Wartburg Locks Up Title, Championship Finals Set for
2009 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships

March 7, 2009
Joshua Schroeder, IIAC Director of Information

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa . . . With seven All-Americans and three wrestlers in the finals, Wartburg College clinched its second consecutive NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship Saturday afternoon at the U.S. Cellular Center.

The Knights, who will hoist the program's seventh championship trophy at the conclusion of Saturday evening's finals, lead the team chase with 109.5 points. Augsburg, which has only Jared Massey at 197 wrestling for a title, is second with 100 points. Wisconsin-La Crosse, with two finalist, is third with 79 points, followed by Coe (78.5) and Delaware Valley (60.5).

Zach McKray (141 pounds), defending national champion Aaron Wernimont (157), and Justin Hanson (165) will all wrestle for titles for Wartburg, while Mark Kist (125), Matt Kelly (133), Jacob Naig (149), and John Helgerson (285) each finished third.

Wisconsin-La Crosse, Delaware Valley, and Elmhurst each have two finalists.

Elmhurst's Jake Oster will meet RIT's Mike McInally in the 125-pound final. Oster, the top-seed, needed sudden victory to get past Ithaca's Seth Ecker in the semifinals, while McInally, the No. 6 seed, edged No. 2-seed Clayton Rush of Coe 7-6 in the other semifinal.

Nick Nothern of Cornell hooks up with Zac Bartlett of Luther in an all-Iowa Conference final at 133 pounds. Nothern edged Wartburg's Matt Kelly 6-5 in overtime and Bartlett advanced by fall over Coe's Brandon Ball. Nothern is Cornell's first finalist since Ryan Reasland finised second at 190 pounds in 1996.

At 141 pounds, McKray tackles No. 4 seed Minga Batsukh of Saint John's (Minn.). Batsukh beat top seed Austin Bautista of Wisconsin-Whitewater 4-3 in the semifinals.

Returning All-Americans Matt Mauseth of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Paul LeBlanc of Cortland State will meet in the 149-pound final. The pair, which finished sixth and seventh, respectively, at last year's Championships, knocked off the top two seeds in the semifinals. Mauseth beat top-seeded Willy Holst of Augsburg, 3-1, and LeBlanc beat No. 2 seed and defending national champion Jacob Naig of Wartburg by a 7-4 margin.

Wernimont takes a 79-match winning streak into his championship matchup with No. 2 seed Jason Brew of Olivet, a rematch of the 2008 championship match, which Wernimont won 7-3. Hanson, the top seed at 165 pounds, will meet No. 3-seed Ben Youel of North Central in the championship. Both are returning All-Americans at the weight with Youel taking fourth and Hanson seventh a year ago.

Evan Brown is Dubuque's first finalist since Gene Rowell won the heavyweight title in 1979. He will face No. 2-seed Rocky Mantella of Delaware Valley (30-0) in the 174-pound final. Delaware Valley's second finalist takes the mat in the 184 final as top-seeded Michael Wilcox takes on No. 3 seed Phil Moenkedick of Concordia-Moorhead.

Massey will face No. 4 seed Ryan Malo of Williams in the 197-pound final, and the evening will conclude with Elmhurst's Mark Corsello attempting to dethrone defending national champion Dan Laurent of Wisconsin-La Crosse in the heavyweight final. Corsello, the No. 5 seed, took seventh at last year's championship.

Action resumes with the Parade of All-Americans at 6:30 p.m. The championship finals are slated for 7 p.m. Both the Parade of All-Americans and the Championship matches will be streamed live on NCAA.com.