Coe College to Host Iowa Conference Wrestling Championships Feb. 24

By Joshua Schroeder, Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — The Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) will crown a wrestling champion for the 60th time Friday, February 24, as Coe College hosts the Conference’s annual mat conclave inside Eby Fieldhouse in Cedar Rapids. Varsity matches begin at 10:30 a.m. The Championship finals are set to begin at 7:05 p.m. following the Grand March at 6:30 p.m.

Iowa Public Television (IPTV) will televise the Championship finals statewide on tape-delay basis beginning at 8:30 p.m. Friday, February 24. Tim Johnson will provide the play-by-play with legendary University of Iowa wrestling coach Dan Gable providing analysis. For local IPTV stations, visit IPTV’s web site at www.iptv.org.

National Polls: Five Iowa Conference schools and 29 individuals are ranked in the latest National Wrestling Coaches Association/Brute-Adidas poll released February 21. Ranked teams are Wartburg (1st), Coe (3rd), Cornell (6th), Luther (10th) and Dubuque (21st).

At least two Iowa Conference wrestlers are ranked in nine of 10 weight classes. The lone exception is at 141 pounds where Wartburg’s Kodie Silvestri is the sole IIAC wrestler ranked. Three weights have at least four ranked wrestlers led by five at 125 pounds, while four are ranked at 165 pounds and 197 pounds. Three others can be found at 133, 157 and 174, while 149, 184 and heavyweight have two ranked IIAC wrestlers each. All 10 on Wartburg’s list of probables are ranked, as are seven from Coe, five from Cornell, three each from Dubuque and Luther, and one from Buena Vista.

2011 IIAC Championship Recap: Wartburg College crowned seven individual champions after sending all ten wrestlers to the finals en route to its 19th consecutive Iowa Conference wrestling championship. The Knights amassed 206.5 points as they collected their 29th title overall.

Coe, which had one champion and five finalists, finished second with 147.5 points, while Dubuque edged Cornell, 114.5-115.5, for third place. For Dubuque, it was the program’s highest team finish since finishing second in 1971. The Spartans clinched the spot when Josh Terrell scored a 12-4 major decision over Wartburg’s Adam Weber for the 165 title.

The Kohawks kicked off the championship session on a strong note as senior Clayton Rush topped Wartburg’s Mark Kist, 6-1, at 125 to become the program’s first three-time Iowa Conference champion. Top-seeded Tommy Mirocha of Wartburg captured the 133 title with a 10-1 major decision over Cornell’s Tigue Snider.

Kevin Donahue became Cornell’s first multiple-time Iowa Conference champion after holding on for a tight 3-2 victory at 141 over Wartburg’s Matt Kelly. Wartburg’s Jacob Groth, an IIAC runner-up in 2010, moved one step up the podium and claimed his first IIAC title with a 7-3 win over Coe’s James Locke. Wartburg’s Carrington Banks gained a measure of revenge over Cornell’s Nicholas Loughlin, toppling the defending IIAC champion, 9-4, in rematch of the 2010 157-pound final. Terrell’s victory at 165 made him only the second Spartan to win three IIAC titles (Dan Daack, 137 pounds, 1966-67-68).

The Knights closed out the tournament with four consecutive victories. Bradley Banks picked up a 10-1 major decision over Coe’s Scott King at 174, Dylan Azinger topped Coe’s Seth Rehn, 9-5, and Byron Tate and John Helgerson scored technical falls at 197 and heavyweight, respectively.

Byron Tate was named the Dick Walker Outstanding Wrestler. He dominated the competition at the Championships, pinning Simpson’s Jared Bevins in 46 seconds in the quarterfinals and Cornell’s Alex Coolidge in 1:59, before dropping Dubuque’s Sam Johnson, 32-16, in the Championship match.

Titles by Rush (125) and Terrell (165) increased the number of wrestlers with at least three Iowa Conference titles to 45 and the number to accomplish the feat at the same weight class to 26. It was the third consecutive title for both wrestlers.

Four Wartburg wrestlers – Mirocha (133), Bradley Banks (174), Azinger (184), and Tate (197) – will attempt to defend their titles from a year ago. Tate is the two-time defending Iowa Conference champion at 197. Additionally, Cornell’s Loughlin is looking to regain the 157-pound title he won in 2010.

Twenty-one of the Conference’s 35 national qualifiers, and seven of 17 All-Americans from 2011 – including two-time national champion Tate – return to their teams’ lineups in 2012. Furthermore, seven will be after a third trip to nationals. That group is led by Tate but also includes Azinger, Loughlin, Buena Vista’s Brian Broll, Coe’s Chris and Nick LeClere, and Dubuque’s Ryan Warczynski. Besides Tate, Nick LeClere is the only returning multiple-time All-American. He placed fourth at 165 in 2010 and was national runner-up to Dubuque’s Josh Terrell at the same weight in 2011. Coe and Cornell each boast six returning national qualifiers in their 2012 lineups, followed by Wartburg with four, Buena Vista and Dubuque with two each. Central, Loras, and Luther round out the group with one apiece.

Thirty-two IIAC wrestlers will qualify for the NCAA Championship field of 170 with the top three wrestlers in each weight class qualifying automatically. One at-large wrestler will be selected by the league’s coaches immediately prior to Friday’s finals, while one other will be selected by the NCAA Division III Wrestling Committee next week once all of the weekend’s national qualifiers have been completed. The 2012 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships will be hosted by the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse at La Crosse Center March 9-10.