MSOE INVITE RESULTS -2 More Trojan Wrestlers Qualify for NAIA National Championships

Milwaukee, WI – The Hannibal-LaGrange University wrestling team competed in the Milwaukee School of Engineering’s Invitational wrestling tournament last Saturday and had three wrestlers place in the tournament. Dan Capp (freshmen) took first place at 174 lbs, Zach Fish (sophomore) took 3rd place at 141lbs, and Mitch Burnaugh (freshmen) took 6th place at 184 lbs. Dan Capp started the day seeded first in the tournament. On his way to the finals he had a major decision over his first two opponents and won a close match 5-2 in the semi-finals over Joe Pesta from St. Olaf College. In the finals Capp had a major decision over the number 2 seed Collin Jergenson. This is the second time this year Capp has made it to the finals and the first tournament he has won this year. Unseeded Zach Fish had a hard road to travel to the 141 lbs consolation finals. Fish won his first match in the championship bracket then suffered a loss by fall in his second match. Fish came back with a vengeance and won 5 consecutive matches in a row to win the consolation final match over Nick Santana from Concordia University. Mitch Burnaugh started the day as the 8th seeded wrestler in the 184 lb weight class. He had a disappointing 9-7 overtime first round loss to MSOE’s Caleb Staub. Burnaugh didn’t let the loss keep him down and won three matches in a row back to the consolation semis where he suffered another loss which gave him the opportunity to wrestle for 5th place. Wrestling for 5th place Burnaugh faced the 4th seeded Greg Barner from Central College. Burnaugh lost the match in overtime 4-2 taking 6th place.
A highlight from Fish’s and Burnaugh’s placing at the MSOE Invitational is that both wrestlers join Ian Taylor, Dan Capp, and Bryce Alexander as NAIA national tournament qualifiers for the 2011 Championships in Cedar Rapids, IA. This give HLGU Trojans wrestling a total of 5 National Qualifiers this season.

Trojans Beat Crusaders 28-16

Watertown, WI - Hannibal-LaGrange University’s wrestling team captures its first dual meet victory of the season over the Maranatha Baptist Bible College Crusaders with a team score of 28-16. Trojan wrestlers with wins in the team victory were Zach Fish with a fall over Philip Hadley in 2:50, Dan Capp had a major decision over Russell Townsend with a score of 10-0, Mitch Burnaugh had a fall in :50 over Jesse Gjefli, and Jake Hare ended the night with a fall over Hiles Spillman in 1:15. Coach Scott Hawes stated, “I knew there would be a few close matches as we had a line up of all freshmen with the exception of one sophomore, Zach Fish. It was good to see Fish, Burnaugh, and Hare come up with the falls. We knew we were coming into the dual with a forfeit at HWT which put us down by 6 team points. So the falls were important to us in making up the forfeit points.” Coach Hawes is a alumnus of Maranatha Baptist Bible College and former head coach of Maranatha’s wrestling team. “This victory in many ways is bitter sweet. I spent four seasons working in the tradition of my college coach, Ben Peterson, to build Maranatha’s wrestling team up, and now I was back in town trying to beat them. Andy Peterson (Maranatha Head Coach) has been a friend of mine for many years and I’m glad to see what he is doing to keep the Maranatha tradition of wrestling alive. As a Christian institution wrestling against another Christian institution it was good for our teams to hear a challenge from the Bible from former Maranatha head coach and Olympic Champion Ben Peterson after weigh ins. Ben reminded us that we should not be competing just for ourselves, but for others who have invested in our lives and ultimately for the God who gave us the ability to do the things we can do,” said Hawes.
Hannibal-LaGrange University picks up competition again at the Milwaukee School of Engineering Invitational Tournament Saturday morning at 9 am.

Hannibal La Grange: 28
Maranatha Baptist : 16



133: Downs, Aaron (Maranatha Baptist ) DEC Feeler, Jesse(Hannibal La Grange) 5-0

141: Fish, Zach (Hannibal La Grange) FALL Hadley, Philip(Maranatha Baptist ) 2:40

149: Warren, Richard (Maranatha Baptist ) MD Chabela, Kyle(Hannibal La Grange) 10-2

157: Alexandar, Bryce (Hannibal La Grange) Forfeit (Maranatha Baptist ) -

165: Brendemuehl, Josiah (Maranatha Baptist ) DEC Taylor, Ian(Hannibal La Grange) 9-8

174: Capp, Dan (Hannibal La Grange) MD Townsend, Russell(Maranatha Baptist ) 10-0

184: Burnaugh, Mitch (Hannibal La Grange) FALL Gjefle, Jesse(Maranatha Baptist ) :50

197: Hare, Jake (Hannibal La Grange) FALL Spillman, Hyles(Maranatha Baptist ) 1:15

285: (Hannibal La Grange) Forfeit Savarino, Michael(Maranatha Baptist ) -

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

Hannibal-LaGrange College is now Hannibal-LaGrange University

To read HLGU's Announcement Click Here