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Mustang's Johns and Wipperfurth earn third place honors at NCAA Regional
Sunday, February 26, 2006
Omaha, Neb.: A long day and a long season has paid off for two Southwest Minnesota State University wrestlers. Tim Johns (174) and Joel Wipperfurth (197) have advanced to the NCAA Division II National Tournament after each taking third place at their respective weight class.
For Johns (Sr., Harrisburg, S.D.) this will be his third trip to the national tournament. He qualified his freshman and junior seasons and last season went 3-2 at the national tournament to earn All-America status. Wipperfurth (Sr., Lodi, Wis.) will be making his first ever appearance at the national tournament.
Johns started the day off on a sour note as he fell in his first match to Augustana College's (S.D.) Dusty Wilking via fall, 6:30. Johns bounced back in the first round of the wrestlebacks as he defeated George Toops from Minnesota State University Moorhead via decision, 8-5. In his next match against Clinton Macnaught from Upper Iowa University, Johns won via a 4-2 decision. He then took home third place when he defeated Wilking 12-6.
Wipperfurth, who was the two seed at 197, picked up a 3-0 win in the championship first round as he defeated St. Cloud State University's Jario Sandoval. In the semi-finals he fell 7-4 to the University of Nebraska-Omaha's Nick Edmonds. Wipperfurth then earned a 9-6 decision over Matt Norton from Upper Iowa University. In the third place match he held on to defeat Minnesota State University, Mankato's Ben Janike 3-2.
SMSU nearly had two more wrestlers qualify for the national tournament. Kurt Smtih (So., Brookings, S.D.) went 2-2 and took fifth place at 125. Tyler Johnson (RFr., Harrisburg, S.D.) also took fifth place by going 2-2 at 184.
As a team, Southwest finished the regional tournament in sixth place as they earned 41 points.
Johns and Wipperfurth will now prepare for the national tournament which will be held in Findlay, Ohio at Findlay University March 10-11.