Knights finish runner-up at National Duals

It came down to the wire in Cedar Falls, but the Wartburg wrestlers fell in the championship match of the 2009 NWCA Cliff Keen National Duals late Sunday afternoon to Augsburg College 21-20.

“We had a chance to win a national championship but just fell short,” head coach Jim Miller said. “We made some mistakes and we had some options and some opportunities, we just didn’t take advantage of them.”

The top-seeded Knights and second-ranked Auggies split the ten matches, winning five apiece. Zach McKray started the winning for the Knights at 133 lbs. McKray pinned Tony Valek in 6:24.

“Zach McKray wrestled really well, he stepped up and did really well,” Miller said.

A pair of wins came from Aaron Wernimont (157 lbs.) and Justin Hanson (165 lbs.) as Wernimont topped Jason Adams 13-6 and Hanson won with a 17-9 major decision.

Romeo Djoumessi (184 lbs.) was back for the Knights and managed to beat Brad Baus 16-6.

“Romeo was a big spark for us, he definitely was, it was real great to have him back in the line-up,” Miller said.

The last match of the day pitted John Helgerson (285 lbs.) for the Knights and Andy Witzel for the Auggies. Helgerson managed to come out with a 3-1 win, but it wasn’t enough.

The Knights couldn’t get past the three pins and two other defeats the Auggies managed to produce during the match.

On Jan. 30, the Knights will head to Minneapolis to dual the Auggies again.

“We are waiting for that [meet] to see if we make some progress and that would be a big opportunity for us to see if we could make some progress in a short period of time,” Miller said.

The meet started Saturday morning when the Knights faced the No. 16-ranked Wabash College Little Giants.

After three pins and two technical falls the Knights managed to shutout the Little Giants 47-0.

The Knights received pins from Jack Mirocha (133 lbs.), Jacob Naig (149 lbs.) and Jacob Groth (157 lbs). Matt Kittleson (125 lbs.) and Justin Hanson (165 lbs.) scored technical falls for the Knights.

The win over the Little Giants moved the Knights one step closer to the championship match. In the quarterfinals on Saturday, the Knights took care of the Luther Norse, 39-3.

“It is a rivalry and we always want to wrestle well against Luther, but it was just one dual out of the four,” Miller said.

Mark Kist (125 lbs.) started things off for the Knights with a technical fall against Zach Elliott, 16-0. Matt Kelly (133 lbs.) followed with a win after pinning Steve Andrukaitis in 2:58.

Wernimont also brought home a technical fall, winning 17-1. Romeo Djoumessi (184 lbs.) wrestled his first match back from injury and pinned Alex Paige in 1:17.

Other Wartburg wins came from McKray, Naig, Hanson, Grant Jenkens (174 lbs.) and Helgerson.

The win over Luther helped the Knights get into the semi-final match against another IIAC foe, Coe.

After losing their first two matches, the Knights won their next six to top the Kohawks 33-9.

McKray and Wernimont scored technical falls against their opponents. McKray beat Johnny Siegal 22-6, and Wernimont topped Tyler Baker 20-5.

Naig, Grant Jenkins (174 lbs.) and Djoumessi all pinned their Kohawk foes. Naig pinned Mark Carey in 4:19, while Jenkins pinned Seth Rehn in 6:59. Djoumessi pinned Greg Lalla in 56 seconds.

Overall, Miller was impressed with the Knights.

“We found out that we were pretty close. We found out we have a lot of potential on our team to do real well. We found out some kids that lost could even compete at the national level,” Miller said. “I think it’s realistic to look for a national championship in March. I don’t think it’s far-fetched.”

The Knights will resume their conference schedule with duals against Buena Vista on Friday and Luther on Saturday.  The first matches are scheduled for 7 p.m. both days.

“I’m glad we did it,” Miller said. “It can really help us dig down and set some goals in the short and long term, but hopefully it will inspire us to dig down and do better.”