Results

MEQUON, Wis. (Feb. 21, 2009) - Qualifying two individuals for national championship competition, the North Central College wrestling team turned in a third-place finish at the 2009 NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional Championships, held Saturday at Concordia University.

The Cardinals matched the second-highest team finish at the regional in the program's history. The 2007 squad placed second overall.

Top-ranked Augsburg College (Minn.) claimed the team trophy with 159 points, easily outdistancing eighth-ranked Concordia University-Moorhead (Minn.), which totaled 117.5 points. North Central, ranked sixth nationally heading into the competition, scored 105 points, and 17th-ranked St. John's University (Minn.) and 13th-ranked Elmhurst College (Ill.) rounded out the top five with 98.5 and 95.5 points, respectively.

Making return trips to the national championships for the Cardinals are Ben Youel (Sr., Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) at 165 pounds and Gabe Youel (Jr., Crystal Lake, Ill./Crystal Lake Central) at 184 pounds, each of whom placed second on Saturday.

Ben Youel opened the day with a pair of major-decision victories, beating Bryce Howard of the Milwaukee School of Engineering, 13-4, and Bryce Mikel of St. Olaf College (Minn.), 14-4. He beat Orlando Ponce of Augsburg, 8-2, in the semifinals, then met up with Ben Hoover of Maranatha Baptist Bible College (Wis.) in the final. Hoover scratched out a 9-7 victory in the final.

Gabe Youel, meanwhile, drew a bye in the first round, then pinned Lakeland College's (Wis.) Andrew Aronstam in 1:30 before a 2-0 semifinal victory over Toby Boltz of Wheaton College (Ill.) He lost for just the second time this season in the final, dropping a narrow 10-9 decision to Phil Moenkedick of Concordia-Moorhead.

North Central had a trio of third-place finishers in 125-pounder Joe Norton (Jr., Carol Stream, Ill./Montini Catholic), 174-pounder Greg Schroeder (Jr., Batavia, Ill./Batavia), and 197-pounder Vinny Sapienza (Jr., Libertyville, Ill./Libertyville).

Norton began the day with a 4-3 win over Chad Henle of St. John's and a 7-3 victory over Daron Hohbein of Concordia-Moorhead before a 12-2 loss to Elmhurst's Jake Oster, the top-ranked wrestler in Division III at 125 pounds, in the semifinals. Norton secured third place with a 6-2 win over David Copp of Lakeland and a 7-6 defeat of Hohbein.

Schroeder received a bye in the opening round, then beat Wheaton's Justin Tomal, 8-3, before losing to top-seeded Troy Carlson of the University of Chicago, 5-3, in overtime in the semifinal. Schroeder then topped Ross Dankers of Concordia-Moorhead, 9-2, and Grant Eustice of St. John's, 6-2.

Sapienza defeated James Noneman of St. Olaf's by technical fall, 16-1, which he followed with a 17-6 major decision over Adam Schultz of Concordia (Wis.) He was pinned by the top seed, Jared Massey of Augsburg, in 1:20 in the semifinal, then bounced back with an 18-2 technical fall over Justin Lucas of Chicago, then outpointed Tony Willaert of St. John's, 12-5, in the third-place match.

Billy Malone (Jr., Aurora, Ill./Aurora West) finished fourth at 285 pounds, while Jason Fitzenreider (Jr., West Chicago, Ill./Wheaton North) and Cowan Brown (Jr., Richton Park, Ill./Rich Central) placed fifth at 149 and 157, respectively.

The 2009 NCAA Division III National Championships will be held Mar. 6-7 at the U.S. Celluar Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The official website of the championships can be found by clicking here.