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The NCAA News -- March 15, 1999

Late victories help Wartburg halt Augsburg streak

There was no three-peat in Division III wrestling.

Sparked by a pair of head-to-head victories in the championship finals, Wartburg edged two-time defending champion Augsburg for its second Division III championship March 5-6 at College of New Jersey.

Wartburg kept Augsburg from becoming the first team in Division III history to win three straight team titles by compiling 1171/2 points to the Auggies' 116. In 1996, Wartburg won its first championship by just a six-point margin over runner-up Augsburg.

The first of the Wartburg-Augsburg matchups in the finals saw Wartburg's top-seeded 125-pounder Zac Weiglein decision second-seeded Darin Bertram, 7-5. Weiglein placed third in the 118-pound class in 1998.

John Marchette gave Augsburg a boost by winning the 133-pound class with a 12-9 decision over Pacific's (Oregon) Shawn Thomas, and the Auggies received another boost when Wartburg's Nick Mitchell was defeated in the 141-pound class final by College of New Jersey's Justin Totten.

However, the defending champion's momentum was halted in the 149-pound class final when Wartburg's second-seeded Ben Shane upended Augsburg's top-seeded Josh Cagle, 7-5, in the sudden-victory portion of overtime.

Shane was the last Wartburg wrestler in the finals, while Augsburg still had two finalists remaining. However, Jim Peterson lost to John Newman of St. John's (Minnesota), 2-1, in the tiebreaker portion of overtime at 174. When Upper Iowa's Ryan Birt posted a 6-3 decision over Augsburg's top-seeded Nik Lewandowski in the 184-pound final, the team title belonged to Wartburg.

College of New Jersey placed third for the fifth time in the championship's history and in doing so continued its streak of finishing in the top 25 in all Division III tournaments.

Totten's brother, Brandon, was the 1995 and 1996 Division III champion at 158 pounds for Delaware Valley. They are just the second brother tandem from different institutions to win Division III titles.

Rochester Institute of Technology senior Matt Hamill was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler for the second straight year after winning the 197-pound class. Hamill, who pinned Brockport State's Eric Vaughn in 1 minute, 13 seconds in the finals, became just the eighth wrestler in the championship's 26-year history to place first three times.

Jim Miller of Wartburg was named the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Division III Coach of the Year, and Tim Fader of Wisconsin-La Crosse was selected as the NWCA Division III Rookie Coach of the Year.