Mogg named All-American at Nationals

The BVU wrestling season has come to a close, but not before the Beavers secured another All-American wrestler in first-year Austin Mogg (125 lbs.). He, along with fellow first-year Brian Broll (197 lbs.), both competed last weekend at the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships in Cedar Rapids. Mogg finished in fifth place, while Broll fell just short of All-American status after falling 3-2 in the second consolation round. The top eight finishers at the National Tournament are named All-Americans.

Mogg’s tournament weekend did not start out as high as it ended. He was pinned in 26 seconds by fifth-ranked Terrance Clendenin of Deleware Valley in the first round but bounced back in the consolation rounds by defeating UW-Stevens Point’s Joe Mileski, 5-2 and Lloyd McKinney of UW-La Crosse, 10-5, securing All-American status.
The win over McKinney was well noted, due to the fact that McKinney had defeated second-ranked Tyler Kist of Wartburg in his first match of the day. Mogg wasn’t overly surprised by the upset.

“Anything can happen I guess,” Mogg said. “It’s the National Tournament. Everyone there is good, apparently, so anything is possible.”

Next, Mogg fell in a 9-6 decision to fourth-ranked Jake Oster of Elmhurst, putting him in the fifth place match. It was there that he pinned a familiar opponent in Jayson Swanson of Luther in 2:04. Mogg’s first-year campaign came to a close with a solid record of 36-10. Mogg said that he was happy with his finish but that there are still things for him to learn.

“I probably should’ve done a little better,” Mogg said. “I mean I did as well as I could have then, but thinking about it, there’s a few things that I could’ve changed. I could’ve taken a shot here or a different thing there, but overall I got fifth.”

Head Coach Sevond Cole was pleased with the way Mogg rebounded after a tough first round loss.

“I tell you what, he really stepped it up when we got to the National Tournament,” Cole said. “At that level, the competition’s so good, especially with some of the guys he wrestled, that it’s easy for a young kid like that to kind of cave in and just think this isn’t my year, that sort of thing.”

For Broll, the tournament began with a 5-0 loss to second-ranked Ryan Malo of Williams College. He then bounced back with a 5-1 decision over William Meaney of Elizabethtown before falling in a close 3-2 decision to eighth-ranked Martino Sottile of SUNY Cortland. Broll’s first-year campaign ended at 31-13. Cole was impressed with Broll’s first season as a Beaver.

“He did an outstanding job for us all year. If you look back at his stats, he never lost to anybody that wasn’t a good opponent... he’s just mentally tough. Having a freshman being that mentally tough and being able to push himself as hard as Brian Broll pushes himself is a rarity,” Cole said.

For their impressive first-season campaign as collegiate athletes, both Mogg and Broll were named to the D3wrestle.com All-Freshman Team.

There was only one other first-year in the Iowa Conference to receive the honor, Dubuque’s 157-pounder Ryan Warcynski. Cole felt that the strong performances by first-years at the National Tournament will help the young BVU program gain confidence in the coming year.

“Seeing that a freshman can succeed is really good for our guys and hopefully they’ll be able to take this and gain some confidence from it as a team and be able to push forward and we could do real well next year,” Cole said.

Cole added that he felt the entire team made strides in different areas throughout the year. That said, Cole felt that the key to improving as a team next year will be working even hard in the offseason, both in the weight room and in the wrestling room.