Burgey Wins 5-3, Becomes Fourth National Champ in Program History
William Penn University Athletics
Des Moines–As a freshman, Eric Burgey (So., Easton, Pa., Easton HS) loathed every moment of watching last year’s championship night and vowed he would be on the mat and not in the seats this season. He made that goal a reality and became the fourth national champion in school history at the NAIA Wrestling National Championships Saturday night.
The sophomore concluded a tremendous 2011-2012 season by defeating #4 Jimmy Eggemeyer of Southern Oregon 5-3 in the 149-pound title bout.
Burgey, who had been competing with injured ribs suffered at the Central Qualifying Group Tournament, began the matchup with a first-period takedown. He failed to keep Eggemeyer on the mat and led 2-1 after the first three minutes.
The Statesmen grappler extended the advantage back to two with an escape in a lowing-scoring second period.
Eggemeyer started down in the final session and was able to get away from Burgey’s clutches to narrow the score to 3-2. Fortunately, Burgey posted a second takedown to make it 5-2 and the SOU wrestler could only manage his third escape to end the contest.
The sophomore, who ended his year at 19-1, never trailed at the Championships.
Burgey joins Linn Crawn (heavyweight, 1974), Gary Wood (150 pounds, 1979), and Joe Evano (184 pounds, 2003) on the WPU national champion list. He is the tenth multiple All-American at William Penn.
“This is just a great feeling,” Burgey said. “I had a lot of support from so many people this week and that meant a lot. I had not wrestled at all since my injury, only doing some conditioning, but everyone believed in me and that carried me through.”
“I came into this week with a clear mind,” Burgey added. “I tried to remember how I felt at last year’s finals and how my goal was to actually wrestle for the title on Saturday night and not just watch it from the stands. I worked hard this year and fortunately, I was able to make this happen.”
Burgey’s head coach Eric Reed was also very proud of his student-athlete, who became the first national champion for Reed in his four years at the Statesmen helm.
“Eric got the early takedown and put himself in position to win,” Reed said. “He wrestled really smart, like he did all week.”
Carey Cloud (Fr., Havelock, N.C., Tucker HS) joined Burgey on the 149-pound podium as the duo became the 38th and 39th All-Americans at William Penn.
The freshman finished the week Saturday morning by dropping a 9-2 decision to #6 Bradley Steele of Dickinson State (N.D.) in the seventh-place match. It was the second time the two had met this week, with Steele unfortunately getting the better of Cloud on both occasions.
Cloud, who was 4-3 at the Championships, was 16-11 this season.
The two All-Americans are the most for the Statesmen in a single campaign since having three in 2008.
William Penn jumped another notch to 17th with 33 points. #1 Grand View cruised to its first national title, scoring 172 points with two champions. #3 Southern Oregon was well back in the runner-up spot with 141 points. The program did lead all teams in champions, however, with three.
“I thought we wrestled a good tourney overall,” Reed said. “Our young guys did really well and getting a national champion and a freshman All-American is great. Several others got wins too so that will only help towards the future.”
“To improve upon last year with a top-20 finish was nice,” Reed added. “We had a tough regional tournament, but fought back and we beat several teams from our group. It was great to see us bounce back and compete like we were capable of.”
