CEDAR RAPIDS - A mere month ago, defending national champion Wartburg College could've been called pretenders, not contenders.

But a program with six national titles under its belt doesn't quit at midseason, it finds an answer.

It took Knight head coach Jim Miller nearly three months into the 2008-09 season to find the right buttons, but he pushed everyone of them as Wartburg rallied to its seventh Division III National Championship Saturday at the U.S. Cellular Center.

"There was a lot of adversity this year, but we came through, the guys bought in, we worked really hard and it paid off," said Miller, after earning coach of the year hnoors. "It was a total team effort that won the national championship, so it is really gratifying."

Wartburg crowned two national champions - housemates Aaron Wernimont and Justin Hanson at 157 and 165, respectively, as its seven all-Americans all finished third or better.

The Knights racked up 117 1/2 points, 12 1/2 better than rival Augsburg.

Wisconsin-La Crosse was third, with Coe College and Delaware Valley rounding out the top five.

"We knew it was going to be hard, take an all-out effort from every guy and you know, we hadn't beat Augsburg all year," Miller continued. "So we weren't expecting anything easy, but maybe that is what made it so special."

Miller was emotional after Saturday's morning session after his team had clinched the crown, with tears flowing freely down his face.

"It is hard to put in words, I was emotional, but I'm good now, I'm enjoying it," Miller laughed.

Wernimont squeaked out a 2-1 victory over Olivet's Jason Brew for his second consecutive national title.

"I think we all wrestled really tough and it paid off," Wernimont said. "It feels great to win another individual title and the team title."

Wernimont finished 44-0 this year and on an 80-match win streak. His last loss was to Cyler Sanderson of Iowa State in the Harold Nichols Open finals last year.

His roomate of three years, Justin Hanson followed with a more convincing win, 7-3, over Ben Youel of North Central, winning the season's rubber match between the two athletes.

"I've put in a lot of hard work the past 12 years of wrestling, and it feels awesome to win a national title," Hanson said. "It feels awesome, not just for myself , but everybody. It was a total team effort."

After an opening session which saw the Knights sitting in tied for third place, the seniors called a meeting back at the team hotel.

Whatever was said in that meeting, hit home as Wartburg propelled into the lead Friday night and never relinquished it.

The Knights won just three of six semifinals during Saturday's morning session, but nobody pouted as all four Wartburg wrestlers in the consolation bracket wrestled back for third place.

Mark Kist at 125, Matt Kelly at 133, Jacob Naig at 149 and John Helgerson at heavyweight.

"Those four third-place guys were awesome came back and wrestled for team, wrestled for themselves showing a lot of dignity," Hanson said.

Wartburg's seventh all-American Zach McKray, dropped a 5-2 decision to St. John's Myanganbayar Batsukh in the 141-pound national title match.

Back in January, Miller knew he had enough talent to win another national title, but didn't know if he could push his team to the top, especially during a stretch when they lost two duals to Augsburg and tied Delaware Valley in another.

"We had been trying for a couple of months, but we couldn't find it." Miller said. "Yeah, I thought we had it, but we couldn't find it and it was frustrating. It was hard."

But Miller did the only thing he felt would work, more hard work.

"We did things we've never done here at Wartburg," Miller said. "I worked this team harder the last month of the year than I've done with any other team. We had 6:30 a.m. runs, nine-minute matches .. and you never know if they are going to buy in or not, but this group did.

"We did not wrestle to potential all the way until the end. It was so gratifying to see that happen this weekend."

Luther College also had one champion as Zac Bartlett picked up the 133-pound crown with a 6-0 win over Nick Northern of Cornell.

Bartlett knew how to defending Northern's shots, but he wasn't sure how to score off one.

Up 1-0, and a stall warning against him already, Bartlett turned to an old trick that had worked on Northern before, a leg cradle.

With 25 seconds to go, Northern got in on a single, but Bartlett locked up the leg cradle for a five-point move and a 6-0 133-pound national championship.

"I wrestled him at national duals and got the leg cradle there, so I knew on one of the shots I could set up to get it and once I felt it I went with it," Bartlett explained. "I had to because I had the stalling warning and I had to do everything I could to get extra points on the board to secure the match.

"I knew I could defend his shots, but scoring off them, that was another thing. That was a big point in the match, definitely."

It was the fourth time Bartlett and Northern had faced each other this season with Bartlett getting his third win in the series.

It is the 12th national title for a Luther wrestler in program history, and the first since Matt Pyle won in 2007. Bartlett is head coach Dave Mitchell's eighth national champion.

Other champions were Jake Oster of Elmhurst College at 125, the first national champion in Elmhurst history, Matt Mauseth of Wisconsin-La Crosse at 149, Evan Brown of Dubuque at 174, Mike Wilcox of Delaware Valley at 184, Jared Massey of Augsburg at 197 and Dan Laurent of Wisconsin-La Crosse repeated at heavyweight.

Contact Jim Nelson at (319) 291-1521 or jim.nelson@wcfcourier.com