Wartburg clinches 17th team title at NCAA DIII Championships; Championship finals set

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Wartburg’s three finalists won’t have the weight of the team on their shoulders Saturday night for the finals of the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships at Alliant Energy PowerHouse. The Knights made sure of that by winning 10 of their 13 matches Saturday morning to clinch their 17^th team title.

“I really wanted it where these finalists, these three guys … didn’t have to think about the team score,” said Wartburg Coach Eric Keller, who won his 10^th title as coach, including three as co-coach, matching his predecessor, Jim Miller. “They can just go out there and wrestle free and do their thing without having that.”

Freshman Kade Blume (141 pounds) and seniors Kasey Ross (184) and Mitchell Williamson (285) will represent the Knights in the finals.

Their other four All-Americans all closed the season with wins. Charlie Dojan took third at 157, Patrick Mullen was fifth at 133 and Brett Birchman (125) and Cal Dorota (197) both placed seventh.

“Some guys are wrestling with heavy hearts after (tough losses) yesterday. “Some guys had gone really deep in that All-American round, and it probably would have been real easy just to be satisfied with where they were at, but, you know, that was the message today: Today’s a new day, and whatever happened yesterday’s over. Now today, what’s the best version of ourselves.’”’

Region VI, which Wartburg won, led all the regions with 16 All-Americans and six finalists.

Region III had five finalists among its 14 All-Americans, while Region VII, which includes Augsburg and Wisconsin-La Crosse, had 15 All-Americans and two finalists.

Region I had 11 All-Americans, including one finalist; Region V had 10 All-Americans, including three All-Americans; Region IV had three finalists among its nine All-Americans; and Region II had one finalist among its five All-Americans.

North Central’s Chip Guzman earned All-American honors for the fourth time and earned his third consecutive trip to the finals with a 17-1 technical fall against Eastern’s Malik Asfour in the semifinals at 125 pounds.

Another four-timer will also wrestle for a title. Peter Kane of Williams advanced at 157. He stayed unbeaten with an 8-0 major decision against Liam Flanagan of Washington & Lee in the semifinals.

Also earning All-America honors for the fourth time were Stevens Tech’s Ryan Smith, who placed fourth at 157, and Carl DeGiorgio of Coast Guard, who took fifth at 285.

DiGiorgio was one of five returning national runners-up unable to make it back to the finals.

The others were Cortland State’s Angelo Centrone, who placed seventh at 149; Augsburg’s Brandt Bombard, who took fourth at 184; and Bombard’s teammate, Cooper Willis, who failed to place at 165 after earning All-America honors three years in a row. That also was the case with Sean Conway of the University of Chicago, second a year ago at 141.

Guzman and Kane avoided those pitfalls as they returned to the finals.

A year ago in Providence, Rhode Island, Coe's Brayden Parke watched his brother Bryce on the largest state in NCAA Division III wrestling as he placed second in the nation at 133 pounds.

Earlier that day, Brayden Parke had placed fifth at 133 pounds as a freshman.

Saturday night, the younger gets his chance on the big stage. The sophomore earned a spot in the finals against North Central's Chip Guzman when he beat Mason Jones of Manchester 10-4 in the semifinals at 125.

"It's been a lot tougher year, for sue, just not being able to turn to him for advice or whatnot, but I feel I've grown more because of that."

But Parke said one brother has been replaced by a band of brothers.

"We knew if we needed each other, we were both there the entire time," Brayden Parke said. "There's that change where I don't necessarily have my exact brother right next to me and staying in the same room as me, but I do know that I have four other brothers over there that will pick me up just like my own biological brother."

Complete brackets and match-by-match results are available on FloWrestling.com.