NCAA Div. II Championships
Travis Eggers of Upper Iowa University became the second NCAA Div. II National Champion in school history with an 8-3 victory in the title bout at 165 Saturday night in Omaha, Neb.

Eggers' victory caped off an outstanding weekend for the Peacocks, including a 9-1 record on Saturday. UIU finished tied for third with Nebraska-Kearney in the team standings behind champion Nebraska-Omaha and runner-up Augustana.

Finishing second at their weight classes with ties to Iowa were Tyler Mumbulo of Upper Iowa at 125, Esai Dominguez of UNO at 149, George Ivanov of UNO at 157 and 197-pounder Ty Copsey of Augustana.

Check out our coverage page for Full Access articles and notebooks from the action from the weekend in Omaha.

Click here to go to our NCAA Div. II Championships coverage page

Big three weeks coming at The Barn
Veterans Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines will be jam-packed with youth wrestling the last two weeks in March and the first weekend in April.

It begins March 20 with the 4th Annual Brute Adidas Corn Cob Nationals. Online registration closes this Sunday at midnight, so get signed up today by clicking here.
A week later, the 2010 AAU State Tournament will take over The Barn for two days. And the following weekend in April, the AAU World's National Folkstyle Championships will be in Des Moines.

Check out our youth tourneys calendar for more on these and several other upcoming youth tournaments.

NCAA Div. I brackets released
The NCAA Div. I National Championship brackets were released Wednesday.

Click here to view the NCAA Div. I brackets

Two years, two NAIA Champions
Grand View University in Des Moines has only had wrestling for two seasons, but on Saturday the team crowned its second NAIA individual champion. Glenn Rhees added the 174-pound title to the NJCAA gold he claimed while wrestling for NIACC.

Grand View finished tied for ninth in the team race and had three All-Americans. Northwestern had a pair of All-Americans, while Morningside, William Penn and Briar Cliff each had one wrestler finish on the award stand.

Click here for results

NCAA Div. III National Championships
The NCAA Div. III Nationals came to a close Saturday night in Cedar Rapids and a pair of Iowa Conference wrestlers earned hardware and two league wrestlers claimed individual gold.

At 197, Byron Tate of Wartburg (pictured) capped off his sophomore season with the National title. Joining him on the top of the podium was Coe 125-pound junior Clayton Rush. Evan Brown of Dubuque and John Helgerson of Wartburg each finished second.

Wartburg finished third in the team race, while Coe was fourth. Augsburg won the title, followed by UW-LaCrosse.

Check our coverage page for Full Access articles from the first three sessions and free notebooks from the finals, semifinals and quarterfinals. Also, photos from the first day are being uploaded onto DotPhoto.

Click here to go to The Predicament's NCAA Div. III Nationals Coverage

The Big 10, Big 12 and West Regional Tournaments are also this weekend. Follow them at the links below.

Big 10  I  Big 12  I  West Regional

Upper Iowa sends six to Div. II Nationals
Upper Iowa University had six wrestlers finish in the top four Sunday in South Dakota at the Super Region #3 to advance to the NCAA Div. II National Championships held March 12-13 in Omaha, Neb.

Click here for the championship brackets

Click here for UIU press release and a link to brackets and team scores

Also headed to Omaha will be five former Iowa high school standouts who wrestle for Augustana College. Click here for that press release.

2010 NJCAA National Championships
The drive for five is complete
Iowa Central made history Saturday night in Des Moines, as the Tritons claimed their record fifth consecutive NJCAA National title.

Click here to visit The Predicament's NJCAA Nationals coverage page

For the first time in the five-year run, Iowa Central did not have the title wrapped up before the finals. A pair of Tritons won gold, including 125-pound freshman Joe Colon (pictured) of Clear Lake. Colon won 14-2 in the title bout and defeated every Junior College wrestler he faced this season by major or worse. Also winning gold for Iowa Central was Bradley Banks at 165.

Victor DeJesus won the first National title for Iowa Lakes, with a thrilling overtime win at 149.

There were also titles won Saturday night in Cedar Rapids, as the State Dual crowns were claimed by Don Bosco in 1A, Denver-Tripoli in 2A and Waverly-Shell Rock in 3A. Click here for complete results.

Grade School and Junior High
State Championships are decided
The high school wrestlers weren't the only ones battling for State titles last weekend in Des Moines. Sunday, the action shifted from Wells Fargo Arena across the street to Veterans Memorial Auditorium for the 2010 Grade School and Junior High State Championships.

Pictured: In Grade School Div. 3 action at 60 pounds, Eric Faught defeated Klayton Keller in quarterfinal action.

 click here to view the complete results

2010 State Tournament
Click here to go to The Predicament's State Tournament Coverage page

Added on Tuesday to DotPhoto - Pictures from every championship match in all 3 Classes. We have now uploaded all of our photos from the State Tournament. There are 29 photo albums with more nearly 4,000 photos to view and purchase.

Moore than enough

Nick Moore of Iowa City West embraces head coach Mark Reiland after winning his fourth State championship Saturday night in Des Moines. Moore becomes the 19th four-time State champ in Iowa high school wrestling history.

There was plenty of great action in the finals matches. Check out our coverage page now for a breakdown of the matches and comments from many of the winners.

NCAA Div. III National bids decided
Wartburg College won an 18th consecutive Iowa Conference Tournament title Tuesday night in Storm Lake at Buena Vista University.

Thirty-three wrestlers from the nine-team Iowa Conference also earned berths for the NCAA Div. III Nationals, held next month in Cedar Rapids. Wartburg and Coe will each send all 10 of their wrestlers, Luther qualified five, Cornell and Dubuque grabbed three berths each and host Buena Vista sent two.

Click here for the official website of the championships

NJCAA postseason action begins
The State Tournament isn't the only big wrestling event in Des Moines this month. The NJCAA Nationals will be held at Vets Auditorium next weekend.
Click here to view how the four Iowa Junior College teams did at the North Central District Tournament this past weekend.

Final 3A Dual Team Rankings
Click here to view the final Class 3A IWCOA Dual Team Rankings of the 2009-10 season. These rankings will be used to seed the State Duals.

As the 3A Districts are set for Saturday, a pair of wrestlers are looking to achieve a rare feat over the next two weeks. Cory Clark of Southeast Polk and John Meeks of Des Moines Roosevelt (pictured) went undefeated as freshman and both are currently perfect in their sophomore seasons. See what both wrestlers and their coaches have to say about the chase for perfection in The Predicament's Full Access article.

1A and 2A Regional Duals
Regional Dual action took place all across the state Wednesday night one day after many of them were postponed.

In Truro, Eddyville-Blakesburg qualified for the Class 1A State Duals for the first time in school history with a tense 39-34 victory over host Interstate 35. The Roadrunners fell short of their quest of a ninth State Duals appearance.

The Rockets rode the backs of their big guns to the win, including Nathan VanZante (pictured) at 135, who recorded one of the team's five falls in the championship dual.

Click here to read The Predicament's Full Access article from the action in Truro. Also, photos from the Rockets' semifinal win over Corning and title match victory over I-35 will be uploaded to DotPhoto in the coming days.

Click here to check out all the Regional results on the IHSAA website when they are posted.

Action from Grand View Open
The Predicament's photos from Saturday's Grand View Open in Des Moines have been uploaded to our DotPhoto page.

There was plenty of great college action in the tournament, including at 157, where fans got a possible preview of great battles to come in upcoming years between Derek St. John (red) of Iowa and Iowa State's Trent Weatherman. St. John won this round and was one of six champions for the Hawkeyes.

Click here to view the complete brackets from the tournament (PDF file)

Check back later in the week for more photos from the past weekend, including plenty of high school action.

Contact Information:
Matt Pfiffner (Publisher/Advertising/Web Page)
pfiffner@thepredicament.com
Phone: 641-414-1962
Fax: 641-342-1558
Wyatt Schultz (Photographer)
gwyatt@thepredicament.com