THE FIRST TO DO IT TWICE

MATT BURNSTWO-TIME NAIA NATIONAL CHAMPION

THE STORY OF HOW MATT BURNS FOUGHT HIS WAY TO BECOMING GRAND VIEW UNIVERSITY’S FIRST TWO-TIME NATIONAL CHAMPION

2011 ARTICLES FROM THE GRAND VIEWS // WRITTEN AND COMPILED BY CHAD KRIZ

EDITION 65 // ISSUE 17

February 18, 2011

Football team wins first game

National champion seeks second title

UpcomingEventsFriday, Feb. 18

Baseball vs.Oklahoma Wesleyan

UniversityBartlesville, OK

@ 12:15 p.m.(double header)

Saturday, Feb. 19Track and Field

Wartburg InvitationalWaverly

@ 10:00 a.m.

Wrestling Regionals

Marshall, MO.@ 10:00 a.m.

Baseball vs.Oklahoma Wesleyan

UniversityBartlesville, OK

@ 1 p.m.(double header)

Women’s Basketball vs.Waldorf College

@ 1 p.m.

Men’s Basketball vs.Waldorf College

@ 3 p.m.

Sunday, Feb. 20No Events

Monday, Feb. 21No Events

Tuesday, Feb. 22No Events

Wednesday, Feb. 23No Events

Thursday, Feb. 24No Events

Doug GoodwinSTAFF WRITER

KEELY SHANNON/FEATURES EDITOR

Five athletes named to all-academic teams

Top: No. 2 Matt Burns, 149 pound senior, works for the fall against Waldorf College’s Bryce Robbins. Burns ended the match with a first period fall at 1:41.

Above: No. 9 Ty Knowler, 165 pound junior, sprawls to defend a take down against Waldorf College’s No. 8 Rashad Moss. Knowler edged Moss 1-0.

Chad KrizDESIGN EDITOR

When Grand View’s first NAIA national champion Matt Burns was told by doctors to quit the sport of wrestling, his response was quick and simple.

“That’s not an option,” Burns said.

Burns, No. 3 at 149 pounds, won the 2009 NAIA National Championships dur-ing the Viking wrestling team’s inaugural season. Looking to reclaim his title, Burns was forced to sit out the follow-ing season due to neck and back injuries that limited his strength and safety on the mat.

Determined to finish his career as the school’s first two-time NAIA national champion, Burns has ignored the doctors’ suggestions. Head coach Nick Mitchell said Burns has taken all the right steps to get back to his former self.

“He has done a good job this year with building strength back and rehabbing the injury,” Mitchell said. “You could tell (last season) he wasn’t himself. It wasn’t in his best interest to let him wrestle.”

In the No. 2 Viking’s 36-6 victory over No. 17 Waldorf College on Feb. 10, Burns wasted little time, pinning his opponent in a time of 1:41. When Burns stepped off the Viking’s competition mat for the final time, he didn’t realize he had accumulated a flawless home record of 9-0, including five victories by fall.

“It never really crossed my mind,” Burns said. “I don’t wrestle any harder just because

I’m at Grand View. It’s the same mentality every time.”

Burns has compiled a 49-6 record while wearing a Viking singlet, earning bonus points in 31 bouts. Although Burns holds the No. 3 rating at 149 pounds, he is 1-0 against last season’s national champion and current No. 1 Jeffery Pelton of Notre Dame College. During Burns’ title run, he entered the national tournament with a No. 5 rating. Other’s expectations did not hold him short of achieving his personal goals.

“I like proving people wrong. I beat people who I wasn’t supposed to. This just gives me another chance to do it again,” Burns said.

The No. 2 Vikings head into the post-season with 12 rated individuals, two more than No.1 Notre Dame and returning national team champions. The team will travel to Marshall, Mo. on

Saturday with goals of winning the Central Regional team title after finishing second and third during the first two seasons.

The Vikings are the current favorite to win the regional that includes three other teams rated in the top 20. Although Mitchell and his team share the same goal of bringing home this season’s national team title, winning a regional title is still on the Vikings’ to-do list Mitchell said.

“Winning a regional title is important to us. We want to win everything,” Mitchell said. “At this time of year, it’s more about everybody being at their best. We want every tournament to be our best competition.”

The Central Regional Tournament serves as an individual qualifier for the NAIA National Championships, March 3-5 in Cedar Rapids.

BILLY CONNER/CONTRIBUTOR

Five Grand View athletes have been recognized for their academic accomplishments

Danielle Ballard, crimi-nal justice senior, and Jenn Jorgensen, business adminis-tration sophomore earned the College Sports Information Directors of America’s Academic All-American Honor for basketball.

To receive this honor, ath-letes must have at least a soph-omore academic standing, be a starter or key reserve player, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 or above on the 4.0 scale and attend the nominating institution for at least one full calendar year.

Garey Smith, women’s head basketball coach, said, “It is always nice to have our athletes recognized.”

Smith said they try to recruit not only talented ath-letes, but also athletes who have good academic standing. He said this makes it easier to

assure the athletes are aca-demically eligible to play.

Molly Brown, director of athletic media and game management, said, “For the CoSIDA award, only mem-bers of C o S I D A can nomi-nate. The r e c i p i e n t s are voted on by other members of CoSIDA in our district. C o S I D A is College S p o r t s Information Directors of America.”

T h r e e of Grand View’s foot-ball players have been named to the Mid-States Football Association All-Academic Team. Alex Gass, health promotion junior; Joshua Moncivais, education junior; and Derek Nightser business administra-

tion junior, received the honor. Gass said, “Receiving this

honor is greatly appreciated and shows that academics are a big part of being a student athlete, and it’s nice to be hon-

ored for doing well on the field as well as in the class-room.”

Moncivais said, “This is an awesome honor to have. I feel very proud to be able rep-resent Grand View football not only on the field, but in the classroom. Also, to repre-sent the Grand View Athletic Department is

a great accomplishment.” To be eligible for the Mid-

States Football Association All-Academic Team, athletes must have at least a junior academic standing, maintain a cumulative grade point aver-

age of 3.2 or above on a 4.0 scale and be a varsity starter or key reserve. Nominations for the MSFA All-Academic Team are also made by Brown.

Gass said, “Being a part of this team will show that I have the commitment and knowl-edge to perform in everything I work hard in and it is just an overall good accolade to have with you when trying to make a career.”

Moncivais said, “This also helps to build my resume up and I’m sure it will get nationwide. Although I’m not really sure what doors it will open it’s a good feeling to be recognized as something rather than just being a good athlete.”

Troy Plummer, athletic director, said he is proud of the accomplishments of Grand View’s athletes.

Plummer said, “To have these five recognized is a trib-ute to how hard they have worked to make academics a priority while managing the time commitment of compet-ing in their sport.”

“Receiving this honor is greatly

appreciated and shows that academics are

a big part of being a student

athlete.”

Troy PlummerAthletic director

Check out our

facebook for more photos!

TheGrand Views

EDITION 65 // ISSUE 18

EDITION 65 // ISSUE 19

March 25, 2011

Chad KrizDESIGN EDITOR

BaseballRecord 10-9@ Avila UniversityMarch 6 1-5@ Avila UniversityMarch 6 1-2vs Jamestown CollegeMarch 11 3-0vs Jamestown CollegeMarch 11 1-2vs Indiana Institute of TechnologyMarch 12 5-2vs St. FrancisMarch 12 1-6vs Rio GrandeMarch 14 4-0vs Huntington UniversityMarch 14 0-4vs Huntington UniversityMarch 15 1-3vs Tiffin UniversityMarch 15 21-5vs Mount Mercy UniversityMarch 19 4-0vs Mount Mercy UniversityMarch 19 4-5vs Mount Mercy UniversityMarch 20 12-4vs William Penn UniversityMarch 22 1-0vs William Penn UniversityMarch 22 2-4

SoftballRecord 2-13vs Auburn University MontgomeryMarch 11 1-6vs William Woods UniversityMarch 11 1-7vs Martin MethodistMarch 12 0-2vs Saint Thomas UniversityMarch 12 8-3vs Oklahoma Baptist UniversityMarch 13 4-5vs Central Methodist CollegeMarch 14 4-9vs Central Methodist CollegeMarch 14 5-9vs Oklahoma City UniversityMarch 16 0-6@William Carey UniversityMarch 16 0-8@ Belhaven UniversityMarch 17 0-9@ Belhaven UniversityMarch 17 1-6

Stats

Weekof the

Wrestling team passes milestones

CHAD KRIZ/DESIGN EDITORMatt Burns, senior at 149 pounds, won his second national title after taking a year off due to injury. Burns is the first two-time national champion in Grand View history.

Follow us on Twitter for sports updates!

At: TheGrandViews

Missed the game? We have you covered!

The Viking Wrestling team capped off the season with a fifth place finish at this year’s NAIA National Championships, March 3-5. Seven members earned All-American honors at the event with one wrestler securing his second national title.

When a third year wresting team passes individual and team milestones for both the program and athletic department, a satisfied attitude is expected. Not for head

coach Nick Mitchell, who said he had mixed feelings about the tournament.

“As far as individuals go, it’s the best year we’ve had. Leaving the tournament with seven All-Americans, compared to three, feels a lot better,” Mitchell said. “Placing fifth was a little bit of a let down for me. I thought we were better than that as a team.”

Matt Burns, senior at 149 pounds, became the first two-time national champion in school history after downing Notre Dame’s Ashtin Primus with a 5-3 decision. Coincidently, Burns was the

first national champion in school history after winning his first NAIA title in 2009.

Burns was sidelined last season with a neck and back injury that was considered by doctors to be career ending. Unsure of Burns’ return, Mitchell was glad to see his first national champion end his career at Grand View with a second title.

“ B u r n s winning the title was probably one of the gutsiest and toughest things I’ve ever seen,” Mitchell said. “It was a hard process to get him healthy and mentally p r e p a r e d . He still isn’t 100 percent healthy, he just found a way to get it done.”

Being modest, Burns said winning the title isn’t a surprise after years of expecting yourself to reach those goals. Burns’ road to the finals was anything but easy. Entering the tournament with a No. 3 ranking, Burn’s beat No. 1, 2 and 4.

His semifinal bout was with a familiar foe, last year’s national champion, Jeff Pelton of Notre Dame. Burns beat

Pelton in his 2009 title run but Pelton was able to capture his first title last season with the absence of Burns.

“That semifinal match was huge. In my opinion, Pelton was the second toughest guy in that bracket,” Burns said. “I knew if I beat him that I could win the tournament. My goal was to show (Pelton) that

he only won the title last year because I didn’t wrestle.”

Returning n a t i o n a l c h a m p i o n Glenn Rhees, senior at 174 pounds, fell short of earning his second after dropping a close 3-2 decision in the finals to Lindenwood’s C h r i s C h i o n u m a .

Tommy Perez, junior 184 pounds, and Derek Nightser, junior 197 pounds, reached All-American honors by placing fifth. Travis Evans, junior 133 pounds, ended the tournament with a 6th place finish and both Adam Kurimski, junior 149 pounds, and Bojan Djucik, senior heavyweight, finished eight in their respective weight classes.

“Burns winning the title was

probably one of the gutsiest and toughest

things I’ve ever seen.”

Nick MitchellHead wrestling coach

JODI JURIK/ THE GRAND VIEWS KENT OPDAHL/ CONTRIBUTOR

See more photos on Facebook add TheGrand Views

THE FIRST TO DO IT TWICE