Marcel Lopez chooses SIUE

New London’s three-time state champion will be a Division 1 wrestler in college.

Marcel Lopez, the Tigers’ senior announced via social media on Friday that he would be furthering his academic and athletic career at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville next school year.

As area high school wrestling fans are well aware of, Lopez is already one of the best wrestlers in New London history with one more postseason run ahead of him.

The Tiger senior has lost just four matches in his entire high school career, and none of those losses came in the state tournament. He has three Class 1A state championships under his belt, including a 120-pound title last season.

If Lopez can win another title this year, he’ll become just the 30th Iowa high school wrestler in history to become a four-time champion.

Lopez will join a Cougar squad that went 3-7 overall and 1-6 in the Mid-American Conference last season.

SIUE still is in the still in the early years as an NCAA Division 1 program. The Cougars have three NCAA Division 2 national championships as a team and have turned out 19 individual titles.