Lindenwood pulls away from Vikings for NAIA crown

Senior Paul Collum's title at 141 pounds paced Valley's run to second place at the NAIA Championships. [Click to enlarge]

SIOUX CITY, Iowa -- The Missouri Valley College men's wrestling team began the NAIA Championships Friday with hopes of winning its fourth title.

By the end of the day, though, that wasn't likely. It wasn't that the Vikings let the crown get away, leaving Sioux City, Iowa, with the second-place trophy Saturday, but that Lindenwood seized it -- with all 12 of the Lions' entries garnering medals for their second championship.

"Give credit to Lindenwood, they have a very good team," remarked MVC head coach Mike Machholz. "Overall, we had a pretty good tournament."

Valley finished with nine all-Americans, including a champion in 141-pound senior Paul Collum. This from a squad which has spent most of the season banged up.

"It was a typical tournament for us this year," Machholz said. "We never had a healthy front line all year, although that's not an excuse."

It is an explanation, though, for why senior all-Americans Tyson Biddle -- a national champ in 2003 -- and Shane Cristelli could do no better than tie for seventh place at 149 pounds and senior 174-pounder Kiel Giese, after missing most of the season, was knocked out early.

"They were a little shell-shocked right there" after losing one of the Vikings' leaders, Machholz said. The quarterfinal round was critical because "we thought we'd go 6-4. Instead, we went 4-6."

That meant that heading into the second day, the Lions had a lead of 111 to 80 points over Valley, with the added advantage of having eight grapplers on the front side of the bracket -- where each win has a greater point value.

Lindenwood won three of the four championship bouts, including senior Roger Miller's 2-1 decision -- decided on a penalty point for stalling -- over MVC junior Chris Johnson at 285 pounds, to wind up with 178.5 points. The Vikings had 128.5 points to hold off third-place Cumberland (Ky.) by 13 points.

Collum, however, was unstoppable. He pinned his first four opponents, three in the first period, to earn the "most falls" award on his way to the finals -- conceding that he was "feeling good." That's been the case most of this season, posting a 19-2 record after transferring from Missouri -- where he was ranked No. 4 in NCAA Division I last year before having grade problems which forced him to miss the Big 12 Tournament.

Collum arrived at Valley, therefore, with high expectations.

"I put myself in that position by training hard and focusing on my wrestling all year," Collum said about his national title aspirations. "It was certainly something I was driving for."

In his way in the finale was top-ranked Waldorf (Iowa) sophomore Brad Stockton, a former teammate of Collum's at Iowa Central -- where he won the junior college title two years ago. No pin this time, but a 6-0 victory was plenty good enough.

"He knew my style, so I had to change the way I wrestled in the finals," Collum noted. "Things kind of fell into place."

Another first-year Valley transfer, junior Nate Engel, suffered his only loss to finalist Delrico Choates of Cumberland in the quarters, but posted two wins on the back side for third place at 125. Senior Donaco Watts sustained an early set-back, but rallied with four straight wrestleback decisions and shared third place at 157 with junior Darion Terry -- whose only loss was a tough 5-2 clash with two-time champion Stryder Davis of Montana State-Northern.

"They all wrestled outstanding coming back," Machholz said. "I just wonder if I put a little too much pressure on that (quarterfinal) round. But this is a senior-led team."

Junior Shane Hall (197 pounds) won three of five contests to finish in fifth place, leading Valley in victories this season with 42. Senior Mario Thomas (184) was also 3-2, but one of the losses came in his second match -- finishing a disappointing seventh after coming in as the No. 1 seed.

A couple of other seniors, both former all-Americans, also struggled. Josh Pulsifer (141) took back-to-back hits after winning his first two bouts and Gilbert Jones (285) was edged 4-2 by Miller in the second round and fell out short of a medal.

"You have to have talent, health and luck," Machholz asserted. "Two out of three, we didn't have much of."

"There's some things you just can't plan for," Collum concurred. "You work real hard to get things to go on your side, but you need some luck, too."

Such is the sustained success of the Vikings' program that coming in second, a worthy goal for most teams, is less than fulfilling.

"We expect to win a national title and when we don't, we come home angry," Machholz said. "It's funny that we're not all that excited about a national runner-up. There's 27 other teams that would trade us."

Losing 12 seniors, including eight in the nationals lineup, will create a new challenge for Valley next year -- although there are six returning current or former all-Americans and a host of underclassmen who would have started for most other teams.

"It'll be different, but it will be a lot of fun," Machholz forecast. "There will be guys who want their shot and are hungry."