COUNCIL BLUFFS – Sophomore Austin Anderly became NIACC’s 13th national wrestling champion Saturday night.
Anderly stopped Lincoln’s Christian Kanzler 3-2 in the 141-pound NJCAA national title match inside the Mid-America Center to earn NIACC’s first national title since the 2016 season and sixth under head coach Steve Kelly.
Anderly (14-2) advanced to the title bout with a 7-6 win over Triton’s Tyree Johnson in Saturday morning’s semifinals. It was the fifth straight season that the Trojans have had at least one wrestler in the finals.
Anderly, who placed fifth at 141 pounds as a freshman, entered the tournament ranked No. 3.
Anderly completed his sophomore season with only a pair of losses. He lost in the finals (5-1) to Brent Jones, who was wrestling unattached from University of Minnesota, in the finals of the Worthington Open in January and lost to Iowa Central’s Eric Clarke 4-2 in the finals of the NJCAA Region XI tournament.
Clarke placed fifth at 141 pounds at the national tournament.
NIACC placed 17th in the team standings with 34.5 points and crowned two all-Americans. Freshman Noah Jackson also earned all-American honors with a seventh-place finish at 157 pounds.
Northeast Oklahoma was the national champion with 147.5 points and Clackamas was second with 124.5 points.
Iowa Central was third with 121 points. Iowa Western was fifth (86.5), Ellsworth was seventh (76.5) and Iowa Lakes was 12th (44).
ANDERLY’S ROAD TO THE TITLE
Anderly major dec. Jason Groff (Camden), 19-5; Anderly dec. Cody Karstetter (NE Oklahoma), 3-1; Anderly dec. Tyree Johnson (Triton), 7-6; Anderly dec. Christian Kanzler (Lincoln), 3-2.
NIACC’S NATIONAL CHAMPIONS
1970
Joe Hatchett (190)
1971
Joe Hatchett (190)
1972
Tom Garcia (134)
1973
Bob Fouts (heavyweight)
2008
Albert White (149)
DaVaughn Perkins (157)
Glenn Rhees (174)
2014
Nosomy Pozo (149)
Yoanse Mejias (157)
2015
Nosomy Pozo (149)
Yoanse Mejias (157)
2016
Shiquan Hall (133)
2018
Austin Anderly (141)
