The Wartburg wrestling team looks to extend one of the most impressive streaks in sports today as they go in search of their twentieth consecutive Iowa Conference tournament championship. Wartburg coach Jim Miller says he’s blown away by the chance to continue the run into a third decade.
“I never thought it’d be, I never even imagined, because we just wanted to win one, we hadn’t won one in 15 years,” Miller says. He says Wartburg was irrelevant in the conference when they won the first one.
Miller says certain aspects of the streak make him feel his age, particularly when he asks how old his current wrestlers were when it started. For example the freshmen on his team were born in 1993 when they won their first title. Miller says he went to the state tournament and the sons of three of his former wrestlers were wrestling for state titles.
Champions and runners-up from the Iowa Conference meet will also automatically qualify for the national tournament, giving today’s action added importance beyond top-ranked Wartburg’s streak. Today’s Iowa Conference tournament is being held at Coe College in Cedar Rapids. The host school, Wartburg, and Cornell are all ranked in Division III’s top six.
By Jesse Gavin KCNZ Cedar Falls