Kevin Grundhoffer, staff writer

On Saturday, March 16, the Augsburg Mens Wrestling team won their second straight national championship and 15th all-time. This is also their second straight championship and their first repeat title since they won three in a row from 2000 to 2002 under then Head Coach and now Augsburg Athletics Director Jeff Swenson. As always, the race came down to Augsburg and Wartburg battling it out in the championship round for the final team point scores. UW-Lacrosse made a push as well but ultimately fell short. Augsburg finished with 95 points as a team, which was 7.5 points ahead of Wartburg. In the end, the Auggies put on a furious last six matches. They won all of them with two of them being for the national championship. 

Senior Bentley Schwanebeck-Osterman was crowned the champion of the 184 pound division. He won by technical fall in a dominant performance with a score of 19-2 in six minutes and 36 seconds over Ryan DeVito of Johnson and Wales. Schwanebeck-Osterman was superior throughout the tournament, racking up three of his wins by technical fall. He finished the season with a record of 33-1. He also finished as a four-time All-American. 

Senior heavyweight Tyler Kim won his national championship in a tight decision by score of 4-2 over Michael Douglas of Wisconsin-Lacrosse. They had split their season series 1-1 prior to the match. Kim got to the national title match with an impressive 2-1 overtime win over Rayshawn Dixon of Ferrum. Kim finished his season with a record of 30-2 and is also a four-time All-American.

Augsburg also had four other All-Americans that helped contribute to their winning point total among the 10 who qualified for the national tournament. Junior Blake Jagodzinske finished fifth at 157 pounds, sophomore Cooper Willis finished in fifth place as well at his respective weight class of 165, junior Seth Goetzinger finished in seventh place at 174 pounds and junior Parker Venz finished in seventh place as well at 197. It was indeed a very impressive performance from the Auggies, led by their Head Coach Tony Valek. He now has two national titles as a Head Coach, two as an Assistant Coach and one as a wrestler here at Augsburg. 

Augsburg wrestling has always been one of the top programs in the country and doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon. While they are losing two national champions to graduation, as well as others, they have stellar young wrestlers to come and take their place. Their coaching staff over the years has created an unbreakable culture which many programs try to emulate. They continue to recruit, develop and create young men into worthy champions. Next year, the Auggies look to break the tie of 15 national championships with Wartburg and three peat as national champs for the second time in school history.