"We're very excited," the 18th year head coach of the Knights said Saturday, March 6, after his 2008-09 team successfully defended what the 2007-08 crew had done just one year before. "(This team) overcame a little bit of adversity during the year, and it came down to the fact that everyone bought in into what we trying to tell them."
"Along individual lines, it's very gratifying to see a young man like Justin Hanson win his national championship," he added. "I'm so proud of (Justin) and Aaron Wernimont. It's great to see their hard work pay off like that."
Wernimont, concluding his unbeaten string at 80 matches and seeing his senior season wrap up at 44-0, received a strong match from Olivet's Jason Brew. A third period escape proved to be the difference in a 2-1 win.
"It's a great feeling," he said of becoming a two-time national champion. "It's also great to share this weekend with this team."
Hanson, winning his first national title, produced a 7-3 win over North Central College of Illinois' Gabe Youel. "This is awesome," Wartburg's first 165-pound champion said. "It was a total team effort, though. The guys who came back earlier today and got third place showed a lot of dignity and laid it on the line for the team."
Senior 141-pounder Zach McKray of Iowa City nearly made it a three-for-three championship round. However, St. John's University of Minnesota's Myanganbayar Batsukh held off the bid with a 5-2 decision.
The Orange and Black increased their string of consecutive national championships with two-or-more individual titlists to seven. Wartburg closed its second straight national championship and seventh since 1996 with 117.5 points, 12.5 more than runner-up Augsburg College of Minnesota. Miller and assistant coach Eric Keller gained National Wrestling Coaches Association Coach and Assistant Coach of the Year award winners.
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