| February 20, 2003
CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . .Wartburg
College won its 11th straight Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference
(IIAC) wrestling championship behind the performances of six individual
champions and four runners-up. The Knights defeated second place
Loras College by 68 points (199-131). Luther (122.5), Upper Iowa
(121.5) and Buena Vista (110.0) rounded out the top-five.
Wartburg junior Bart Mehlert (LaPorte
City, Iowa) was named Dick Walker Outstanding Wrestler after winning
the 149-pound weight class as the third seed. In the finals he defeated
defending Conference Champion Garrett Kurth (Waukon,
Iowa), the top seed of Luther College (8-5). He also defeated second-seeded
Clint Manny (Peru, Iowa) of Simpson College (8-3)
and #6 Jeff Wiele (West Liberty, Iowa) of Coe (pin
at 4:02). Mehlert is the 10th Wartburg wrestler to earn Outstanding
Wrestler honors, an award now named after the team’s former head
coach.
Wartburg Head Coach Jim Miller
was named IIAC Coach of the Year for the seventh time. He guided
the Knights, who were ranked #1 in the Nation the entire season,
to a 22-1 overall dual record.
Thirty six wrestlers qualified for the NCAA National
Championships to be held March 7-8, at Ohio Northern University
in Ada, Ohio. The winner and runner-up of each of the ten weight
classes along with 16 wildcards will represent the Conference at
the National Championships. All 10 of Wartburg’s wrestlers will
be joined by seven wrestlers from Loras, five from Luther, four
from Upper Iowa, three from both Buena Vista and Simpson, two from
Coe and one each from Central and Dubuque. The Iowa Conference’s
National qualifiers are:
| 125-lbs. |
Heath Ropp, WAR |
Terry Morgan, LOR |
Joe Honts, BVU |
|
| 133-lbs. |
Ralph Acosta, UIU |
Ozzie Saxon, WAR |
Marcus Cobbs, LOR |
Mike Lopez, LUT |
| 141-lbs. |
Will Kelly, WAR |
Jeff Patzke, LUT |
|
|
| 149-lbs. |
Bart Mehlert, WAR |
Garrett Kurth, LUT |
Clint Manny, SIM |
Chris Vogel, LOR |
| 157-lbs. |
Kevin Bratland, WAR |
Aaron Loewens, BVU |
Garrett South, LUT |
Dustin Roland, CEN |
| 165-lbs. |
Pat Wilsbacher, BVU |
Ryan Sturm, WAR |
Jesse Reyerson, LUT |
Richard Schroeder, LOR |
| 174-lbs. |
Gary Franck, COE |
Mark Sturm, WAR |
Tom Andrews, LOR |
C.J. MacNaught, UIU |
| 184-lbs. |
Sonny Alvarez, WAR |
Paul Cleary, LOR |
Pat Dapkus, DBQ |
|
| 197-lbs. |
Brent Meyers, UIU |
Alain Djoumessi, WAR |
Bart George, SIM |
|
| Hwt. |
LeRoy Gardner, WAR |
Brian Black, UIU |
Chris Harrison, COE
Pat Thomas, LOR |
Brett Christensen, SIM |
Complete standings, bout-by-bout results and brackets
can be found here.
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