Wrestling national championships: Top 10 tested again and again

Luther wrestling sent five wrestlers to compete in the NCAA III National Championships March 5-6 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Ranked 12th in the nation, the Norse aimed for a top-six finish but knew that all would have to wrestle well in order to accomplish that.

While they wrestled hard, the team fell just short of their goal, finishing 10th. However, the team excelled individually with three wrestlers earning All-American honors.

The Norse ended the two-day tournament with 31 points, just one half point behind ninth place Concordia-Moorhead (Minn.) and just 10 points back from Ithaca (N.Y.) who finished in the sixth-place, the spot for which Luther was aiming.

The team gathered their points from three sixth-place finishers: Jayson Swanson (‘11) at 125 lbs., Jason Pyle (‘11) at 149 lbs. and heavyweight Allyn Plattner (‘10).

The 10th-place finish marked the eighth consecutive year that Luther has finished in the national top 10. And while the program’s past success makes a 10th-place finish seem like a step back from other years, the Norse have a young team that will continue to improve.

“We knew we had a young team and a lot of growing to do,” Head Coach Dave Mitchell said. “There were a lot of emotional ups and downs during the two-day period, but we fought hard and wrestled well.”

With no true seniors and past recruiting classes that lacked numbers, the Norse needed improvement over the course of the season. They got that, and finishing 10th after coming in ranked 12th in the nation proves it.

“Throughout the year, we continued to get better,” Mitchell said. “We had higher expectations, but our fans would classify it as a good tournament.”

Those high expectations are rooted in a tradition of success. The Norse have finished in the top five nationally, six of the last nine years. During those seasons, the Norse finished third in 2004 and 2005, fourth in 2001, 2006 and 2007 and fifth in 2003.

Mitchell credits Luther wrestling’s storied success to everyone involved in the program.

“We have a great coaching staff,” he said.
“We also recruit student-athletes who want to uphold the tradition of winning.