Scott Whirley and Henry GertenA 1982 graduate of Augsburg, Whirley was a three-time NCAA All-American wrestler who then served his alma mater for 22 seasons (1982-84, 1986-2005, 2006-07) as an assistant coach under head coach Jeff Swenson. During that time, the Auggies won 10 NCAA Division III wrestling national titles in a 17-year span. Augsburg had 145 All-Americans and 39 individual national champions (one NAIA, 38 NCAA-III) in Whirley's coaching career.
With Whirley as an assistant coach, Augsburg won Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament titles 18 times and MIAC Team Duals titles 14 times, along with winning the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional title four times.
As an Augsburg wrestler, Whirley, claimed the NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) national championship at 126 pounds in 1979 and earned NAIA All-American honors three times, finishing first, second and fourth nationally. (During Whirley's college career, Augsburg competed in the NAIA; the school switched to NCAA Division III in 1983.) He won MIAC titles in 1978 (126), 1981 (134) and 1982 (134) and earned the MIAC tourney MVP award in his senior year.
In 2002, Whirley was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame.
A 1998 Augsburg grad, Henry Gerten won two individual national titles for the Auggies, winning titles at 118 pounds in both 1997 and 1998. Gerten was a three-time All-American for Augsburg, adding a fourth-place finish in 1996 to his two national crowns. In addition, Gerten was a three-time Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion, winning titles at 118 pounds in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Gerten finished his three-year Augsburg career (transferring from the University of Wisconsin after his freshman year) with a record of 104-7 -- at the time, the best all-time wrestling winning percentage (.937) in school history. In 1996-97, Gerten went 44-0 -- the first Augsburg wrestler ever to go through a season unbeaten -- and had a then-school-record 64-match winning streak during his career. Gerten was a three-time Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion, winning titles at 118 pounds in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
Since graduating from Augsburg, Gerten had served as an assistant coach at Augsburg, as a coach for the Minnesota Storm, as head coach at Dakota County Technical College, and as an assistant coach at Rosemount (Minn.) High School. He is currently the co-head coach, along with fellow Augsburg alum Chad Olson, of the Farmington (Minn.) High School wrestling team. He is a social studies teacher at Rosemount Middle School.
Whirley and Gerten are the ninth and 10th Auggies to be inducted into the NWCA Division III Hall of Fame.
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