MINNEAPOLIS -- Qualifying eight individuals to national tournament competition, including four regional champions, Augsburg claimed an NCAA regional title for the 12th consecutive year, winning the NCAA Division III West Regional tournament, held on Saturday at Augsburg's Si Melby Hall.
Augsburg, ranked No. 6 in the latest NWCA ational poll, won the regional title with 148.0 points, topping No. 5 Concordia-Moorhead's 136.5 points. No. 21-ranked Saint John's (Minn.) was third with 92.0 points, and Wisconsin-Oshkosh was fourth with 72.5 points. The Auggies have won each NCAA regional it has participated in since going to regional qualifiers in 2003.
Augsburg qualified eight individuals to compete at the NCAA Division III National Championships, to be held March 14-15 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The eight qualifiers were the most of any school in the regional. Concordia-Moorhead qualified seven individuals to nationals, while Concordia-Wisconsin and St. Olaf had three qualifiers each. Saint John's, Wisconsin-Oshkosh and Wisconsin-Eau Claire had two qualifiers each, and Wisconsin-Platteville, Pacific (Ore.) and Milwaukee Engineering each had a qualifier.
Two-time defending heavyweight national champion Chad Johnson will get a chance to pursue his third crown in a row, as he earned his third consecutive regional title with four victories, including pins in his first two matches. The top-ranked heavyweight nationally, Johnson topped No. 3 Cody Kasprick of Concordia-Moorhead 5-3 in the title match on Saturday, improving to 31-1 on the season.
A three-time All-American, Johnson earned his fourth consecutive trip to the national tournament, improving to 136-14 on his career. Johnson has not lost to a Division III wrestler since his first season at Augsburg, and is now 104-3 since the beginning of his sophomore campaign.
