MAC SLAVIN SPORTS EDITOR
The Wartburg wrestling team finished Saturday undefeated at the Iowa Conference Dual Tournament, as they downed Coe 25-10; Simpson 42-3; and the University of Dubuque 38-6.
“We wrestled well, we had good intensity and I was happy with how we did,” head coach Jim Miller said.
The No. 2-ranked Knights started the weekend off defeating No. 4-ranked Coe. Romeo Djoumessi (184 lbs.) started the match off with a major decision over Greg Lalla. Zach McKray (141 lbs.) and Aaron Wernimont (157 lbs.) also topped their Kohawk opponents by major decisions.
Dillon Wrage (197 lbs.), John Helgerson (285 lbs.), Jacob Naig (149 lbs.) and Justin Hanson (165 lbs.) won their respective matches by decisions to help the Knights to the 25-10 victory over the Kohawks.
“[The win over Coe is] definitely very important, it set the tempo for the conference tournament,” Miller said.
'In the second match of the day the Knights only lost one match as they downed the Simpson Storm 42-3.
Helgerson and Gilberto Camancho (125 lbs.) came away with pins for the Knights. Helgerson pinned John Bunch in 4:59, while Camancho pinned Casey Miller in 26 seconds.
Matt Kelly (133 lbs.), Naig and Wernimont each won by technical falling their Simpson opponents. Kelley topped Mike Jablonski 18-0, while Naig beat Calvin Barber 20-4. Wernimont came out victorious against Curtis Barber 18-2.
Ben Scott (184 lbs.), Nick Shandri (197 lbs.), Kalen Lenz (141 lbs.) and Dustin Jaeger (174 lbs.) all beat their Simpson opponents with a decision.
The final match of the day pitted the Knights against No. 25-ranked University of Dubuque, and the Knights came out on top 38-6.
The only Dubuque win came after the Knights forfeited their last match at 174 lbs.
McKray and Wernimont beat their respective opponents by technical falls. McKray topped Path Bauer 22-7, while Wernimont beat his Spartan opponent 17-0.
Djoumessi, Mark Kist (125 lbs.), Jacob Groth (149 lbs.) and Brennan Drew (157 lbs.) won by major decisions.
The Knights will resume their dual schedule this week when they travel to Augsburg for a dual between the No. 1 and No. 2-ranked teams in the nation on Friday in Minneapolis. The match is set to begin at 7:30 p.m. After their trip to Augsburg the Knights will host No. 3-ranked Delaware Valley
on Saturday. The match will start at 7:30 p.m. in Levick Arena.
“This will probably be one of the most challenging weekends of the year. It’s like two major rounds of a national tournament and I’m really looking forward to it, and I think our team is. We respect both of these teams, we know they are good but this is going to be a test to see what our team is made of,“ Miller said.