SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio -- The athletic teams of Notre Dame College have been raising the bar in recent seasons. On Thursday afternoon, before an estimated crowd of 800 fans, the bar was raised yet again, only this time a national championship banner was unfurling below the bar as it ascended to the rafters of Murphy Gymnasium.
The NDC campus community gathered for a celebration of champions Thursday, as the members of the Falcon wrestling team and senior race walker #Mike Mannozzi# were honored for earning NAIA national championships last week. The event culminated with the hoisting of the 2010 NAIA Wrestling National Championship banner -- a red, white and blue ensign that will remain at Murphy Gymnasium, marking the first national team title earned by an NDC athletic team.
“That was a special moment,” said Notre Dame Head Wrestling Coach #Frank Romano#. “Seeing what the College did for us today was humbling, it really was.”
Romano addressed the packed house of the gymnasium, as did senior team captain #Adam Koballa# and the Wrestling Falcons' three individual national champions -- #Derek Foore#, #Jeffrey Pelton# and #Thomas Straughn#. The day's festivities also included an impassioned speech by Mike Mannozzi, who walked his way into NDC history last Friday (March 5) when he won the national title in the Men's 3,000-Meter Race Walk becoming the first NAIA champion in the history of Notre Dame Track & Field.
Other speakers at the celebration included NDC Board of Directors Chair Joan McCarthy and South Euclid City Councilman Ed Icove as well as the College's president -- Dr. Andrew P. Roth, vice-president for enrollment -- Dave Armstrong, director of athletics -- Susan Hlavacek and head Track & Field coach -- Ricardo Franklin.
“Every Monday morning, Coach Romano would come into my office with a trophy the team had won over the weekend,” said Hlavacek. “I would say, 'Frank, just win the big one.' Well, that's what he did, and it's a tremendous accomplishment for him and his staff and every wrestler on the team.”
With their three national title-winners in 2010 -- Foore (197 pounds), Pelton (149) and Straughn (157) -- NDC Wrestling has now produced five national champions in the program's four years since being instituted in 2006. In those four seasons, the program has produced 17 NAIA All-Americans and 56 national qualifiers. The Falcons were ranked No. 1 in the nation (NAIA Coaches' Poll) for the entire regular season and then won the championship in Oklahoma City, Okla., on March 6.
In earning the national title, NDC scored 179.5 team points, 59.5 points more than second-place Southern Oregon (120 points). That margin of victory is the second-largest at the NAIA National Championship tournament since 1982 and the third-largest in the 53-year history of the NAIA title event. The title for Notre Dame marks the first national championship for a college or university in Cleveland since 1978 (Baldwin-Wallace NCAA Division-III Football).
