. With a dominating march to the semis, Dan lost to the winner of the tournament in a very close match. His fifth place match was also a dominating performance. All the other Trojans wrestled hard, and most found success. Mitch Burnaugh won two straight then got into the consolations and had to fight his back. Making a good run all the way up to the match to place, Burnaugh lost in overtime in a grueling match. Bryce Alexander won a few matches as well, but didn’t make it to the placing round.

I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. When the HlG Trojans return we will be making another trip north with a dual against Maranatha on Friday, and the Milwaukee School of Engineering tournament on Saturday.
-Zach Fish, SO, 141 lb

Trojans Have Three Qualify for NAIA National Tournament

Last weekend at the Knox Invitational Tournament Bryce Alexander (Fr., Maryville, MO) and Dan Capp (Fr., Kansas City, MO) will join Ian Taylor (Fr., Buffalo, MO) as National Qualifiers. Taylor qualified with a 6th place finish at the Loras Open making him the first qualifier for this year’s Trojan Wrestling team. Both the Loras Open and the Knox Invitational were noticeably tougher tournaments than last year. Knox added Truman State University and Oklahoma City University this year. Alexander pinned his way to the finals with a notable first period fall over Milwaukee School of Engineering’s NCAA D-3 Senior National Qualifier Virgil Pope. In finals Alexander was handed a 9-2 loss by Oklahoma City’s Mark Meyer who is ranked 11 in the NAIA. “Bryce wrestled smart throughout the tournament and took most of his oppents by surprise. Bryce turned many heads with his first round fall over Virgil Pope. Bryce will need to stay sharp as we head to Concordia for our next tournament and people have started to notice him.” stated HLGU Head Coach Scott Hawes. Dan Capp started the day unseeded on the top half of the bracket and wrestled his way to the semifinals where he faced the number 4 seed Alejandro Vavra from Augustana College. Vavra, a sophomore, finished 2nd in the CCIW conference last season. Although Vavra had seniority over Capp he was unable to score more than 3 points against Capp. Capp dominated Vavra and walked into the finals with an 8-3 victory. In the finals Capp was defeated by Truman State Junior Chad Kurovski. Kurovski controlled the match early on and scored an early take down and near fall points taking a 5-0 lead. Throughout the match Capp made several attempts to come back but was unable to overcome the early point deficit and lost the match 11-7. “Capp finished the match strong on top, but was unable to turn Kurovski to his back. Kurovski was comfortable with his lead and basically stalled out on bottom. If you take away the one mistake early on the match turns in Capp’s favor. I look forward to a rematch of those two in the future!” said Coach Hawes. Zach Fish and Ian Taylor both had wins on the day, but neither wrestler placed in the tournament. The Trojans will be wrestling at the Concordia University Open this Saturday in Mequon, WI.

First Member of the 2011 HLGU Recruiting Class

Hannibal, MO – The Hannibal-LaGrange University wrestling program is pleased to have signed Cody Bergquist from Allendale, MI. Bergquist will graduate from Allendale High School in May of 2011.
Bergquist goes down in history as the first signee for newly renamed Hannibal-Lagrange University and the 2011 HLGU recruiting class. Bergquist has wrestled at heavyweight for his entire career for the Allendale Falcons. Bergquist has garnered a 48-19 record and with a Junior year season record of 31-13. After not competing in his sophomore season Bergquist made it to the OK Silver Conference finals and finished in second place last season.
“Last summer I got a chance to know Cody at our Trojan Wrestling Camp and was impressed with his character and hard work. With Cody’s MHSAA All-State Academic honors he has demonstrated that he is solid academically and will be likely to have the grades to help fill a spot at heavyweight that we have struggled to fill over the last two seasons. Big men are hard to come by and I‘m excited to see Bergquist develop into a solid heavyweight in college”, said HLGU Head Wrestling Coach Scott Hawes.
Along with Bergquist’s wrestling accomplishment he has also excelled in football and has been recognized as an OK Silver All-Conference center for Allendale High School football.

Bergquist will be majoring in Bible at HLGU.

Bergquist is the son of Keith and Lisa Bergquist.

HLG is a Division I NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) school and a member of the American Midwest Conference

Lindenwood University Open Results

The HLG Trojans headed off to the annual Lindenwood University Open this past weekend. We have been working hard for the past two months getting ready for competition and it definitely showed at the tournament.
The Lindenwood Tournament has some of the best NAIA schools present, as well as D-1 schools like Mizzou, Illinois, and Oklahoma. The competition was fierce but we showed up and wrestled well. We only took six wrestlers due to eligibility and injuries. Almost every Trojan found success and won at least one match. We had some wrestlers who won even more. Freshmen Dan Capp won two straight matches to put him in the quarter-finals. He also ended up pushing a wrestler from one of the top NAIA schools so hard the wrestler had to take an “injury” time out.
As a team, this was the highest win percentage we have had in the history of Hannibal La-Grange Wrestling. All of the wrestlers, whether winning or losing, showed great sportsmanship and heart. We have a lot more wrestling ahead of us and it’s going to be great to see what these men can do. Each one of them works hard in the room and they push each other with great intensity.
This Thursday evening November 4, 2010, we will be wrestling at Missouri Baptist at 7:00p.m. After that we will be heading to Dubuque, IA to wrestle in the Loras College Tournament.
Click Here for LU Tournament results

-Zach Fish, HLGU Sophomore, 141 LB