Nassau takes D-III Title, Mirikitani and Schmidt are "Coaches of the Year"

Rochester,MN.-  Luke Moffitt and the Triton's of Ft. Dodge, Iowa, have pulled the proverbial hat-trick by three-peating in the NJCAA National Wrestling Championships held at Rochester CTC in Minnesota.  ICCC sent three wrestlers to the finals with the title in hand and individual titles to wrestle to via for.  Terrance Young would start Iowa Central out on the right foot with a 3-1 decision over Jeremy Ensley of Northwest Wyoming.  

The Triton's next foe would be Aaron Sanzee from Meramec at 141, and the Magic were trying to move up from third to second place in the team standings.  Labette has the runner-up slot headed into the finals with a lone finalist, and Meramec had three finalists as did NIACC, who was also looking to improve in their national finish.  The Magic's Senzee decisioned David Greenwald Iowa Central in c tough fought 7-6 win
Iowa Central's last finalist would go down to Labette only finalist at 165, where the Card's Mikey Morgan edged IC's Brad Lower 7-6.  The Tritons went 1 for 3 in the finals, but still had the team to take the D-I title.

Meramec was now on the move and Deron Winn would set the tone for the rest of the Magic final matches with a T-Fall of Nathan Clements from host Rochester, 22-7. Winn a high school national champion had three tech-falls and a pin during the tournament and was named the meets "out-standing" wrestlers.  Jamelle Jones not to be out done by his fellow Meramec wrestlers needed over-time to down Chad Friend of Muskegon, 6-4 OT.
Meramec went three-for-three in the finals and moved past Labette for second place, and coach Mirikitani was named "coach-of the year" for the scholarship division as the magic enjoyed their best team finish in school history.

Another team looking to move up in the final team score was NIACC who match Meramec's three champions as Albert White at 149 downed Tj Hepburn of Colby, 3-2 157-pounder Davaughn Perkins edged Dec Mashall Giovanni of Highline, 9-8
And NIACC's Glenn Rhees decisioned Jason Green Neosho, 7-3 at 174, to give Rich Fregola and the newly reinstated team 109 point and a fourth place finish.

In the non-scholarship division, Nassau C.C. had an insurmountable lead heading into the finals and would go two-for-two in adding to their point total finishing up with 88.5 points. At 133-pounds, Chris Notte of Nassau downed Nick Mamalis Western Wyoming, 6-2, and Brandon Williamson at 285 beat John Bates Clackamas, 7-4.  Coach Paul Schmidt of Nassau was named the "coach of the year" for the non-scholarship schools for his teams' effort.  Harper College (Ill) finished in second, and host Rochester finished in third place for the non-scholarship teams.

Rochester Technical and Community College along with the Rochester Amateur Sport Commission continue to put one of the best national wrestling events in the USA.  Look for the results and story of the NCAA's and NAIA's on http://www.TheMat.com. You can go to the Rochester's host web site at http://www.rochsports.org/wrestling/2008home.htm for updated brackets and scores from the NJCAA finals.



Place		Team	Score
1.		Iowa Central	138.00
2.		Meramec	117.50
3.		Labette	111.00
4.		North Iowa Area Community College	109.00
5.		Nassau	88.50
6.		Ellsworth	71.50
7.		William Rainey Harper	64.00
8.		Colby	59.50
9.		Clackamas	57.00
10.		Neosho	53.50
	(tie)	Northwest Wyoming	53.50
12.		Muskegon	47.00
13.		Lincoln	37.50
14.		Western Wyoming	36.50
15.		North Idaho	34.50
16.		Niagara	32.50
17.		Rend Lake	32.00
18.		Rochester	31.50
19.		Gloucester	28.00
20.		Highline	27.50