Lemcke National Champion, Yineman All-American At NCAA Championships
Senior Jordan Lemcke became UW-Oshkosh's third national wrestling champion when he captured the 285-pound title at the NCAA Division III Championship held Friday and Saturday (March 11-12) in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
UW-Oshkosh scored 33.5 points in the team competition to finish 10th among the 60 programs that scored at the championships. The finish was the Titans' highest since placing 10th with 34.5 points in 2014.
The fifth-seeded Lemcke didn't allow a point during the tournament as he won all four of his contests by a combined score of 11-0, including a 2-0 victory over seventh-seeded Donovan King of Olivet College (Mich.) in the title bout.
Lemcke registered a 5-0 win over unseeded Palmer Rodenhaber of Alvernia University (Pa.) in his opening match before defeating unseeded Thomas Marretta of The College of New Jersey and Robby Bates of North Central College (Ill.) by 2-0 scores.
Earlier this year, Lemcke finished second at both the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Championship held Feb. 12 and the Division III Upper Midwest Regional held Feb. 25-26.
Lemcke, who concluded the 2022 season with a 28-3 record (9 pins), is UW-Oshkosh's first national wrestling champion since Nazar Kulchytskyy won the last of his three Division III titles in 2014. Rick DeMarais won a NAIA championship for the Titans in 1975.
UW-Oshkosh was also represented at this year's championships by junior Beau Yineman and sophomore Preston Morgan.
Yineman earned All-America honors with his third-place finish in the 197-pound category. The fourth-seeded Yineman compiled a 4-1 tournament record, including a 10-4 win over unseeded Camden Farrow in their third-place contest.
Yineman began his activity with wins of 10-0 over unseeded Jarrod Setliff of Otterbein University (Ohio) and 3-1 over fifth-seeded Donovan Corn of Luther College (Iowa). Yineman then lost a 7-4 decision to top-seeded and eventual champion Cody Baldridge of North Central College before advancing to his third-place bout with a 7-5 victory over unseeded Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann of Augsburg University (Minn.).
Yineman, who finished the year with a 36-4 record (16 pins), won his second straight title at the WIAC Championship while placing third at the Division III Upper Midwest Regional earlier this season.
Morgan compiled a 2-2 tournament record at 165 pounds and didn't place. He lost a 7-3 verdict to Austin Lamb of Rochester Institute of Technology (N.Y.) before posting wins of 6-4 over Isaac Mathews of State University of New York at Oswego and 4-2 over Dalton Leightner of Baldwin Wallace University (Ohio). Morgan was eliminated from the championships after suffering an 8-1 loss to UW-Eau Claire's Chase Schmidt in the next bout.
Morgan finished third at both the WIAC Championships and Division III Upper Midwest Regional. He wrapped up the season with a 22-10 record (8 pins).
All three UW-Oshkosh wrestlers were making their debut on the Division III national stage.
Wartburg College (Iowa) edged Wabash College (Ind.), 79-78, for this year's team title. Augsburg University, defending Division III champion after the 2020 and 2021 national meets were canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, scored 62.5 points to share third place with North Central College. Stevens Institute of Technology (N.J.) finished fifth with 46.5 points.
Rounding out the top 10 teams were sixth-place Coe College (Ill.) with 40.5 points, seventh-place Rochester Institute of Technology with 37, eighth-place Baldwin Wallace University with 36, ninth-place Millikin University (Ill.) with 34.5 and 10th-place UW-Oshkosh.
2022 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship Video Recaps: Day One • Day Two
2022 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship Digital Program