No. 1 Wartburg Crowns Three Individuals, Captures Team Title as
2008 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships Conclude

March 8, 2008
Joshua Schroeder, IIAC Director of Information
(portions of this release courtesy of Mark Adkins, Wartburg College sports information director, Don Stoner, Augsburg College sports information director, and Dave Johnson, Wisconsin-La Crosse sports information director)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa . . . Top-ranked Wartburg College placed itself on the top tier of NCAA Division III wrestling's national championship podium for the sixth time since 1996 by capturing the team title at the 2008 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships Saturday, March 8, at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Knights, who crowned three individual champions, won the team title with 147 team points, 47 better than runner-up University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.

The Eagles picked up a solid second-place effort with 100 points. Augsburg College turned in another strong effort on the national meet level, taking third with 87 points. Coe College, co-hosting this year’s championship with Cornell College and the Iowa Conference, gave its home fans a thrill with a fourth-place finish, the program’s highest ever, and its first individual national champion in wrestling when sophomore 165-pounder Tyler Burkle concluded a perfect run at 39-0. The co-host Rams were also a factor during the weekend, taking seventh, their highest finish at a national meet since taking fifth in the 1963 NCAA College Division Championships.

Wartburg added three more individual title winners to the all-time total with juniors Jacob Naig (149), Aaron Wernimont (157) and Romeo Djoumessi (184) bringing home indivdiual hardware. The Knights also had three runners-up in seniors Jacob Helvey (133), T.J. Miller (197), and Brian Borchers (285). The three individual national championships kept alive a string of six straight years of having at least one individual winner and the same span of earning two-or-more individual champions. This year’s total equaled the three champions in 2003 and pushed the program total to 27. The 147-point total marked the fourth time since 2003 the Knights have been above the 145-point mark in a national meet.

For Wisconsin-La Crosse, it was the school's third second-place finish in school history. The Eagles have now recorded 14 top-10 finishes at the NCAA Division III Championships, including eight in the top-four.

UW-L senior Josh Chelf (174) and sophomore Dan Laurent (285) both won titles. Chelf, who was selected the 2008 Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Meet, captured his second consecutive title with a 13-2 major decision over Coe's Tyler Jentz. Chelf, who went 4-0 in this year's tournament, becomes the second wrestler in school history to win two national titles, joining Ryan Allen (285-pound titles in 2004, 2005, 2006). Chelf is also the third wrestler in UW-L history to earn four career All-America awards, joining Allen and Jason Lulloff. Along with winning the national championship in 2007 and 2008, Chelf placed third in 2006 and sixth in 2005.

Augsburg, which entered the tournament as the defending national champion, crowned its 43rd wrestling national champion -- a record 39 in NCAA competition -- when Seth Flodeen (125) pinned Coe's Clayton Rush at the 2:07 mark of the first period. He was one of five All-American placewinners for Augsburg, which placed in the top four in the team standings for the 20th straight year -- a record currently unmatched by any other NCAA wrestling program in any division.

David Morgan of King's College earned his second consecutive title at 133-pounds with a 3-1 overtime victory over Helvey. The two wrestled to a scoreless first period tie, then each would escape respectively in the second and third periods to end regulation tied at 1-1.

Rhode Island College's Mike Bonora captured the title at 141-pounds with a 5-2 victory over Augsburg's Jason Adams, while Lycoming's Matthew Miller aptured the individual title at 197-pounds.

Eighty student-athletes received All-America honors by virtue of their finish at the NCAA Championships. Three - Chelf, SUNY Brockport's Shaheim Bradshaw, and Buena Vista's Jestin Hulegaard, each received All-America honors for the fourth time. Chelf captured the title at 174-pounds, Bradshaw took third at 165-pounds, and Hulegaard placed eighth at 133-pounds.

Coe's John Oostendorp was named Coach of the Year after leading the Kohawks to their best-ever finish at a national meet. The Kohawks' top assistant, Dustin Hinschberger, was named Assistant Coach of the Year. Rookie Coach of the Year honors went to Mike Clayton of the Stevens Institute of Technology.