Gable encourages wrestling fans to attend national duals

The 2010 Cliff Keen/National Wrestling Coaches Association offers a number of attractions for the state's wrestling fans. The two-day event begins today at 9 a.m. at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls and features 80 college teams from all NCAA divisions, NAIA, NJCAA and women's wrestling.

“It's been pretty exciting,” former Iowa Coach Dan Gable said. “It's a great wrestling event.”

Gable was quick to point out a number of reasons to attend the event. Among those are 13 programs from the state of Iowa, including Iowa State and University of Northern Iowa. The Iowa Conference, one of the elite conferences in NCAA Division III wrestling, is well represented by Coe, Cornell, Dubuque, Luther and Wartburg. Upper Iowa University, in Fayette, is the state's only Division II team and are in the tournament. Grand View, Morningside and Waldorf will compete in the NAIA division, while defending champion Iowa Central and Iowa Lakes are in the junior college field.

“You have a chance to see a national championship team in Wartburg, whose been at the top of their game for many, many years with Coach (Jim) Miller,” Gable said. “You have the junior college national champions (Iowa Central) ... It's a pretty darn good event to watch.”

With so many programs that call the state home, the event also serves a good chance to watch former Iowa preps on the collegiate level. Iowans are prevalent on the rosters of local programs.

“When I coached, it was actually 60 to 70 percent,” said Gable, who has a number of former Hawkeyes coaching in the event as well. “If you take that percentage you're going to see a lot of former Iowa preps.”

Gable called out to the state's wrestling fans to make their mark by supporting the event. He said it is a good opportunity to represent the state well, since this is the last year the event will be held in Iowa in the same format and as the NCAA considers adopting the event as its own national dual competition.

“As a wrestling state we need to send this event out with good feelings,” Gable said. “That we did a good job with the sport of wrestling.”