NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship Website
GETTYSBURG, Pa. Sophomore Luke Kowalski (Derwood, Md./Saint John’s College Prep) has turned in an outstanding season in an orange and blue singlet and will have the opportunity to shine on the brightest stage of all during his first trip to the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship on March 11-12 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Kowalski will be Gettysburg College’s lone representative at the national event and earned his bid with a third-place finish at 133 pounds at the Southeast Regional Championship on Feb. 26. The sophomore has compiled an impressive 30-7 overall record with 11 pins and eight major decisions this season.
“Luke has worked extremely hard,” said Head Coach Gino Frank. “He has battled a nagging shoulder injury and his weight-cut started to become taxing. He has been working out on a regular basis with assistant coach Rustin Barrick, who was an NCAA national qualifier for Division I Bucknell at 174 lbs. That describes how hard he is willing to work to accomplish his goals.”
Frank is in his second year at the helm of the program and Kowalski is his first national qualifier as head coach with the Bullets not competing last season. He has coached an additional six national qualifiers as the assistant coach from 2007 to 2020, including Luke’s older brother Colin. Colin was a two-time qualifier in 2018 and 2019 and finished fourth in program history with 109 victories. As a matter of fact, the older Kowalski was Gettysburg’s last national qualifier before Luke clinched his spot two weeks ago.
“Colin’s experiences have definitely helped to motivate Luke,” noted Frank. “He saw how his brother was able to achieve success and has believed from the start that he can have those successes as well.”
“Colin and Luke were completely different wrestlers in their styles,” he added. “Colin was a very controlled wrestler who methodically dismantled his opponents. Luke likes to let it fly and scramble to attack his opponents.”
The younger Kowalski, who was the Centennial Conference Rookie of the Year, has finished among the top four at six different events this season. He won the Messiah University Invitational to start his collegiate career and finished third at the CC Championship. He has tangled with a handful of national qualifiers already, including Josh Wilson from Greensboro College, David Massey from University of Mount Union, and Dalton Rohrbaugh from York (Pa.) College. Kowalski also wrestled Corey Gamet from Lake Erie College, who qualified for the Division II tournament.
The Gettysburg sophomore has twice wrestled Rohrbaugh, who enters the championship as the No. 2 seed overall. In the last meeting in the semifinals of the regional championship, the York grappler pulled out a narrow 7-4 victory.
Kowalski heads into the championship event unseeded. He’ll face eighth-seeded Tyler Fleetwood from Wisconsin-Eau Claire in his opening match on Friday. With 18 wrestlers in the bracket, two wins would slide Kowalski into Saturday’s final day and earn him a spot on the podium as an All-American.
Gettysburg’s last All-American was heavyweight Paul Triandafilou ’19 in 2016. The Bullets have not had an All-American under 150 pounds since Bob Ortenzio ’79 finished third in 1979.
“He has to trust his training and relax,” said Frank. “We usually tell him a joke before he goes out to wrestle to get him to relax a little. He needs to focus on his attacks and not concern himself with his opponent’s strategies.”
The action kicks off with preliminary rounds at noon on Friday. Following the completion of the first session, competition will resume at 7 p.m. on the opening day. Saturday’s start times are 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. for the remaining segments.
This story was originally posted on the Gettysburg College Website.