UW-La Crosse is doing something special Saturday to celebrate the first-ever Greg Lonning Day.
Both the 15th-ranked UW-L women’s basketball team — coached by Greg Lonning’s daughter, Moran Lonning — and the fifth-ranked UW-L wrestling team will be competing side by side against Luther in Mitchell Hall, beginning at 5 p.m. So, if you're sitting in the bleachers at Mitchell Hall, you'll be able to watch both teams.
Greg Lonning, who led the UW-L wrestling team to its first-ever WIAC title and coached from 1992-1998, passed away three years ago from a brain aneurysm.
Moran Lonning and UW-L wrestling coach Dave Malecek stopped in the WIZM studio to tell us about Greg Lonning, Saturday's event and who might have the rowdier crowd.
Moran Lonning is in her third season as the UW-La Crosse women’s basketball coach. She talks about following in her dad’s footsteps as a kid and throughout her playing and coaching days, which eventually led her here — and she led the Eagles to the NCAA Division III playoffs last season and now a 4-1 start.
UW-L wrestling coach Dave Malecek talks about the Greg Lonning legacy he has helped carry on. Malecek has been UW-L’s head coach for 20 years and has guided the team to at least a Top 4 finish in 14 of those years. They're off to a 2-0 start.
The two talk about how Saturday's event will take place and which crowd might be the rowdiest as they happen simultaneously.
A little more history on Greg Lonning, his dual record as UW-L's coach was 77-19. He was the WIAC coach of the year in 1993-94, had 19 All-Americans and three National Champions.
Before that, Lonning coached at Central College (Iowa) for five years.
As a collegiate wrestler for Luther, Lonning was the 1983 National Champion at 183 pounds. He was a three-year letter winner from 1980-83, and earned two NCAA III All-America honors. Lonning also won two IIAC titles.
He was inducted into the Luther Hall of Fame in 1994 and the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Division III Hall of Fame in 2017.
He passed away March 8, 2022.
Moran Lonning also has a Luther connection, where she was twice the conference MVP and earned All-America honors in 2014-15 as point guard of the women's basketball team. After her playing career, she got her first head coach job at Central College (Iowa) in 2022-23 before heading to UW-L.
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