National champion Cross Cannone will look to keep Wartburg on top this season (Photo/Wartburg College Sports Information)The Wartburg College Knights are the kings of college wrestling at the NCAA Division III level.
Wartburg captured its 14th national championship in program history, and seventh in the past eight years, during the 2018 NCAA DIII tournament in Cleveland.
The Knights rolled to the team title, scoring 136.5 points with Augsburg (82) and Ithaca (79) rounding out the top three.
Will Wartburg's reign continue this season?
Wartburg lost five senior All-Americans, including one national champion and two other finalists, from last season's winning team.
The Knights do return plenty of firepower, led by returning national champions in senior Cross Cannone (149 pounds) and sophomore Brock Rathbun (133).
Cannone, a two-time All-American, was named the Iowa Conference's most valuable wrestler in 2018. He has a career record of 87-10.
Rathbun went 25-5 as a freshman and was named Iowa Conference freshman of the year.
The Knights also bring back All-American Mike Ross at 165 pounds. He was eighth in the country last year. He was 24-3 with 10 falls last season.
Traditional powerhouse Augsburg, winners of 12 national team titles, is expected to put another excellent team on the mat this winter.
The Auggies are loaded with proven performers and look primed to make a strong run at returning to its familiar perch atop Division III.
The last time a team other than Augsburg or Wartburg won the team title in Division III was when Ithaca College captured the 1994 championship.
Augsburg's Lucas Jeske was named Outstanding Wrestler at the national tournament (Photo/Wartburg College Sports Information)Augsburg returns a pair of national champions in juniors Lucas Jeske and Ryan Epps.
Jeske was named Outstanding Wrestler at the 2018 national tournament. He powered to a 15-0 technical fall over Ithaca's Nick Velez in the 165-pound finals. Third in the nation in 2017, Jeske was 39-1 last season and he is 65-9 in his career.
Epps captured his national title in dramatic fashion, scoring a takedown in overtime to edge Wartburg's Logan Thomsen 3-1 in the 157-pound finals. Epps finished the season with a 26-match winning streak. He was 41-1 as a sophomore. He is 76-8 in his career.
"We are looking to improve on our finish from last season's national tournament," Augsburg coach Jim Moulsoff said. "We have a strong returning group from the last two seasons. We will return seven All-Americans from 2017 and 2018 with three of them being finalists and two national champions. We have a lot of competition in the room that will help. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but we have a very motivated group that is looking to improve in the classroom and on the mat. It should be an exciting year."
Jay Albis became Johnson & Wales' first national champion in any sport (Photo/Johnson & Wales Sports Information)Jay Albis made history for the Johnson & Wales wrestling program last season. He became the school's first national champion in any sport.
Albis pulled out a wild 11-10 win over Wheaton's Carolos Fuentez in the 2018 national finals at 125 pounds. Albis scored a takedown in the final seconds to prevail.
Now a senior, Albis has a chance to do it again. He won the award for having the most technical falls of any wrestler in the country last season.
Ithaca's Ben Brisman also is back after winning the 141-pound national title as a sophomore. He beat top-seeded Brett Kaliner of Stevens Institute of Technology 10-7 in the championship match.
He won his school's first national title since 2013.
Mount Union's Jairod James is another wrestler who will look to repeat as a national champion this season.
James downed Jon Goetz of Wisconsin-Platteville 4-1 in the 174-pound national finals last season.
James went 22-1 as a junior last season.
Waynesburg's Jake Evans also returns to defend his national title at heavyweight.
Evans provided one of the more compelling stories in collegiate wrestling last season by winning an NCAA Division III crown at age 28.
Evans enrolled at Waynesburg as a 26-year-old and became the school's first national champion in 2018. He was 49-3 last season.
The NCAA Division III level and the entire sport of wrestling suffered a significant loss following the 2017-18 season when long-time coach Mike Duroe of Cornell College passed away after battling brain cancer.
Craig Sesker has written about wrestling for more than three decades. He's covered three Olympic Games and is a two-time national wrestling writer of the year.
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