The Wartburg wrestling team is competing in Indianola for the Iowa Conference tournament, an event that the Knights have dominated over the past two decades. Wartburg has won the league tourney in each of the last 18 seasons, and will be looking to bring a 19th banner back to Waverly.

Knights coach Jim Miller says he never imagined the program would put together such a streak, as at the beginning they hadn’t won one in 15 years and it has just continued to happen each year. Miller says that the run of consecutive championships becomes even more impressive considering that the Iowa Conference is the top wrestling conference in Division 3.

Miller says that makes the run special as it has never been easy to win, though some years it may’ve seemed to look easy, all the work they put into it made it a tough thing to do.

Wartburg 197 pounder Byron Tate and heavyweight John Helgerson are both #1 in the country going into the conference tournament. Miller admits that the upper weights have been his team’s strength all season, but says that he things the rest of the lineup has rounded out well.

The Knights took the last two weeks off to prepare for the Iowa Conference tournament, and Miller says that the time off has put his wrestlers in good position to compete. He says they’ve worked hard up to now and backed off to be fresh and he feels good about where they are at.

In addition to Wartburg, Miller says that Coe, Cornell, and Dubuque will also challenge for the conference team title.

By Jesse Gavin KCNZ Cedar Falls