A Herd Makes Noise At The Season Opener

FARGO, N.D. (11/09/13)—Wild card seniors Cody Kasprick and Kyle LeDuc led Concordia at the season-opening NDSU Bison Open. Kasprick and LeDuc were the top finishers for the Cobbers who had seven wrestlers place in the top 5 of the 10 weight classes.

Kasprick and LeDuc will be two of the featured athletes in head coach Matt Nagel's lineup in 2013-14. Both wrestlers finished in third place at the meet which featured Division I and II athletes.

Kasprick went 3-1 at 285 to come away with his top 3 finish. His only loss came in the semifinals against Anthony Nelson from the University of Minnesota. Nelson is a two-time NCAA Division I champion who owns a 65-3 record in the past two seasons. Kasprick started the meet by beating John Gusewelle from NDSU 4-3. He then lost to Nelson before pinning Chandler Trout of the University of Mary in the wrestlebacks. Kasprick capped his first meet of the year by beating Gusewelle for the second time.

LeDuc was 5-1 in the heavily populated 157-lb class. His only loss came at the hands of Dylan Ness from the University of Minnesota. Ness is a two-time All-American and finished fourth at last year's NCAA Division I Championship Meet. LeDuc got to Ness by posting a 13-4 major season over Dalton Moran of South Dakota State in the first round. LeDuc then beat Brad Dolezal from the U of M in overtime. Dolezal was a 20-win wrestler for the Gophers last year. After falling to Ness, LeDuc put up a major decision on Joe Carpenter from NDSU in the wrestlebacks and beat Ricards Avakovs of Minot State by technical fall in the third-place match.

The Cobbers had four wrestlers finish fourth at the meet and had a single athlete finish in fifth place. Jacoby Bergeron, Jake Long, Jake Krogstad and Sebastian Gardner all earned fourth-place finishes while Chris Harrison came in fifth at 184.

Gardner joined LeDuc as the team's five-win wrestlers at the meet. Gardner went 5-2 at 174 and posted wins over Sean Lambert of Jamestown and Collin Huckbody from Northland Community College before losing to James Roach in the quarterfinals. He then beat Tiger Paasch from Minot State, Jaykob Milller from Jamestown and Michael Joseph of MSU Moorhead in the wrestlebacks. Gardner would then fall to Roach in the third-place match.

Harrison, Krogstad and Long all went 4-2 on the day to grab their fourth-place ribbons. Harrison was fourth at 184 while Krogstad had four wins at 165 and Long went 4-2 at 149. Bergeron went 3-2 and finished fourth at 133.

Concordia will open their dual-meet season when they travel to Southwest Minnesota State on Wednesday, Nov. 13. The Cobbers, who were 8-5 in dual meets last season, will square off against the Mustangs in Marshall, Minn.

Wt Class - 125
1st Place - Joshua Rodriguez of North Dakota State
2nd Place - Samuel Brancale of Minnesota
3rd Place - Hunter Weber of North Dakota State
4th Place - Anthony Bruno of Northern State
5th Place - Jordan Kingsley of Minnesota
6th Place - Jordan Bremer of Minnesota

Wt Class - 133
1st Place - David Thorn of Minnesota
2nd Place - Brance Simms of South Dakota State
3rd Place - Clayton Cathey of North Dakota State
4th Place - Jacoby Bergeron of Concordia-Moorhead
5th Place - Nathaniel Thomas of Minnesota
6th Place - Justin Scherkenbach of North Dakota State

Wt Class - 141
1st Place - Christopher Dardanes of Minnesota
2nd Place - Mitchell Bengtson of North Dakota State
3rd Place - Angel Vega of MSU-Moorhead
4th Place - Justin LaValle of North Dakota State
5th Place - Josh Shupe of Minnesota
6th Place - Yonas Gebreab of Concordia-Moorhead

Wt Class - 149
1st Place - Nick Dardanes of Minnesota
2nd Place - Jake Short of Minnesota
3rd Place - Trevor Johnson of Mary
4th Place - Jacob Long of Concordia-Moorhead
5th Place - Conrad Rangell of Minnesota
6th Place - Lucas Zilverberg of South Dakota State

Wt Class - 157
1st Place - Dylan Ness of Minnesota
2nd Place - Brandon Kingsley of Minnesota
3rd Place - Kyle LeDuc of Concordia-Moorhead
4th Place - Ricards Avakovs of Minot State
5th Place - Joseph Carpenter of North Dakota State
6th Place - Brad Dolezal of Minnesota

Wt Class - 165
1st Place - Steven Monk of North Dakota State
2nd Place - Daniel Zilverberg of Minnesota
3rd Place - Nicholas Wanzek of Minnesota
4th Place - Jake Krogstad of Concordia-Moorhead
5th Place - Marcus Polak of Minot State
6th Place - Alec Ortiz of Minnesota

Wt Class - 174
1st Place - Logan Storley of Minnesota
2nd Place - Hayden Zillmer of North Dakota State
3rd Place - James Roach of Unattached
4th Place - Sebastian Gardner of Concordia-Moorhead
5th Place - Michael Joseph of MSU-Moorhead
6th Place - Blake Lundgren of Northern State

Wt Class - 184
1st Place - Brett Pfarr of Minnesota
2nd Place - Preston Lehmann of Unattached
3rd Place - Matthew Lewellen of MSU-Moorhead
4th Place - Ben Schwery of South Dakota State
5th Place - Christian Harrison of Concordia-Moorhead
6th Place - Brandon Larson of Concordia-Moorhead

Wt Class - 197
1st Place - Scott Schiller of Minnesota
2nd Place - Hunter Weddington of South Dakota State
3rd Place - Nathan Rotert of South Dakota State
4th Place - Thomas Petersen of North Dakota State
5th Place - Joe Gomez of Northern State
6th Place - Delson Saintal of Concordia-Moorhead

Wt Class - 285
1st Place - Tony Nelson of Minnesota
2nd Place - Michael Kroells of Minnesota
3rd Place - Cody Kasprick of Concordia-Moorhead
4th Place - John Gusewelle of North Dakota State
5th Place - Evan Knutson of North Dakota State
6th Place - Chandler Trout of Mary