LeVesseur Hopes to Defend Title
Feb. 18, 2005
By Amy Farnum
NCAASports.com Staff Writer
Marcus LeVesseur is a marked man.
The 157-pound wrestler will be the person to beat when he takes the mat at this year’s Division III Great Lakes Regional Championship at Augsburg College.
LeVesseur, a junior at Augsburg, is the two-time defending NCAA Champion in his weight class and has won 115 consecutive matches in his collegiate career. He has never lost a match in college.
The incredible streak is the second longest in collegiate wrestling history. Cael Sanderson of Iowa State owns the NCAA record, as well as four Division I championships, with a 159-0 record from 1998 to 2002. No Division III wrestler has ever won four NCAA titles.
LeVesseur, the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at 157 pounds, doesn’t think about the streak, but prefers to take a ‘one day at a time’ approach to his matches.
“I try to focus more on every individual match and try to control what I can control, “LeVesseur said.
A native of Minneapolis, Minn., LeVasseur is no stranger to winning streaks. He won a Minnesota state record 141 straight matches to finish his career, and is one of just 10 wrestlers in state history to win four high school state titles.
Named Minnesota’s “Mr. Wrestler “in 2001 by the state high school coaches association, LeVesseur originally attended the University of Minnesota as a freshman, but decided to leave the Division I wrestling powerhouse after his first semester.
“I found myself running into some problems with my social life, academically and on the mat, “said LeVesseur. “To be honest, it was too much for me to handle at that point in time.
LeVesseur contacted Jamell Tidwell, Augsburg’s 141-pounder and high school friend, to ask him about the school atmosphere and wrestling program at Augsburg.
“From what he (Tidwell) told me, I felt like I wanted to be there, “said LeVesseur. “He talked to the head coach (Jeff Swenson) and we had some meetings together and I decided to transfer to Augsburg.
“I loved the atmosphere. I loved the team and the coaches. I’ve been having fun ever since then.”
LeVesseur, who at five years old was inspired to wrestle watching an older cousin compete for the local high school team, is also a star football player for the Augies.
“That was one of the reasons I wanted to transfer from Minnesota to Augsburg, because I had an opportunity to play football and wrestle, “said LeVesseur. “I was in the stands for the past two years, and as I was watching the games I was saying to myself, ‘I could have made that play. I could have made that pass. I could have caught that ball.’ It went from I could be out there to I should be out there to this year, when there was no question in my mind I was going to be out there.”
Only joining the football squad in the 2004 season, LeVesseur earned the starting quarterback after the team’s second game. He set single-season school records in rushing for yards (1,024), carries (256) and rushing touchdowns (10), and is just the second Augie in school history to run for over a 1,000 yards.
LeVesseur and his team both have the opportunity to win titles at the NCAA Championships on March 4-5 at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., and they are rigorously preparing for it both mentally and physically because the competition will be tough.
“I think if you’re good enough to be at nationals, you’re good enough to win nationals, “said LeVesseur. “So, in each and every match “from the prelims to quarterfinals to semifinals to the finals – I have to go out there with my mental focus and my game plan for the next seven minutes and if I can control the things that I need to, I should be just fine.”
Augsburg has won eight of the last 14 Division III NCAA titles, and has placed second to Wartburg in the last two championships. The Augies are the only school in the nation to boast wrestlers in every weight class ranked in the top eight. LeVesseur credits the team’s success to the Augies incredible training regimen.
“We always want to run harder, lift harder, practice harder than our opponents; we eat smarter, and control our weight smarter, and so far our team has been doing that very well, “said LeVesseur. “We’ve been wrestling a lot of good schools and we’ve been taking it right to them.”
LeVesseur’s training and mental toughness has contributed to his outstanding success so far, and with a 115-win streak on the line, he will certainly do his best to defend it.
— Compiled using University Sports Information resources.
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