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Five Representing Northwest College Wrestling In Iowa
The Northwest College wrestling team will send five grapplers into battle at the two-day NJCAA National Wrestling Championship starting Friday in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
NWC head coach Jim Zeigler and his Trappers are making their 23rd consecutive trip to the national championship, where NWC has placed among the top 10 every year since 1994.
With just five Trappers competing this season, compared to the 10 that helped NWC finish second last season, Zeigler knows another big finish is unlikely. But he’s still confident his quintet of athletes can make a splash.
“We have five young men qualify for the national tournament, and I’m extremely proud of their efforts,” Zeigler said. “Here we are with five talented individuals that I truly believe have a great chance at success, and our team has really rallied around them.”
NWC will be represented by freshman Eduardo Pehna (133 pounds), redshirt sophomore and last season’s third-place finisher Jeff McCormick (ranked second nationally at 149 pounds), sophomore and two-time national qualifier Kaelen Loveless (165), sophomore Jacob Beck (174) and sophomore and runner-up a season ago Jon Wixom (ranked second nationally).
Zeigler said the five qualifiers are “in really good spirits” ahead of the weekend’s tournament, saying they look and feel as though they’ve graduated boot camp. Zeigler added that a good week of practice has also boosted confidence.
“I feel real good about our workouts,” he said. “We focused a lot on their mental health ... the conditioning is already there ... so we focused on their mindset and their overall health.”
Results of the national tournament can be found at www.TrackWrestling.com and www.ICCAC.org under the “Special Events” tab.