Lopers Have Three All-Americans, Crack the Top 8 for the 21st Straight Year
Kearney, Neb. – Nebraska Kearney redshirt senior Austin Eldredge had two takedowns and racked up six near fall points to win the 174-pound national title match, 12-4, over previously unbeaten Abner Romero of St. Cloud State Saturday night in Cedar Rapids, Ia. This was the second and final day of the 2023 NCAA Division II Championships. The seventh-ranked Lopers came in with six qualifiers and finished with three All-Americans. Heavyweight Lee Herrington was seventh with Billy Higgins sixth at 184 lbs.
UNK scored 43 team points to finish eighth; this is the 21st straight year (not counting 2020) the program has finished in the top eight. MIAA member Central Oklahoma (121) won the national title with Lander of South Carolina a distant second (78).
Eldredge (McPherson, Kan.) came in as the third seed and recorded two 16-0 tech falls on Friday to reach this morning's semifinals. He finishes with 14 tech falls, among the best totals in the NCAA. The now three-time All-American got off to roaring start in the semis against unseeded James Penfold of Lake Erie (Ohio). He had upset the second and seventh seeds but Eldredge made sure there wouldn't be a third surprise as he managed 13 first period points (10 near fall, one take down and one penalty). The one-time Cloud (Kan.) County C.C. All-American picked up escapes in each of the next two periods to win by major decision , 15-4. Romero came in 20-0 and was the 2021 174 lbs. national champion for Lindenwood (Mo.) when the Lions were still a D2 member. He had two falls and a 10-4 decision to reach the finals where Eldredge came out on the attack and recorded an early takedown and built up over a minute of riding time.
However, Romero countered with a reversal and erased the riding time. With the second period winding down a flurry of action featured an Eldredge reversal, two near fall points and a Romero reversal. A video review confirmed all six of those points. In the third, it was all Eldredge as he managed another takedown and a 4-point near fall. He finishes the year 28-4, ups his Loper record to 70-13 and could be a rare seventh-year "Super Senior" in 2024 (COVID year, medical redshirt and regular redshirt). At 184 pounds, the top-seeded Higgins (Omaha Skutt) aggravated an old injury in warmups and fell to fourth-seeded Logan Hall of Lander, 3-2, in the semis. Higgins had a takedown and a 4-3 lead wiped off the books after a video review. With the score reverting back to a 2-2 tie, Hall used a third-period escape to win. Higgins then lost to 8th-seeded Matt Weinberg in a consolation match. Weinberg was up 2-1 went he inadvertently head-butted Higgins in the nose/face, resulting in injury time. It was a 10-6 score in Weinberg's favor when he recorded a fall. Higgins (26-5), a two-time All-American, medically forfeited out of the fifth-place match against Central Oklahoma's Alex Kaufman. Finally, the second-seeded Herrington (Kearney H.S.) finishes the year 27-6 after a win in the seventh-place match. He used an early takedown to beat Minot (N.D.) State's Jake Swirple, 3-2. Earlier, Herrington fell to returning national champ Darrell Mason of Minnesota State, 8-3.
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