January 20, 2010
(release courtesy of Mark Adkins, Wartburg College sports information director)

WAVERLY, IOWA . . . Wartburg College three-time NCAA Division III All-American and one-time national champion LeRoy Gardner III has been selected for induction into the NCAA Division III National Wrestling Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He will be honored at a 6:30 p.m. ceremony Thursday evening, March 4, in the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The induction proceedings annually kick off the NCAA Division III Championships.

Gardner is the sixth member of the Wartburg wrestling family to be recognized after wrestlers Zac Weiglein (2008), Jamal Fox (2006), Tom Smith (2004) and coaches Dick Walker (1993) and Jim Miller (2009).

Gardner, one of only two heavyweight national champions for the Knights, won his title at the 2003 national meet, part of a team national championship and 10 All-American feat for the 2002-03 squad. He also placed sixth at the 2001 national meet and third in 2002 and won back-to-back Iowa Conference titles in 2002 and 2003.

He, his wife, Susanna, and son, Amari, reside in Houston, Texas, where Gardner is in the ConocoPhillips New Hire Development Program for energy commodity trading. LeRoy is a native of Apple Valley, Minn.

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