Returning All-Americans Burke Barnes and Terrence Almond won their respective weight classes. Barnes claimed the championship at 133 pounds by defeating Jeff Cooley of South Dakota State University 4-0. En route to his championship, Barnes defeated Josh Henslee of Iowa Central 8-5 and Beau Penk of NCAA D-II Augustana College 3-0. In the semi-finals Barnes scored a major decision over South Dakota State's Nick Kulseth 13-4.
Three-time All-American Terrence Almond recorded his first open championship just like Barnes. Almond won the title at 141 by recording victories over David Schiley of NCAA D-II Northern State University 13-8, Steve Carlson of Minnesota State-Moorhead by fall, NJCAA All-American Joe Soto of Iowa Central 13-8 and Iowa Central's David Greenwald in the finals 15-12.
Junior Jason Bilinski came off his red-shirt year with a bang by winning the title at 157 with a defeat over Northern State's Jesse Wood 3-1 in overtime. Bilinski's foes en route to the finals were Tallen Wald of Minnesota State-Moorhead by a score of 8-3, Brady Nagel of the University of Mary 4-3 and Nate Carr Jr. of Iowa Central Community College by a major decision 11-2.
Two other Vikings placed in the top five. All-American Craig Trampe finished in 5th place at 125 pounds and red-shirt freshman Ryan "Bula" Tuzon finished in the 4th place spot at 165 pounds.
Also competing on Saturday was Student Coach Jimmy Rollins. Rollins, the 2006 NAIA National Champion at 133 pounds for the Vikings was not competing at SDSU, but rather the Real Pro Wrestling Regional Qualifier in Mt. Vernon, IA at Cornell College. Rollins claimed 3rd place at 60 kg (132 lbs). Rollins defeated former two-time NCAA Division II All-American of Nebraska-Kearney Adam Keiswetter. Ed Gutnik of Wisconsin won the regional with Rollins finishing 3rd.
Dana College will return to wrestling action this Saturday at the Harold Nichols Open in Ft. Dodge, IA on the campus of Iowa Central Community College with action starting at 9 am.
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