MINNEAPOLIS — Mark Matzek ’05. who earned NCAA Division III men’s wrestling national titles as both a wrestler and coach at Augsburg University, will be inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Hall of Fame in July, it was announced on Friday. The induction ceremony will take place on July 28 at the Hilton Fort Lauderdale Marina in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., during the NWCA’s annual convention.
As a wrestler, Matzek was one of the top lightweight competitors in Augsburg history. He earned 133-pound All-American honors three times and won NCAA Division III national titles twice in his career, finishing with a 129-21 record. In 2002-03, he finished fourth nationally with a 40-7 record, then won his first national title in the 2003-04 season, finishing 35-4. He finished his career with a 42-match winning streak, which included a 34-0 mark in his senior season (2004-05), as he repeated as national champion — one of 13 Auggie wrestlers in school history to win multiple national championships. He was a part of two national title teams and two national runner-up squads.
Academically, Matzek was a three-time NWCA Scholar All-American, a CoSIDA Academic All-District honoree three times, and a CoSIDA Academic All-America first-team selection in 2005. He was named an Augsburg Honor Athlete in 2005. He was a mathematics and secondary education major at Augsburg.
After spending three seasons as an assistant coach for the Auggies, Matzek was named as the ninth head coach in Augsburg program history in 2008-09, leading the team for six seasons (2008-14). Augsburg claimed top-10 finishes in each of Matzek’s campaigns, winning the national title in the 2009-10 season and finishing as national runner-up in 2008-09, 2010-11 and 2011-12.
Augsburg wrestlers earned 30 All-American honors and five individual national championships during Matzek’s tenure as head coach. Augsburg squads won NCAA regional titles in each of his six seasons, with 25 individual regional titlists. The Auggies recorded a 55-21-1 dual-meet record over the past six seasons.
As an assistant coach, Matzek was a part of Auggie squads that won the national title in 2006-07 and finished third in both 2005-06 and 2007-08. In his nine seasons on the Augsburg staff, the Auggies claimed 50 All-Americans and nine individual national championships, while going 82-27-1 in dual meets.
Academically, Matzek’s teams finished in the top 10 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Scholar All-America Team listing each of the last three seasons, including earning the academic national title in 2011-12 with a 3.7341 team grade-point average. Auggie wrestlers earned 22 NWCA Scholar All-America honors and two CoSIDA Academic All-America honors in Matzek’s six seasons as head coach.
In 2014, he returned to his hometown of Ellsworth, Wis., to work as a teacher and wrestling coach. Under Matzek’s leadership, the Panthers have won two Wisconsin state high school team championships and have finished as state runner-up three times, winning Middle Border Conference titles six times. Four Panthers have won individual state titles in Matzek’s tenure. In 2023, he was named as school administrator at St. Francis School in Ellsworth.
Matzek’s induction brings the number of Augsburg wrestlers inducted into the NWCA Division III Wrestling Hall of Fame to 11, joining Dan Lewandowski ’97 in 2003, Gary Kroells ’93 in 2005, John Beatty ’90 in 2007, Steve Gliva ’85 in 2010, Nick Fornicoia ’93 in 2011, Joe Hoialmen ’93 in 2012, Jesse Armbruster ’96 in 2014, Henry Gerten ’98 in 2016, Marcus LeVesseur ’07 in 2022 and Nik Lewakdowski ’01 in 2022. Three Augsburg coaches have also earned NWCA Division III Wrestling Hall of Fame honors — 10-time national champion head coach Jeff Swenson ’79 in 2005, longtime assistant coach Scott Whirley ’82 in 2016, and longtime assistant coach Donny Wichmann ’89 in 2019.
The pair will be part of a seven-person class entering the NWCA Division III Wrestling Hall of Fame this year. Also being inducted are wrestlers Minga Batsukh of Saint John’s (Minn.), Michael Blair of Trinity (Conn.), Lucas Malmberg of Messiah (Pa.) and Bebeto Yewah of Wisconsin-La Crosse, wrestler and coach Brian Allen of Johnson & Wales (R.I.), and contributor John Malvik of Augustana (Ill.).
The NWCA Division III Wrestling Hall of Fame has honored NCAA Division III wrestlers, coaches and contributors since 1989. Augsburg has been an NCAA Division III member since 1983. To be considered for Hall of Fame induction, wrestlers must be three-time All-Americans or two-time national champions.
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