LA BEST?
Augsburg's LeVesseur Stays Unbeaten in Div. III
After winning his third consecutive NCAA Div. III national championship, the question will be asked a lot over the next year:
Is Marcus LeVesseur the best Div. III wrestler ever?
When trying to answer this question, consider that he is one of only eight wrestlers ever to win three consecutive titles in Div. III. Also consider that he has yet to lose a collegiate match; winning all 124 of them.
His consecutive winning streak is second only to Iowa State’s Cael Sanderson in all of college wrestling history. In case you need a refresher, San
derson won 159 straight matches from 1998-2002.The streak however was the last thing that LeVesseur would talk about after his 7-0 victory over Luther’s Ryan LeBeau in the national championship. He was more excited about being on a national championship team for the first time.
“This is my first chance to be part of a championship team so I’m soaking it all up right now,” said LeVesseur.
With all this success in Div. III competition, many people wonder why he isn’t wrestling for a Division I school. Some people forget that he had a scholarship to wrestle for the University of Minnesota and even participated on the Gophers’ team his first semester of school in the fall of 2001.
Then the Bloomington (Minn.) Kennedy graduate came across family and personal issues and he had to sit down and think about what he wanted to do in his life.
“Everything was going great at the U (of Minnesota) until then,” said LeVesseur. “I took a week or two to organize my thoughts about what was best for me and my career and I decided I needed to find a new home.”
It was then that he had a conversation with Augsburg’s 141-pounder Jamell Tidwell, a former high school teammate.
“Jamell was telling me all these good things about Augsburg and how good the school was,” said LeVesseur. “I thought I’d be better off where he was so I went and visited the campus and I really liked it a lot.”
Ever since LeVesseur left the University of Minnesota it seems like everyone has been comparing him to Div. I wrestlers. That is everyone except Augsburg head coach Jeff Swenson and LeVesseur himself.
“I don’t know how to make that comparison,” said Swenson. “I’m not around Division I wrestling every day but I believe he could hold his own with just about anyone.”
“I have been in the wrestling room of a returning Division I national championship team for half a year. How they train and how we train here is very similar,” said LeVesseur. “However, the competition at the Division III level is not the same as it is there.
“When I am in a match it doesn’t matter who it is against, I am going to give it my all,” continued LeVesseur. “I can hold my own, whether I win or lose, I think I would be one of the top guys.”
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