The beginning of our countdown of the top 10 sports moments from Central College sends us to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where a Dutch men’s wrestler earned one of the biggest wins of his career on Saturday, December 2nd.

Competing at the MSOE Invitational, sophomore Pierre Baldwin was in the midst of a 3-0 day in the 141-pound weight division, setting himself up in the championship bout against #1 nationally ranked wrestler and reigning Division III champion Sam Stuhl of Augsburg University. The sophomore, putting his 17-1 record on the line at the time, put the rest of the Division III wrestling world on notice that day, showing his ability to contend for a national championship. The sophomore not only won the match and the invitational title that day against #1 ranked Stuhl, but dominated the reigning national champion in a 12-4 major decision. Head coach Eric Van Kley that while the result may have shocked those outside of their program, it came with little surprise to the Dutch wrestling squad.

“We obviously knew the young man from Augsburg was number one in the country and the defending national champ, but I don’t think that means a lot to Pierre. He knows the work that he puts in and we know how much work he puts in, where, every time he steps on the mat he expects really good things to happen. So, sometimes we say the score is closer than what it showed, the score that day kind of was what it was. It was 12-4 and it was a fairly dominant, hard fought win by Pierre.”

Baldwin went on to qualify for the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships, where he went 1-2 and finished the year with a 36-4 record.