OKLAHOMA CITY – The Citadel's Turtogtokh Luvsandorj closed out his illustrious Citadel wrestling career on Saturday by taking sixth place at 165 pounds to become the Bulldogs' fourth All-American in program history at the 2014 NCAA Championship held in the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
The redshirt senior joins an elite group consisting of Ugi Khishignyam (2013 – fourth place), Odie Delaney (2013 – seventh place) and Dan Thompson (2006 – sixth place) as the only four Bulldogs to earn All-American status in the program's storied history.
"I am very happy for Turtogtokh and I'm very proud of him as he has worked very hard and put in an indescribable amount of preparation," said Citadel head coach Rob Hjerling. "He gave himself an opportunity to win every match, and it was very nice to see all of the hard work pay off."
The sixth-place finish is the second-best in Citadel history as the Mongolia native closed out his career with a school-record 134 wins, including 39 this season. In his four seasons, Luvsandorj earned two Southern Conference titles, made four trips to the NCAA tournament and was tabbed as the league's wrestler of the year twice.
"This was another historic weekend for The Citadel wrestling program, and Turtogtokh has been instrumental in setting a new standard for our program," added Hjerling. "Our guys come out here expecting to make things happen. They compete. They believe."
Luvsandorj topped three seeded wrestlers en route to his sixth-place finish – No. 6 Corey Mock (Chattanooga), No. 7 Pierce Harger (Northwestern) and No. 9 Joseph Booth (Hofstra).
Following exciting wins over Booth and Harger on Friday night, Luvsandorj put himself in a position to finish as high as third place heading into the final day of the tournament.
Luvsandorj opened the Saturday morning session with a hard-fought bout against No. 4 seed Steven Monk of North Dakota State but was unable to come out on top as the Bison grappler earned the 5-3 win to drop Luvsandorj to the fifth-place bout.
In that match, the Bulldog wrestler was pitted against No. 8 seed Mike Moreno of Iowa State. Luvsandorj topped the Cyclone wrestler earlier this season in an overtime tilt at the Southern Scuffle but was unable to do the same Saturday.
Down 2-1 in the second period, Moreno scored an escape followed by a takedown and three-point near fall to gain control of the match and collect the 9-3 decision.
Luvsandorj was joined at the NCAA Championships by four Citadel teammates. Aaron Walker, Matt Frisch and Marshall Haas are all expected to return next season, while Khishignyam finished his Bulldog career with 64 wins through two seasons and won two SoCon titles at 141 pounds.
"The three younger guys learned a lot this weekend and they are leaving here as better wrestlers and are more prepared mentally for next season," said Hjerling. "Having two sophomores and a freshman out here getting that kind of experience is priceless. They have standards to live up to and records to shoot for and try to break.
"This was a great team experience, not just some individual accomplishments. We have a great group of guys returning and there's no reason why we shouldn't raise our expectations for next year," finished Hjerling.