Grand View welcomes competitive challenges

EVANSTON, Ill. - Eight years ago, Grand View wasn't even taking the mat nevertheless stepping on the mat with some of the best in college wrestling.

The emergence of the NAIA program in its seventh season has been impressive, including three straight NAIA national team titles.

Four Vikings are testing their ability against NCAA opponents and showed they deserved to be included in the field for the 52nd Ken Kraft Midlands Championship on Monday at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena.

Grand View went 7-3 during the first session of the tournament with senior Jimmie Schuessler winning his first three bouts and reaching the 165-pound semifinals.

'Our guys wrestle tough and that is why we come here,” Grand View Coach Nick Mitchell said. 'We know that these guys can compete with anybody.”

Mitchell was a three-time All-American and NCAA Division III national finalist for Wartburg, where he started his coaching career under Hall of Fame coach Jim Miller. Mitchell has been the Vikings only leader. His goal was to erect a champion when he took the position.

'It was the vision,” Mitchell said. 'We wanted to put ourselves in a position to compete for a national title every year. Regardless of division, build the best team that we can.”

All four wrestlers notched wins over Division I competitors. Schuessler topped Missouri's Matt Lemanowicz, 3-2. He beat former Waverly-Shell Rock prep and South Dakota State's Spencer Derifield, 10-2, before a 6-4 overtime win over Franklin and Marshall's Nestor Taffur, who was an NCAA qualifier last year for Boston University.

Grand View's Gustavo Martinez had two wins, including a 5-3 victory over Wisconsin's No. 11-seed Ryan Lubeck at 149. He fell to University of Iowa's Brandon Sorensen, 5-1.

Teammates Brandon Wright (141) and Nate Stadeker (165) went 1-1 with their losses coming to Hawkeyes.

'We're starting to make our schedule tougher and tougher,” Martinez said. 'When they started the program, I think they were more focused on winning an NAIA national title. Now that we've done that the last three years, we're working hard toward bigger goals and raising the bar.”

Morale victories weren't sufficient. They did not enter the tournament for participation prizes. They want more wrestlers to make the podium like Chad Lowman did last year for the Vikings.

'We didn't come here to just get experience,” Mitchell said. 'We came to win the tournament.”

The roster has grown to almost 60 wrestlers that train in renovated facilities. They have groomed wrestlers of all backgrounds. Some are Division-I transfers, some are elite wrestlers with junior national titles on their resume and some are hard-workers like Schuessler and Martinez, who never won state prep titles.

Mitchell said they have been vital to building the current culture. The future looks just as bright with competition in the room fueling the fire.

'The younger guys are a lot tougher than us when we were freshmen,” Martinez said. 'It's rubbing off on them.”

IOWANS IN THE FIELD

The Midlands Championships field included a few former Iowa preps and other small Iowa college wrestlers.

Former West Liberty state medalist Elliot Henderson dropped a pair of matches at 133 pounds. Former Waverly-Shell Rock prep Spencer Derifield, wrestling unattached for South Dakota State, went 0-2 at 165. Former Davenport Assumption prep Kyle Springer lost two close matches by a combined three points, including one in overtime.

Iowa Central 197-pounder Pat Downey won two straight consolation matches after injury defaulting in his opener. Luther's Jayden DeVilbiss lost by fall to Iowa's Sammy Brooks.

BURAK'S BACK

Iowa's Nathan Burak wrestled his first matches since opening the season with a Luther Open title. He has been limited by an unspecified injury.

Burak earned the top seed, wrestling unattached, which means he is not officially competing with the Hawkeyes. He reached the quarterfinals, posting a pin in his first match and a 6-4 win over Eastern Michigan's Anthony Abro.

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