Iowa Conference Championships Preview

From Will Wolper/IIAC

CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA . . . The 2005 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) wrestling Championship is Thursday, February 17, at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa. Matches begin at 10:30 a.m. in the Graber Sports Center with the finals set for 6:30 p.m. in the Loras Field House.

Iowa Public Television (IPTV) will televise the Championship finals on tape-delay across the state of at 9:00 p.m. on Thursday. Tim Johnson will provide the play-by-play and former national champion wrestlers Jim and Joe Gibbons will provide analysis. For local IPTV stations, visit IPTV’s web site at www.iptv.org.

Wartburg enters the 2005 Conference Championship winners of the last 12 IIAC titles and back-to-back national titles. Last year, the Knights sent nine wrestlers to the Conference finals, coming away with eight titles en route to a 54-point victory over Luther (206.5-152.5). Luther and third-place Simpson (144 points) won 165-pounds and 125-pounds, respectively.

Luther and Simpson return eight wrestlers from its 2004 Championship line-up. Wartburg and Loras each return seven wrestlers. All of Luther and Wartburg’s returnees placed in the Conference’s top-six last year while six of Loras and Simpson’s returnees placed in the top-six. Central, Coe and Dubuque each return five wrestlers from last season, all of Coe’s returnees placed in the top-six, and two of Central and Dubuque’s placed. Buena Vista returns two from last year’s Championship line-up and Cornell returns one.

Wartburg and Luther’s line-ups feature seven national qualifiers from 2004. Simpson has four returning national qualifiers in its line-up, Loras has three and Buena Vista has one. Wartburg has six returning All-Americans, Luther has five, Simpson has three and Loras has one.

Two of the last three IIAC Outstanding Wrestlers are in their team’s line-up. Simpson’s Dustin Brewer was named Outstanding Wrestler after winning the 125-pound weight class last year. He is wrestling at 141-pounds this year. Luther’s Garrett South was named Outstanding Wrestler in 2002 after winning the title at 165-pounds.

IIAC WRESTLING CONTINUES TO DOMINATE THE COACHES’ POLL: Five Iowa Conference teams and 18 wrestlers are ranked in the latest National Wrestling Coaches Association/Brute-Adidas poll released on February 9. In the team poll, Wartburg is ranked second, Luther is fourth, Coe is ranked 13th, Loras is 15th and Simpson is 17th.

Individually, three IIAC wrestlers are ranked among the top eight at 133-pounds and 149-pounds. Wartburg has nine wrestlers ranked, Luther has six wrestlers ranked, and Buena Vista, Coe and Simpson each have one ranked wrestler.

Thirty-three IIAC wrestlers will qualify for the NCAA Championship field of 160. The 2005 NCAA National Wrestling Championship will be hosted by St. Olaf College at the Skoglund and Tostrud Centers in Northfield, Minn. on March 4-5.

Championship brackets will be posted on the Conference web site (www.iowaconference.com) on Thursday morning and the web site will be updated with results throughout the day.