The National Wrestling Coaches Association is hosting the national duals at the UNI dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The NCAA Divisions 1, 2 and 3 will host championships as well as the NAIA. The NJCAA seems to have broken away and does their own national championship duals in Oklahoma. Uncle Chael Sonnen made an interesting X post about the NWCA recently, worth the watch and discussion. We will focus on 3 UW- Parkside, our D3 teams entered and other interesting Wisconsin related tidbits.
Let’s start in Division 2. Out of the top 10 teams, 7 are entered including all top three ranked programs. Central Oklahoma is the top seed. The Broncos have no Wisconsin ties so I don’t expect much out of them, upset alert. Second ranked and seeded is Nebraska-Kearney. The Lopers are a program I have been a fan of for a while. They have produced top tier wrestlers, MMA talent and FloWrestlings JD Rader. Kearney has two Wisconsin recruits Cael Erickson and Garrett Willuweit.
At last, we can discuss the future dual meet national champion Parkside Rangers! Coach Nick Becker has had this program going up and to the right since he accepted the job. Parkside features 28 native Cheeseheads and has 6 ranked wrestlers led by top ranked Jalen Spuhler at 149. The Rangers are 4-1 in dual meets this season and wrestle unranked West Liberty of West Virginia. Other ranked wrestlers for Parkside include: 2 Shane Corrigan 125, 4 Easton Worachek 157, 6 Brody Hemauer 165, 5 Dajun Johnson 174 and 11 Brady Schuh 184.
Other division 2 Wisconsin wrestlers to watch:
13 Augustana: 2 recruits led by second ranked Max Ramberg at 197.
13 St. Cloud State: 6 recruits led by Redshirt Freshman Brody Hart
19 U of Mary: 1 recruit Sam Bruss of Depere
Minnesota State Mankato: 12 Wisconsin recruits led by 13th ranked Caleb Meunier at 157 and Drake Hayward at 174.
21 Upper Iowa: 1 recruit Treyton Ackman Redshirt Junior from Spencer/Columbus
2 Nebraska Kearney: 2 recruits Redshirt sophomores Cael Erickson and Garrett Willuweit
Predictions:
Gold- UW Parkside
Silver- St. Cloud State
Bronze- Nebraska- Kearney
On the division three side we have all 10 of the top 10 teams entered and 16 of the top 20! Representing Wisconsin are 3rd ranked Lacrosse and 13th ranked Whitewater. The Eagles are 9-0 in dual meets this season including and 3-0 in the WIAC. The Warhawks are 3-6 in duals this season and 3-1 in the WIAC. Whitewater will face University of Dubuque in a preliminary 6 pigtail. The winner will face 6th ranked Roanoke.
3rd seeded Lacrosse will face the winner of preliminary five featuring Rochester Institute of Technology and 12 University of Chicago. If seeds hold and our Wisconsin teams win they will meet in the quarterfinals. Lacrosse and UWW have not met this year and it would be great to guarantee a Wisco team to the semis. Our kids should be used to wrestling in the UNI dome, they host many quality off season tournaments. Ranked wrestlers for the Warhawks include: 9 Justin Fortugno 141, 1 Dom Mallinder 149, 5 Brayden Peet 165, 15 Jermaine Butler 174 and 7 Gavin Kohel 184. Ranked wrestlers for the Eagles include: 2 Quintin Wolbert 125, 12 Talan Schutte 141, 3 Tanner Gerber 165, 5 Eddie Simes 174, 3 Tate Flege 184, 6 Tyler Dormanen 197 and 10 Markos Mihalopoulos 285.
I like the three seeds in this tournament. Our Rangers are winning the title from the 3 seed in division 2 and our Eagles are soaring from the third seed to a division 3 national championship. The top seeded team and consensus favorite is Wartburg. They don’t make much better programs than what is happening in Waverly. A coaching staff of 15 including former WIAC coach Kittleson and a support staff of 8 more! They are a well oiled machine who recruits in Wisconsin well. They have 11 Badger state male recruits led by nationally ranked: 10 Brett Birchman 125, 10 Aiden Crawley 133, 9 Aiden Brosinski 165, 10 Cal Dorota 197 and top ranked Mitch Williamson at the premier weight class. Lastly, big ups to the Knights for preparing Endene for the international and division one level, the jumps Massoma made in Waverly can’t be denied.
Coming in ranked second is another Wisconsin nemesis and member of the Burg syndicate Augsburg. The Auggies have poached 18 Wisconsin natives over the border to Minneapolis. Similar to their Burg brethren they recruit some of our best including nationally ranked: 13 Chance Suddeth 133, 5 Karsen Otis 157, 2 Cooper Willis 165 and 8 Ethan Winkleman 197. Side note 165 has 6 of the top 15 wrestlers with Wisconsin ties and 5 of them are entered in the duals, should be a great day to move in the rankings.
Other division 2 Wisconsin wrestlers to watch:
5 Loras: 12 recruits led by freshman Aidan Gruenenfelder and Trevor Paulson.
Dubuque: 3 recruits led by 12th ranked Kale Roth at 165.
Luther: 6 recruits led by Jaxon Smith and Ben Strehlow.
Millikin: 1 recruit Sabi Sino.
Concordia-Moorhead: 2 recruits led by Brown Deer’s Anthony Strong
Cornell College: 2 recruits Owen West and Ethan Hady.
Predictions:
Gold- UW Lacrosse
Silver- Wartburg
Bronze- Nebraska- Loras
Thank you for reading this far. Support your local wrestling program. I’ll leave you with some words from William Shakespere on this article’s theme of threes, “”Better three hours too soon than a minute too late.”
