2008 NCAA Div. III Championships
Notebook - Day 1

BY MATT PFIFFNER

The Iowa Conference will finish with a record 25 All-Americans out of 32 qualifiers. Wartburg leads the way with nine All-Americans, Coe will have a school-record five, Cornell and Luther have four apiece, Buena Vista has two and Dubuque will have one.

125 - Top seed Chris Heilman of Cornell started out of the gates slowly against Jacob Calhoun of UW Stevens Point in the first round, but turned it on midway through the match on his way to a 16-0 technical fall. He recorded a 10-2 major decision in the quarters to reach the semis. He is looking to become the Rams' first NCAA champ since Shawn Voight in 1990.

The second seed, freshman Clayton Rush of Coe, stormed through his first opponent, 15-7, but had to scramble in a 3-2 quarterfinal victory over Munkhbaatar Baatar of St.Johns (Minn.). Rush and Heilman are looking to repeat their Iowa Conference Tournament finals bout Saturday night for the National title.

Robert Struthers of Wartburg is still alive on the consolation bracket to give the Iowa Conference three All-Americans at this weight.

133 - All four of the Iowa Conference qualifiers will leave with All-American honors.

Jacob Helvey of Wartburg will battle top seed Adam Johnson of North Central in the semifinals, while No. 6 seed Nick Nothern of Cornell takes on No. 2 seed and defending NCAA Div. III champ David Morgan of Kings College.

On the back side, Jestin Hulegaard has become the first four-time All-American in Buena Vista University history. After losing in the first round, Hulegaard rebounded with a pair of consolation round wins to clinch a medal. Zac Bartlett of Luther recorded a fall Friday night in the second round of consolation action to earn All-American honors.

141 - Unseeded Niles Mercer of Coe was one of the big stories of the first day. He defeated No. 2 seed Dan Hill of Delaware Valley in the first round ad scored a dramatic overtime win over No. 7 Austin Bautista of UW Whitewater in the quarters to reach the semifinals.

No. 3 Matt Kelly of Wartburg and No. 8 Travis Grawin of Luther are wrestling for placement on the back side of the draw.

149 - Top-ranked Jacob Naig of Wartburg ran his win streak to 33 matches with wins of 9-2 and 9-4 on Friday. After missing last year's tournament with injury after finishing second as a sophomore, Naig looks to return to the finals as he takes on No. 5 Jeff Kastel of Elmhurst Saturday morning.

No. 8 seed Aaron Cook of Buena Vista and unseeded Johanson Quist of Luther meet in a consolation quarterfinal bout Saturday morning. The winner can still place as high as third, while the loser drops into the seventh-place match.

157 - Aaron Wernimont of Wartburg has won 35 matches in a row after wins of 14-2 and 6-3 Friday in Cedar Rapids. Wernimont faces No. 4 Jesse Milks of UW Platreville Saturday morning in the semifinals.

Josh Terrell of Dubuque won by injury default over Erik Hanson of Loras in the second consolation round Friday night, to give the Spartans an All-American. Loras in the lone Iowa Conference school out of the seven who had qualifiers that won't be leaving with an All-American.

165 - Tyler Burkle of Coe remained undefeated on the season with two impressive wins on Friday. He pinned Patrick Stanley of Johns Hopkins in 5:46 and scored an 11-2 major decision over Patrick Nagel of UW Whitewater in the quarters. He takes on No. 6 Ben Youel of North Central in the semis.

On the consolation part of the draw, Justin Hanson of Wartburg recovered from a quarterfinal loss with a 7-2 win over Matt Schrupp of St. Johns to clinch All-American honors.

174 - No. 7 seed Tyler Jentz reached the semifinals with a thrilling overtime win over David Priest of Ithaca. That win gave the Kohawks a perfect quarterfinal round, with four winners.

Kyle Kehrli of Cornell earned All-American honors with a pair of consolation round wins, after dropping his first match of the tournament.

184 - Romeo Djoumessi of Wartburg will be the lone Iowa Conference All-American at this weight. He survived a big scare in the first round for a 10-9 victory, but came back to dominate and pin his quarterfinal foe. The top-ranked Djoumessi is 27-0 on the season.

197 - Tyler Miller of Wartburg kept his repeat title hopes alive...but barely. Miller squeaked past Diego Crespo of Johnson & Wales in the quarterfinals, 1-0.

On the back side of the bracket, No. 2 Alec Bonander of Luther came back from an upset loss in the quarterfinals with a pin to earn All-American honors. Rob Kramer of Coe clinched All-American honors with a 3-2 win over Crespo in the consolation second round.

285 - Third-seeded Brian Borchers of Wartburg advanced to the semifinals when he earned a last-second escape against No. 6 Mark Corsello of Elmhurst. That tied the match, but Borchers had more than a minute of riding time for a 5-4 victory.

Luther's John Miller and Cornell's Josiah Payne both lost in the second round of consolation action to fall one win shy of placing.