FORT DODGE – The No. 11 NIACC wrestling team qualified eight wrestlers for the NJCAA national tournament at Sunday’s NJCAA Central District meet on the Iowa Central campus.
NIACC, which placed fifth with 107 points, received second-place finishes from Austin Anderly (141) and Jimsher Sidhu (285). Anderly was also second at 141 pounds at the 2017 district tournament and earned all-American honors with a fifth-place finish at last season’s national meet.
No. 3 Iowa Central won the team title with 173 points. No. 9 Iowa Western was second with 143 points and No. 6 Ellsworth was third with 120.5 points.
NIACC’s Ryan Faught placed third at 165 pounds to earn his second trip to the national tournament.
Qualifying for the nationals as wild cards were Mark Gonzales (125) and Robert Rodriguez (149). Also qualifying for the national tournament as extra wrestlers from the Iowa district were Noah Jackson (157), Tavion Askew (174) and Sedrak Sheppard. (197).
Since Iowa is the host state for the national meet, the district is allowed to send 10 additional wrestlers beyond the automatic qualifiers and the wild card wrestlers to the national tournament.
The national tournamnt is set for Feb. 23-24 in Council Bluffs.
In Sunday’s 141-pound title match, Iowa Central’s Eric Clarke topped Anderly, 4-2.
In the 285-pound championship bout, Iowa Western’s Andrew Pistillo topped Sidhu, 4-0.
At 165 pounds, Faught topped Ellsworth’s Myron Crawford 13-6 in the third-place match. Faught avenged a 6-5 loss to Crawford in the first round of the district tournament.
Gonzales, Rodriguez and Sheppard all placed fourth for the Trojans.
