Three NMHU athletes came home from the NCAA DII Winter Sports Festival with All-American honors next to their names. Cowboy wrestlers Jessie Feinsod (Sr., Colorado Springs, CO) and Luke McPeek (So., Albuquerque, NM) as well as Highlands track and field standout Angella Graham (Jr., Trelawney, Jamaica) all finished in the top six nationally at the DII national championships hosted by the University of Houston March 13th and 14th.
The HU wrestlers came home from Houston with 18.5 points, good enough for a top 20 national finish. Jesse Boggs also contributed to the HU point total. The junior from Deming, NM went 1-2 in the heavyweight division of the national tourney with a second round win over Lance Peters of Augustana College. The University of Nebraska-Omaha dominated the meet, nearly doubling the point total of runners-up Newberry, while conference foes Nebraska-Kearney, Adams State, Western State and Chadron State all placed in the top 11. Meanwhile Graham, the lone HU track athlete at the national meet, totaled seven points in two events to put Highlands 23rd in the national standings.
Both Feinsod (174lbs) and McPeek (197lbs.) took big first round wins in Houston. Feinsod topped highly-ranked Tommy McCarty of Central Oklahoma 10-5. McCarty would actually go on to wrestle his way back to a fourth place finish in the tournament. McPeek shook-up the form charts with a big 11-4 decision over Pat Mahan, a regional champion from Minnesota State-Mankato, to begin his surprising run to the tourney semi-finals.
The quarterfinals saw Feinsod facing off with Mitch Norton of Upper Iowa University. Norton had lost only two matches all season and proved to be Feinsod’s nemesis in the tourney---the HU senior lost to Norton in round two and would face him again in the fifth-place match on Saturday, a close 6-4 loss for Feinsod. After falling to Norton in round two, Feinsod came up with two big wins against Luke Rynish (41 wins, 15 losses on the year) of Wisconsin-Parkside and Derek Skala (26-8) of St. Cloud State. In his third match of the day, Feinsod fell to Ross Taplin (40-8) of Nebraska-Omaha to set up the rematch with Norton.
McPeek seemed to be in trouble in his second round match-up with Malcolm Briggs (29-11) of Wisconsin-Parkside. After being taken down twice and put on his back twice in the first round, the HU wrestler and former U.S. Marine shocked his opponent and electrified the crowd with a second-round fall to move into the semi-finals. McPeek’s tournament magic faded somewhat on day two as he lost three consecutive matches to finish his All-American effort in sixth place.
Graham began her competition with the Long Jump on Friday afternoon. Coming into the meet ranked sixth nationally, Graham held form and placed in that same position to take her spot on the podium.
“Angella did not jump a season best,” said HU coach Bob DeVries, “but really only one jumper did. It was about who could handle the nerves and jump well that day. It was exciting to see Angella getting her All-American award and hear the announcer say—‘the first-ever track All-American from New Mexico Highlands University’.”
On Saturday Graham competed in her specialty—the multi event Pentathlon (hurdles, shot-put, high jump, long jump and 800 meter run). Coming into the meet ranked 11th nationally, the HU junior was hoping to move up to the top eight and earn her second All-American honor of the meet.
After a solid, but not spectacular start in the 60M hurdles (9.13), Graham sat exactly eighth in the field of 12 athletes invited to the national meet. The athletes moved on to the high jump and Graham came through with a break-out performance. She ranked 10th among the athletes in the high jump coming in, but cleared three consecutive heights better than she had done all season and finished tied for first in the high jump at 5-5 ¾. That performance moved Graham into second place overall and sent a stir through the crowd about a possible upset in the making.
Graham came through with yet another lifetime best in the third event—shot put. Her throw of 11.11M marked the first time she had ever thrown past the 11M (36-0) mark and kept her in second as the field moved to the long jump. “it was pretty exciting, “noted DeVries, “the multi-events are always nerve-wracking and nationals was even more so. Going into the long jump we felt Angella would stay second or even move into first with a really big jump.” Graham was not able to hit her season best in the long jump but a solid 18’-5” leap held her in second moving to the 800 meter run.“I had coaches coming up and asking—‘can she do it?’—about holding on in the 800. It is really her worst event, but she has been working on it, “said DeVries.
Graham set out with the pack in the 800 before beginning to fade with a lap and a half to go. “I tried to keep up, but it was so hard,” said an exhausted Graham following the race. She faded back some, but held on to run 2:37, nearly six seconds faster than she had run at the RMAC championships and a lifetime best for 800 meters. The run scored enough points to keep Graham in fifth-place overall and give her a second All-American honor for the meet.
Graham tried to go 3 for 3 in Houston with Saturday afternoons’ Triple Jump. As the last jumper added to the field of 14, Graham had her work cut out for her just to make the finals. An 11.47 jump in the prelims moved her into the finals, but she could not improve on that mark and finished ninth—one spot out of the All-American honors by less than three inches.
Congratulations to all the Highlands athletes for their outstanding performances at the National Championships.
Click HERE to View the Final Brackets from the NCAA Wrestling Championships
Click HERE to View the Final Results from teh NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships