St. Cloud State and Augsburg, two Minnesota wrestling powers, won national titles in their divisions Saturday.
The Huskies, the defending Division II champion, took a commanding lead into Saturday's championship matches in Cleveland and won with 95.5 points despite not having an individual champion. Wheeling Jesuit (W.Va.) took second (87.5) and McKendree (Lebanon, Ill.) third (83).
Vince Dietz, a senior at 197 pounds, was the only SCSU wrestler to advance to the finals and, for the second year in a row, he finished as national runner-up. Nicholas Mason of Tiffin beat him 5-3. Dietz finishes 31-1.
Jake Barzowski of the Huskies took third place at 157, Kolton Eischens at 174, James Pleski at 149 and Brett Velasquez at 125 all took fourth.
The Auggies clinched their 13th national title on Saturday in the semifinal session of the Division III tournament in Roanoke, Va., and then had four wrestlers win individual titles to give them a final score of 130.
Loras (Iowa) placed second with 66 points while defending champion Wartburg (Iowa) was sixth with 52.
Two Augsburg juniors repeated as national champions — Ryan Epps at 157 pounds and Lucas Jeske at 165. Epps beat Mount Union's Antwon Pugh on a disqualification after he was called for stalling five times. Jeske defeated Dempsey King of RIT 6-2.
Jeske extended his winning streak to 30 matches and earned a spot in the title match in dramatic fashion, with a 9-7, sudden-victory overtime win in the semifinals over Kyle Hatch of Wabash (Ind.) after trailing 6-0.
