Led by champions Austin Bautista (Des Plaines, IL/Maine East) and Karl Voeck (Madison/Memorial) the Warhawks finished third in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship in Oshkosh, Wisconsin Sunday.
WIAC wrestling championship web site
Team scores were: UW-La Crosse 146, UW-Stevens Point 143, UW-Whitewater 126, UW-Oshkosh 74, UW-Eau Claire 73, UW-Platteville 61, Lawrence University 20. La Crosse won its twelfth consecutive league title. UW-Whitewater is ranked fifth, La Crosse ninth, and Stevens Point tenth in the latest National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III poll.
Bautista, ranked first in the NWCA III poll at 141 pounds, went 3-0 in the WIAC tourney and upped his season record to 36-1. He defeated Chase DeCleene of Stevens Point 8-4 in the title bout. Voeck, ranked third by the NWCA in his class, upped his mark to 36-4 with a pair of wins Sunday. He defeated Andy Moore of UW-La Crosse 8-4 in the 197 championship bout. With their conference titles Bautista and Voeck earned automatic berths in the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III championship March 6-7 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Bautista repeated the WIAC title he won last year, and he finished second in 2007. Voeck finished fourth at 197 in 2006 and third at 184 in 2007 in his previous conference tournament appearances. Bautista also qualified for the NCAA III championship last year, where he finished seventh to earn All-America honors.
Max Oldenburg (Burbank, IL/Reavis) and Pat Nagel (Carpentersville, IL/Dundee-Crown), recipients of two the league's nine at-large berths, will join Bautista and Voeck at the NCAA III championship. Oldenburg went 2-1 Sunday while finishing second at 125 pounds and raising his season record to 26-9. He finished third at 125 in the 2008 WIAC meet. Nagel finished third at 165 pounds. Nagel, 26-7, was second in the WIAC last year when he also earned a NCAA at-large berth.
Other UW-W competitors included Kyle Wachholder (Salem/Westosha Central), fourth at 133 (18-9 season); Cade Sarbacker (Mineral Point/Iowa Grant), fourth at 149 (9-5);Sean Pietrzyk (Salina, KS/Salina South), fourth at 174 (20-6), Tom Trieloff (Janesville/Craig), second place and 17-6 this year; David Casper (Westby/Westby), third for the second year in a row at 184 (23-14); and Sean Evans (Richmond, IL/Richmond Burton), third at 285 after placing fourth and third the last two years (26-8).
In addition to the champions and NCAA qualifiers, UW-W's Josh Miller (Arcadia/Arcadia) was named UW-Whitewater's recipient of the WIAC's Sportsmanship Award.
For additional information: Tim Fader, UW-W coach
