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MSOE Raider News

Pope Heading to NCAA Wrestling Championships

Published: 02/23/2009 Bookmark and Share
Pope Heading to NCAA Wrestling Championships
At the Great Lakes Regional on Saturday, Virgil Pope took third place in the 141-pound division. In the semifinal match, Pope won a 3-1 decision in the second tie breaker round over Ben Anderson of Concordia University (MN), who was ranked #1 in the region and #3 in the nation. Despite losing in the final to Myanganbayar Batsukh (St. John's University) 9-4 and the "true second place match" to Tony Valek (Augsburg) 7-3, the coaches voted him one of six at-large qualifiers to the NCAA tournament. Pope is the fourth MSOE wrestler in the school's history to qualify for the NCAA Championship and the first since All-American Matt Schoenherr made the trip in 2004. Pope led the Raiders to a ninth place team finish.


Other Raiders that fared well include Matt Olsen, who placed fifth overall in the 165# division. In the quarter finals he lost to Dustin Baxter (St. Johns) by the score of 6-3, followed by a 6-4 decision over Brad Baus (Augsburg) in the first wrestle back round. Olsen then defeated Martin Dertz (Knox College) by the score of 5-1. In the consolation semi-finals he lost to Toby Boltz (Wheaton College) 3-2, but came back in the 5th place match to defeat Brain Kerr (Augustana College) 10-6. This is the first time Olsen has placed in the Regional tournament.
Sammy Deligio (125) and Adam Chaulklin (174) each won one match on the day, but did not place in the tournament. Joel VandeBoom (157), outstanding wrestler for the Northern Wrestling Association last weekend, did not wrestle due to injury.

Pope will represent MSOE at the NCAA Division III Nationals, March 6-7 at U.S. Cellular Arena in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.


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