SPOKANE, Washington – Iowa Central CC out of Fort Dodge, Iowa, under the direction of head coach Luke Moffitt, looks to lead his team of Tritons to a sixth straight title in D-I and Harper looks to repeat in D-III when the NJCAA tournament travels to Spokane, Washington, on February 25th and 26th, 2011.  

If the pre-season ranking are any indication of what awaits the Tritons and Hawks in Washington there may be two teams of Cardinals and some Warriors waiting to stop their quest to defend.

As impressive as Iowa Central’s 2010 record setting five titles in a row is, equally as impressive is the feat that Harper College was able to accomplish.  Harper College Coach Dan Loprieno proved that money isn’t everything as they became to first Division-III, or non-scholarship college, to place first over-all at the NJCAA National Wrestling Championship since 1994, when the two divisions were contested.  In the NJCAA’s there are two divisions and two national championship teams, the Division I is for all colleges who offer scholarships, and D-III is for non-scholarship teams.

Nassau CC, led by coach Paul Schmidt who were the D-III runner-up in the NJCAA tournament last year are looking to equal the feat that Dan Laprieno and  Harper College were able to do last year by being only the second non-scholarship team to win the over-all title in terms of point totals. However this year, it appears that all of the colleges will be competing for one title.

A total of 251 wrestlers representing 36 community colleges across the country have arrived in Spokane, to compete in the NJCAA national wrestling tournament Feb. 25-26 at the Spokane Convention Center. Action begins at 9:30 a.m. Friday, Feb. 25 with the first round of matches and concludes Saturday evening at 6 p.m. with the championship finals. 

This year’s field of wrestlers includes four defending national champions. Victor Dejesus of Iowa Lakes Community College (Esterville, IA) will be defending the title he won last year in the 149-pound weight class. 

One of the most fierce weight classes will be the 197-pound class, which features two defending national champions in Walker Clarke of Labette (KS), who won last year, and Jamelle Jones of North Idaho College who won the 184-pound weight class in 2008 while wrestling for St. Louis Community College-Meramec in Missouri. 

The other returning national champion is Tyrell Fortune of Clackamas who will be trying to win his second national title in the heavyweight division, which he won in 2009. 

A total of eight schools will be bringing the maximum number of wrestlers, which is 10, one per weight class. Those schools with full teams are Clackamas Community College (Oregon), Highline Community College (Washington), Iowa Central Community College (Iowa), Labette Community College (Kansas), Lincoln College (Illinois), Mercyhurst North East (Pennsylvania), Nassau Community College (New York), and North Idaho College (Idaho). 

Clackamas (OR) who placed ten overall last year, 8th in D-I, a great performance in the region 18 championships.  Clackamas looks to recapture part of their past as 40 years ago this season Coach Larry Wright and his 1971 Cougar team captured the NJCAA National Wrestling Championship crowning six All-Americans with two National Champions!  Coach Josh Rhoden and company hope to create some of their own headlines this year as they start the year Clackamas enters the contest with the most returning All-Americans with four, including one defending national champion. Harper, Nassau and North Idaho are all close behind with three All-Americans each. Under the helm of head coach Josh Rhoden, the Cougars have national finishes of 5th in 2007, 7th in 2008, 3rd in 2009 and 8th in 2010 at the National Junior College Athletic Association Division I Wrestling Championships.

Clackamas is entering the National stage as the #1 ranked junior college wrestling team in the country and is set to take on the nation’s best this weekend in Spokane, WA.

As the reigning National Dual Meet and Region 18 champions, the Cougars boasts the most returning All-Americans of any qualifying team with four (Mestrovich, Williams, Sanchez and Fortune).  Additionally, Clackamas has qualified each of their 10 wrestlers for the JUCO Nationals which the team is favored to win according the final NJCAA coaches association poll.
 
“We are very excited that the time is here for us to go to the Nationals and have the opportunity to represent west coast wrestling with everyone watching,” said Coach Rhoden. “We take the opportunity very seriously and hope that anyone and everyone who can come out and be a part of this does. We need to show how much support wrestling actually does have in the Northwest and this is a great chance for us to do that. With that said, I look forward to watching our guys compete for individual championships and I know that they are all anxious to get this one started."

Host North Idaho has eight of ten qualified  wrestlers rated at nationals, four ranked in the top three, and the Cardinals are lead by two top ranked wrestlers in Kyle McCrite (125) who placed third in 2010,  and Jamelle Jones (197) a champ in 2008 at 184.  Jones could become a two-time JUCO champion.   NIC’s other highly ranked wrestlers Jesse Nielson (174) is ranked 2nd,  with the only weights not ranked for NIC is 149 and 184.

Pat Whitcomb’s team place 3rd in D-I last year behind Iowa Central and Labette, but with all ten qualifiers and eight ranked wrestlers and home mat advantage the NIC Cardinals will look to recapture the NJCAA crown they held 13 times before!  NIC’s last title came in 2003.  No other team has had as many titles as the Cardinals for NIC.  North Idaho College enters the tournament with the national record for most national team titles (13) and most individual champions (49). 

According to tournament director Troy Schueller, from the spectator’s vantage point, Clackamas and Niagara County Community College appear to have momentum, boasting six individual regional champions each. The fiercest weight divisions appear to be 125-, 133- and the 174-pound weight classes that feature four All-Americans each. 

Just behind Clackamas and North Idaho is Rend Lake who is ranked 3rd over-all, up eighteen spots from their 21st place finish in 2010!  Rend Lake the second rated team in D-I, only 7 1/2 points back from NIC and the Warriors are looking for their first title in school history!  

What would move a team eighteen spots in one year? Try ranked wrestlers at seven of eight qualified weight classes for Coach Kevin Tate and RLCC!! The Warriors have six wrestlers ranked in the top six heading into the nationals lead by two second ranked wrestlers in Isaiah Williams (165) AND Austin Moorhead (184).  Sophomore Tyler Holloway (133) a four-time state champ from Brookefield, Mo., placed 4th last year at 141-pounds at the JUCO nationals was the top ranked wrestler in pre-season and is currently ranked 6th. 

Although Clackamas, NIC, Nassau, and Rend Lake are the top three teams overall, you can never count out Harper and ICCC who are ranked fifth and seventh respectively over-all. The Hawks qualified eight wrestlers with seven being rated. Leading the way for Harper and coach Lapreino are two top second raked wrestlers in other top ranked wrestler is PJ Stanes who is rated second at 157 behind  returning AA’s and top ranked Quinten Hayes (3rd in ’09), and Adam Chalfant (285) also ranked second behind defending champion Tyrell Fortune of Clackamas.

Harper College of Illinois and Iowa Central Community College will both be on hand to defend their national team championship victories from last year. Harper, competing in the non-scholarship division last year, became the first non-scholarship school to ever score the most team points at the tournament. Harper scored 137 points last year, outscoring the Division I school Iowa Central, which tallied 116 points. 

Harper enters this year’s tournament with eight qualifiers and three returning All-Americans, which are wrestlers that finish in the top eight places at the national tournament. Harper finished second at the recent regional tournament to Muskegon Community College of Michigan, which qualified nine wrestlers for the national tournament. Iowa Central will be bringing 10 wrestlers, with one All-American.
Iowa Central begins the year ranked fifth with seven wrestler ranked, the highest is Nick Pica (197) ranked third.  Pica placed third last year at 184 and is behind 197-poud returning champ Clarke of Labette who is ranked second and top ranked Jamell Jones of NIC.  Although this is Coach Moffitt’s lowest national tournament ranking, history has show that the Tritons know how to win in February.

Labette CC (KS) comes in fourth over-all with four ranked wrestlers. The Cardinals from Kansas are led by defending champion Walker Clarke at 197. Former Coach of the year Coach Renfreo is not stranger when it comes to winning titles as his team won it at in 2005 prior to Iowa Central running off with five straight crowns.  So, look for a pair of Cardinals to be scrapping for the title Spokane.

For more tournament information, visit the NJCAA wrestling championship website at:
http://www.nic.edu/athletics/wrestlingnationals

Thanks to Stacy Hudson, public information coordinator with NIC, for contributions to this story.

Current NJCAA team rankings
1 Clackamas Community College
2 North Idaho College
3 Rend Lake College
4 Labette Community College
5 Harper College
6 Nassau Community College
7 Iowa Central Community College
8 Northwest College
9 Muskegon Community College
9 Highline Community College
11 Iowa Lakes Community College
12 Niagara County Community College
13 Mercyhurst North East
14 Lincoln College
15 Middlesex County College
16 Ellsworth Community College
17 North Iowa Area Community College
18 Colby Community College
19 Rochester Community & Technical College
20 Western Wyoming Community College