The Muhlenberg Weekly

Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Sports

The Centennial Conference Championships were held at Gettysburg College this past Saturday. The College arrived fired up and ready to wrestle. They put forth an outstanding effort placing second in the C

onference and with four weight class champions earning bids to the national tournament.

The College finished in second with 74.5 points, eleven points behind first. Ursinus finished in first, but left with not one individual champion. With six people in the finals, they left with six wrestlers in second place and two taking third. Ursinus has been a Conference leader all season and has remained a tough opponent for the College to face each year. "We had more champions than anyone else and not winning the team championship was really just a freak thing that happened with the scoring," said Senior Co-Captain Matt Loesch.

At 133 lb. weight class, sophomore Billy Hall took the title of champion. Being a tall wrestler at a low weight he is a challenge to wrestle. He worked his way to the finals with two pins. His second match of the day was tied until the last few seconds when Hall impressively took his McDaniel opponent to his back for the win. His final bout started strong with a takedown after only 12 seconds. Hall came close to pinning his Ursinus opponent, but won with a respective 15-3 major decision. Hall has won four of tournament titles in a row and is headed for nationals with a 24-5 record.

Rob Kein, a 141 lbs. champion, only wrestled two matches for his title. He had a bye the first round and then defeated his Washington & Lee opponent 11-3. Kein has not wrestled the last three dual meets do to an elbow injury. The elbow brace he wore his first match proved to be an easy target for his opponent. Kein wrestled his final match without the brace. His opponent, second seeded Marco Priolo from Johns Hopkins, went after the unprotected elbow early in the bout. Kein wrestles with great intensity and didn't let his injury become a weakness. "He wrestled smart; he never put himself in bad position," commented junior teammate David Lavin. The match was scoreless until Kein's takedown in the third period. Another takedown in the final few seconds gave Kein the title winning by decision 5-2. The team and fans cheered to see another Muhlenberg champion.

Loesch went out on the mat seeking a fourth CC Championship and that is what he left with. He is the third wrestler from the College to win four straight

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