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.