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Wrestlers dominate to win record sixth NCAA national title By Don Stoner At the NCAA Division III national wrestling tournament, Augsburg head coach Jeff Swenson rarely smiles. Swenson, his coaching staff and his Auggie wrestlers are all business. But when the 2000 championships came to an end - after Augsburg had won its NCAA-record sixth national championship, crowned a record four individual national titlists and achieved one of the most dominating performances in the history of college wrestling - you could finally see a smile appear on Swenson's face. It was a small one at first, but it was soon a beaming grin for Swenson, as he watched Auggie after Auggie ascend the championship podium and finally, when the entire team took the stand with the gold national championship trophy. "To be honest, we felt a lot of pressure with where we were and what we were coming from," Swenson said after the meet. The coach was referring to last season, when the Auggies lost the national championship to rival Wartburg College by a slim margin. This year the Auggies dominated the entire season and thoroughly swept the Division III national championships, held at Ohio Northern University in Ada, Ohio. 
The domination of the regular season almost made the national tournament anticlimactic. But the Auggies gave their fans - several hundred made the trip to Ohio to watch the action March 3-4 - plenty to cheer about as the Auggies made history by becoming the first Division III team ever to win six team national championships. Augsburg won the national title with 136 points, the second-most points in the history of the national championships. The margin of victory over second-place Wartburg - 48 points (136 to 88) - was also the second-highest in NCAA history. Augsburg's four individual national titles tied a record for the most by a single school in a championship meet. Senior Josh Cagle won the individual national title at 149 pounds and became just the second Auggie ever to go through a season unbeaten, with a 40-0 final record to earn Outstanding Wrestler of the Meet honors by national tournament coaches. Sophomore Nick Slack followed up Cagle's unbeaten accomplishment with an unbeaten season of his own, going 31-0 to win the 174-pound national title. Senior Josh Clausen and junior Ben Bauer won the other two national titles for the Auggies. Augsburg ended the year with eight All-Americans, the second-most for an Auggie squad ever (tying 1997's eight All-Americans, second to 1998's nine). In addition to the dominance on the wrestling mat, the Auggies were also dominant in the classroom. Augsburg placed second overall in the National Wrestling Coaches Association's academic national standings with a 3.40 team grade-point average, second to Wabash (Ind.) with a 3.48. In the three years the NWCA has awarded team academic national titles, Augsburg has won the title once (1999) and finished second twice (1998, 2000). Over the past three years, Augsburg is the only school to have placed in the top 10 both academically and on the mat each year. "That's the foundation of our program, academics," Swenson said. "That's the cake, the base of everything we do in our program. The icing on the cake is our national title on the mat. If our guys weren't doing it well academically, getting the grades and getting good jobs after graduation, we wouldn't get the great crops of wrestlers we get. We do it right. These guys are the ideal of what a true student-athlete can be. They deserve all the credit." Augsburg also had 10 NWCA Scholar All-Americans, matching its NCAA all-divisions record total of two seasons ago. Swenson earned the respect of his fellow coaches, being named NWCA Division III National Coach of the Year for the fourth time (1991, 1995, 1998, 2000). Swenson's assistants, all Augsburg alumni - Scott Whirley '79, Don Wichmann '89, Dan Lewandowski '97, John Pena '98, Wade Johnson '98, Jamie Hilyar '97 and Jim Peterson '99 - deserve a lion's share of the credit, he said. Only six schools in all NCAA divisions have ever won a seventh national title. The Auggies will lose eight seniors, including four All-Americans, but will return seven wrestlers with national tournament experience (six All-Americans) next year. |
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