The National Wrestling Coaches Association is the multi division National Duals at the University of Northern Iowa Dome. We will have four schools from Wisconsin in the event: Wisconsin Stevens Point Women, Parkside men, Whitewater men and Lacrosse men. Over two days in Cedar Falls Iowa we will see teams from NJCAA, NAIA, NCAA divisions 1, 2 and 3 competing. There are different brackets and qualification processes for each division. It is nice to see all divisions represented (kind of) and the event is growing. If you’re a coach reading this get involved in the NWCA immediately. They have helped me grow tremendously personally and professionally.
We begin with the ladies first. Our Pointers travel to Iowa unranked. They have fifth ranked Presbyterian first round and feed into 4 ranked McKendree or Emmanuel with a win. The Women’s bracket is interesting, it features programs from the NCAA division 1, 2 and 3 ranks. Ngao Shoua Whitehorn is the leader of the Lady Pointers and ranked 5th at 131. Point has the deck stacked against them here, but will not go down quietly. We had a good discussion about the women’s collegiate wrestling landscape on this week’s WIWrestle. Different levels of the NCAA offer different resources, scholarships, etc.. Hats off the Point for toeing the line with anyone, anywhere.
The Lady Hawkeyes of Iowa are top ranked. If I could get a ticket to see one collegiate wrestling team compete it would be to see Clarissa Chun’s Iowa Hawkeyes. Name a better trifecta of wrestlers than Kennedy Blades, Kylie Welker and Macey Kilty, I’ll wait. Throw in that they are all Midwest ladies and two are native cheeseheads, badda bing, badda boom. North Central has the two seed followed by King at three and Mckendree at four. Some unseeded teams that are bracket busters here are Scared Heart and Lock Haven University and obviously our Lady Pointers.
Championship picks:
Gold- Iowa over North Central
Bronze- Presbyterian over Sacred Heart
The Parkside Rangers enter as the 7th seed. Highly underrated and room to improve. The Becker coached team is led by Cayden Henschel, top ranked superstar wrestler at 141. At first glance in this bracket I thought who is Glenville State at 4? The top three teams are perennial powerhouses: St. Cloud State, Central Oklahoma and Nebraska-Kearney. After some research it is a new program who has been increasing its success yearly out of West Virginia. Someone must have had a few too many Gable brews when ranking them above our Rangers though.
St. Cloud State of Minnesota is top seeded here. They have an “easy” path to the finals and will face McKendree in the semis. On the other side of the bracket I have the Parkside Rangers taking out Central Oklahoma, then Nebraska-Kearney the hard way. Do not overlook the Mules of Central Mizzou we face round one. Coach Garcia will have the team well trained and ready to go. He is an alumni of those University of Nebraska-Omaha teams that dominated my collegiate era. If you aren’t familiar with the story of Coach Denney and UNOs program closing after winning a national championship, look it up. If you can’t find a piece, let me know, I’ll talk to coach and make one.
Championship picks:
Gold- Parkside over St. Cloud State
Bronze- Nebraska-Kearney over McKendree
At the Division three level our Lacrosse Eagles are the two seed. They will face the winner of Cornell College and Wabash. When they advance to the semi finals, the highest ranked team on the other side of the bracket is Augsburg. Wartburg is the one seed on the other end and Johnson and Wales round out the group at 4. Lacrosse won its first NWCA National Dual title in program history in 2022. They have a better team now, but will have to contend with both “Burgs” this year. The dynasty rivals of division three.
Whitewater will participate in a pig tail facing Dubuque for the opportunity to feed into Baldwin Wallace. This is a great spot for the Hawks. If they can navigate through Dubuque’s upper body attacks, Baldwin Wallace is a beatable program. Like the Hawks, they have some high end talent and lack some depth. Looking ahead after that match they will likely face Johnson and Wales who beat them by three earlier this season. The Hawks are better now than when they faced Johnson and Wales. They lack the depth to go deep into this tournament barring any injuries. Depth is where Lacrosse shines and will win them the event again.
With the biggest brackets in any division, there is also the most parity here. Wartburg and Augsburg are the teams to beat here. Until Lacrosse wins a title with them in the field, they remain a tier below. I have no issue and Lacrosse’s championship is valid. You can only wrestle who shows up. I also read the message boards regularly and that championship did not impress the Burgs much. We were still and are still coming out of the Covid era. We will make them remember the name this year! Thank you to the United States Marine Corp for helping sponsor this event.
Championship Picks: Lacrosse over Wartburg
Bronze- Augsburg over Whitewater
Thank you for reading this far. Good luck this weekend Jalin, go get that 100 win and then some (he is at 99 collegiate wins/149 UWW). I will leave you with some words from C.S. Lewis “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.”
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