MINNEAPOLIS -- The 11-time NCAA Division III national champion Augsburg College wrestling program was honored by the Minnesota Twins as part of the 17th annual "Lutheran Night at the Twins" festivities on Wednesday night at Target Field.

Wrestling head coach Mark Matzek and Athletic Director Jeff Swenson represented Augsburg during the pregame ceremony, and were joined by two other wrestlers. Jayson Ness, who won the Division I national title at 133 pounds in dramatic fashion for the University of Minnesota in 2010, threw out the ceremonial first pitch, joined by his younger brother Dylan Ness, who won a Minnesota high school state title this season at Bloomington Kennedy.

Also at the Lutheran Night festivities, former Augsburg Board of Regents member (1994-2006) Jim Haglund was part of a group representing the Feed My Starving Children charity, which received a $99,465 donation from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. Haglund, who is on the FMSC Advisory Board, received the Spirit of Augsburg Award at Homecoming in 2009. He was one of the major donors as part of the Kennedy Center campaign in 2006, and the James Haglund Family Fitness and Recreation Center in the lower level of the Kennedy Center is named in his honor.

A 2005 Augsburg alumnus, Matzek was a two-time individual national champion and three-time All-American wrestler during his Augsburg career, and was named the ninth head coach in the history of the program in July 2008. Matzek recently completed his fifth season on the Augsburg coaching staff, after spending his first three seasons as an assistant coach.

The Auggies added to their NCAA Division III-record total of national titles in 2010, claiming their 11th team national championship in the last 20 seasons, while earning eight individual All-Americans and three national runners-up among their nine national tournament individual qualifiers. Matzek was named NWCA Division III National Coach of the Year, and assistant head coach Jared Evans earned NWCA Division III National Assistant Coach of the Year honors.

The Auggies went a perfect 12-0 in dual meets -- the 11th unbeaten dual-meet campaign in school history, and the Auggies won every varsity tournament that kept team scoring this season. The Auggies claimed the championship at the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III National Duals for the fifth time in the event's nine-year history. The Auggies won the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional for the eighth straight year (every year Augsburg has competed in the event).

Augsburg extended its streak of “trophy finishes” -- finishing in the top four in the team race -- to 22 straight years, the longest active streak of any NCAA wrestling program, regardless of division. Augsburg has finished fourth or better nationally every year since 1989, and its 22-year streak is the second-longest top-four finish streak of any school in NCAA wrestling history, behind the 28 of Oklahoma State in Division I from 1929-59.

Three Auggies earned national runner-up honors in 2010 -- 133-pounder Paul Bjorkstrand (SR, Burnsville, Minn.), 149-pounder Tony Valek (SO, Belle Plaine, Minn./Scott West) and 165-pounder Orlando Ponce (JR, Hialeah, Fla./Hialeah-Miami Lakes HS). Three Auggies placed third nationally -- Jason Adams (SR, Coon Rapids, Minn.) at 157, Zach Molitor (JR, Cambridge, Minn./Cambridge-Isanti HS) at 174 and Jared Massey (JR, Circle Pines, Minn./Centennial HS) at 197. Josh Roberts (FY, Grand Forks, Minn./Grand Forks Central HS) placed fourth at 125 and Andy Witzel (SR, Fulda, Minn.) placed eighth at heavyweight.

As a team that takes pride in its success both on the mat and in the classroom, three Auggies earned NWCA Scholar All-American honors -- Bjorkstrand, Valek and Brad Baus (SO, Mukwonago, Wis.).