Story Published:
Mar 5, 2010 at 10:59 PM MST
Story Updated:
Mar 5, 2010 at 10:59 PM MST
Oklahoma City, OK – True freshman Myles Mazurkiewicz (Havre, MT) and junior Byron Kuylen (Sidney, MT) of the University of Great Falls wrestling team each won two matches today, advancing to the championship finals of their respective weight classes at the 53rd Annual NAIA Wrestling National Championships at Abe Lemons Arena. Mazurkiewicz advances to tomorrow night’s final in the 133-pound weight class and will face Tommy Pretty of Campbellsville University (KY) while Kuylen squares off against Jeffrey Pelton of Notre Dame College (OH) in the 149-pound finale. Both Mazurkiewicz and Kuylen will be looking to join former Argo Michael Kummer who, at the moment, is the program’s only individual national champion, winning the 197-pound weight class in 2008.
“I couldn’t be happier for those two guys,” said UGF head coach Caleb Schaeffer. “They come and work every day and their hard work has paid off for them at nationals. I hope they each can close out this storybook ride tomorrow.”
As a team, the Argos entered the night session with 69.0 team points, which tied them for third with Southern Oregon University. Team points for the night session have yet to be tabulated.
Five Argos opened the day with aspirations of becoming national champs, including the two eventual-finalists along with junior Michael French (Malta, MT), senior Alex Calvi (Cut Bank, MT) and red-shirt freshman Michael Hader (Columbia Falls, MT). However, only Mazurkiewicz, Kuylen and French advanced to the championship semifinal round, leaving Calvi and Hader to battle out their chances for third-place finishes in the consolation bracket.
Mazurkiewicz got the ball rolling with a dominating win over Missouri Baptist’s Anton Prater as the large contingent of Argo fans cheered for the young greenhorn. Kuylen followed that up with a convincing win of his own over Ryan Jahn of McKendree University (IL). French could not make the Argos three-for-three in the semifinal round as he dropped a heart-breaking 3-1 decision to Mark Peiffer of Dana College (NE), surrendering a two-point takedown in the closing seconds to provide the final margin.
“Michael French is a warrior,” Schaeffer commented of his star 184-pounder, who entered the tournament ranked #1 in the country at that weight. “He caught some bad breaks in his semifinal match. He deserves the chance to wrestle for a national title.”
French, Calvi and Hader remain alive in the tournament’s “wrestleback” consolation bracket along with junior Ross Mosher (Augusta, MT), earning the distinction of being All-Americans because they’ve clinched a top eight finish in their respective weight classes. Teammates Jason Costello (Redmond, WA), Brendon DeCock (Huntley, MT) and Noah Hatton (Spokane, WA) each won at least one match today, before being eliminated, narrowly missing their chances to advance into All-American contention.
