IIAC Preview
Please Note: These are predictions of what will happen at a specific tournament on a specific date. They are not seedings or rankings. d3wrestle.com has seen all the results and made predictions based off those results. We may predict someone to win, even if he recently lost to a conference opponent, but that does not mean we did not see the results.
All week long, d3wrestle.com will be publishing previews of each of the NCAA qualifying tournaments to be held this weekend. In addition to predicting winners and identifying the top athletes at each weight, we will attempt to predict all 160 qualifiers based on the number of wildcards available for each qualifying tournament.
Iowa Conference – 33 Qualifiers – Tuesday, February 16th at Buena Vista
Predicted Team Champion – Wartburg
Top Individual – Tyler Burkle, Coe, 184
Returning NCAA Qualifiers: Clayton Rush (Coe 125), Mark Kist (Wartburg 125), Jayson Swanson (Luther 125), Nick Nothern (Cornell 133), Matt Kelly (Wartburg 141), Kevin Donahue (Cornell 141), Jason Pyle (Luther 149), Josh Terrell (Dubuque 165), Evan Brown (Dubuque 174), Seth Rehn (Coe 174), Tyler Burkle (Coe 184), Nic Barclay (Luther 184), Rob Kramer (Coe 197), John Helgerson (Warburg 285), Mitch Sander (Coe 285), Allyn Plattner (Luther 285)
The IIAC features defending NCAA champ Wartburg as well as five total ranked teams. #2 Wartburg and #3 Coe will battle for the title as Wartburg will look to fend off the Kohawks and win their 18th straight IIAC title. Led by #1 ranked Carrington Banks, the Knights have nine wrestlers in the latest NWCA top ten. Coe has five ranked with Clayton Rush and Tyler Burkle both #1. With 16 total returning qualifiers, 12 All-Americans, and 2 champs (Brown at 174 from last year and Burkle at 165 in 2008), the IIAC should again be the strongest conference, especially considering the number of ranked wrestlers who are not on the list above. Overall, IIAC teams account for 21 of the 100 ranked wrestlers by the NWCA.
Predicted Qualifiers in bold
125: Clayton Rush, Coe
Top Challengers: Mark Kist, Wartburg; Austin Mogg, Buena Vista; Jayson Swanson, Luther; Timothy Hood, Cornell
133: Nick Nothern, Cornell
Top Challengers: Sean White, Wartburg; Drew Hinschberger, Coe
141: Kevin Donahue, Cornell
Top Challengers: Matt Kelly, Wartburg; Kevin Bokoski, Luther; Chris LeClere, Coe
149: Jason Pyle, Luther
Top Challengers: Jacob Groth, Wartburg; Mark Carey, Coe; Jacob Schwebke, Cornell
157: Nicholas Loughlin, Cornell
Top Challengers: Adam Weber, Wartburg; Lance Serbousek, Luther; Dale Handley, Coe
165: Carrington Banks, Wartburg
Top Challengers: Nick LeClere, Coe; Josh Terrell, Dubuque; Thomas Van Renterghem, Central
174: Evan Brown, Dubuque
Top Challengers: Dylan Azinger, Wartburg; Seth Rehn, Coe; Joseph Hambleton, Cornell
184: Tyler Burkle, Coe
Top Challengers: Todd Becker, Wartburg; Andrew Roberts, Cornell; Keith Rush, Central; Nic Barclay, Luther
197: Byron Tate, Wartburg
Top Challengers: Rob Kramer, Coe; Brian Broll, Buena Vista; Robert Widmer, Cornell
285: John Helgerson, Wartburg
Top Challengers: Mitch Sander, Coe; Allyn Plattner, Luther; Christopher Schiewe, Dubuque