The UW-Oshkosh wrestling team was able to score one point and place 44th out of 59 schools at the NCAA Division III Championship meet held on March 5 and 6 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Competing for Oshkosh were sophomores Sam Engelland and Zachary Mueller.
It was Engelland’s second straight season qualifying for the meet, which he earned after a second-place finish at the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championships in the 174-pound weight class.
Engelland (33-14) started the meet off with a 5-0 loss to fourth-seeded Kyle Kwiat of Ohio Northern University but answered back with a 6-2 victory over Christopher Karl of UW-Stevens Point in the consolation bracket.
After scoring the Titans’ lone point of the meet, Engelland suffered a loss to Coe College’s (Iowa) Seth Rehn by a score of 2-0.
Third-seeded Michael Schmitz of UW-La Crosse defeated top-seeded Evan Brown from the University of Dubuque (Iowa) in the title bout for the weight class.
Although Engelland has been able to score at the meet in both of the past two seasons, he said his performances only left him wanting more.
“Both years I was one match away from being an All-American, which has been really upsetting,” he said.
The same bitter testament can be found in Engelland’s feelings on the season as a whole.
“Individually, I would describe my season as being mediocre to me,” he said. “Although I beat my win record from last year, I didn't accomplish what I wanted to, which was being a national champion.”
Head coach Mike DeRoehn said although Engelland was unable to reach his goals, he accomplished a lot in the process.
“He certainly proved that he belonged there (at the meet), and that he’s right in the hunt to be an All-American,” DeRoehn said.
Oshkosh’s other representative, Mueller (24-16), earned his first ever bid to the meet after finishing third in the 125-pound weight class at the WIAC Championship meet.
Mueller’s appearance at the meet said a lot about his drive and work ethic, as he did not even qualify for the state meet in high school.
It was a rough road for Mueller, as he lost his first match 8-4 to seventh-seeded Joshua Roberts of Ausberg College (Minn.) and second match 16-0 in the consolation bracket against second-seeded Mark Kist of Wartburg College (Iowa).
Top-seeded Clayton Rush from Coe College would go on to win the title for the weight class.
However, Mueller was still able to claim Academic All-American status, a high point of pride for Coach DeRoehn.
Although Mueller was unable to leave with a victory, he was able to leave a strong impression on his teammate Engelland.
Engelland expects big things from his teammate, as well as himself, in the future.
“I think Zach and I have the potential to be multiple-time All-Americans,” Engelland said.
Augsburg College (Minn.) won the meet with a score of 110.5 points despite claiming no individual titles, earning their 11th national title. The team had eight All-Americans and three national runner-up performances.
WIAC rival UW-La Crosse came in second-place with 100.5 points and a meet-high three national champions among their eight All-Americans.
All in all, DeRoehn said it was a rough season for the Titans, but couldn’t be more proud of his athletes for sticking with it.
“It was a frustrating season,” he said. “We had some unfortunate injuries and we had some on the team who were mentally weak and quit on us early in the season. I think the guys who finished the season showed a lot of strength and character in overcoming adversity.”
While the season was maddening for DeRoehn in many ways, it did produce many bright performances like athletes knocking at the NCAA tournament’s front door for next season.
DeRoehn noted sophomores Jose Quintana (149lbs, 30-16), Carl DeLuca (125lbs, 17-17), Aaron Erickson (197lbs, 18-19) and junior Kyle Kleuskens (133lbs, 19-18) as possible qualifiers for next season’s meet.
Until then, DeRoehn will be thinking up ways to improve on things he noticed while observing this year’s crop of national qualifiers.
“I noticed how important it is and how much more work we need to do as far as mat wrestling goes,” DeRoehn said. “ So that’s something we are going to encourage guys to work on in the off-season and make it an even bigger focus once next season starts.”
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