Big events this weekend

This weekend features two big dual meet events with the NWCA National Duals at UNI and the Budd Whitehill Duals at Lycoming.

The NWCA National Duals features the top four teams from the latest NWCA rankings as well as six of the top ten.  Wartburg and Augsburg are the top two seeds yet again, with #3 Delaware Valley and #4 Coe looking to spoil another Wartburg-Augsburg finals matchup.  The top three teams all received boosts to their lineup as the calendar flipped over to 2009.  Augsburg and Wartburg each gained a 149 lb. wrestler.  Wartburg got back defending NCAA Champ Jacob Naig, and Augsburg saw a return to the lineup from NCAA 3rd place winner Willy Holst.  Delaware Valley got two wrestlers back in 285 lb. Kyle Bilquist, fresh off a win over defending champ Laurent of UW-Lax, along with 174 lb. Rocky Mantella.  The immensely talented Mantella has yet to live up to his potential, but Coach Totten hopes 2009 is the year he does so.  Eight #1 ranked wrestlers should be competing this weekend in Cedar Falls along with eight #2’s.  Wrestling kicks off at 9am Saturday and concludes Sunday afternoon.

National Duals Website

The Budd Whitehill Duals enters its 15th year of competition in 2009 and again features a tough lineup of teams.  Tops on the list is #5 UW-Whitewater.  Ithaca, Wilkes, Cortland, and TCNJ are other teams in the top 20 and should round out the top five seeds.  Ranked in the 20-30 range are host Lycoming, Messiah, and York.  Individuals of note include Mike McInally of RIT (#4 at 125), Adam Kriwinsky of John Carroll (#7 at 133), Austin Bautista of UWW (#1 at 141), Paul LeBlanc of Cortland (#3 at 149), Willie Horwath of Ithaca (#8 at 157), Chris Dahlheimer of Lycoming (#5 at 165),  Karl Voeck of UWW (#3 at 197), and Jon Schmidt of UWW (#4 at 285).  165 will see the most firepower, as #5 Dahlheimer, #6 Nagel of Whitewater, #9 Zempel of Messiah, and #10 Bonitatis of TCNJ should all be competing.  Competition begins Friday and concludes Saturday.