I'm a deep sleeper, so I can't confirm it. But I've heard reports Wartburg College wrestling fans were celebrating the Knights' Division III national runner-up finish until at least 4 a.m. Sunday morning.

I find that kind of funny because you wouldn't have been able to tell it was a happy time for most Wartburg fans Friday and Saturday during the Division III National Wrestling Championships at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque.

It was an atypical performance from Wartburg as the Knights earned only six all-America awards, the fewest since 2001, and were out of the race for the national tournament well before the finals started. The Knights' coaches were muttering to themselves and their fans had little rebuttal for the rowdy crowds from Augsburg, Wisconsin-La Crosse and Luther.

Don't get me wrong, the Knights would rather be second than 53rd. But what humors me about Wartburg's mood swings is the story of Knox College's Jaran Rutledge. Rutledge entered the tournament unseeded and relatively unknown by many who follow the tournament. He lost his first match to Thiel's Kyle Brown and most believed Rutledge would disappear somewhere in the loser's bracket.

But a funny thing happened. Rutledge won his first wrestleback match. Then he won another and another and another and another to finish third in the nation. With each victory a small but vocal group of supporters went nuts for him.

The reason why? His third-place finish was the first all-America performance in Knox College's wrestling history.

The lesson of this story is Knox College and Wartburg College are on the extreme opposite of the spectrum in Division III wrestling. There are a lot of programs whose coaches say it is their goal to win the team championship at the end of the season but 99 percent of those comments are pure lip-service.

When Wartburg head coach Jim Miller says his team's goal is to win the national championship at the start of the season, there is a strong chance Miller's squad will back it up.

I mean, here is a program that has finished first or second in the Division III national championships for 13 of the last 15 years. So, sometime early in the fall when preseason conditioning begins, the Knights are already expecting to win the national championship, and they already own five of them.

And when a national championship doesn't materialize, it is understandable why the Knights aren't in a talkative mood.

MILLER'S COACHING TREE: Wisconsin-La Crosse head coach Dave Malecek was named Rookie Coach of the Year by his peers following the tournament.

A year ago, Malecek sat in Miller's corner as his top assistant, but left to go it on his own in July with the Eagles.

A year ago, Eric Keller, who was at North Central College in Naperville, Ill., earned the award. Ironically, Keller, who had been a Miller assistant before taking the NCC job, is now the Knights' top assistant coach.

PYLE MOST OUTSTANDING? There were some questioning why Luther's Matt Pyle earned the Outstanding Wrester of the Tournament award over Augsburg's Marcus LeVesseur.

Sure, LeVesseur captured his fourth national championship and finished his collegiate career a perfect 155-0 by winning the 165-pound championship, but his performance didn't compare to Pyle's.

LeVesseur did dominate on his way to victory, but it would be easy to argue the 165-pound division was one of the weakest of the tournament.

On the other hand, the 149-pound field featured three national champions - defending champ Jake Larsen of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the defending 157-pound champ Joe Pflug of Heidelberg and the 2005 champ - Pyle.

In addition, Jason Roush of Mount St. Joseph's entered the field after twice finishing third. But Pyle came out on top as he recorded three pins, including his 2-minute, 4-second flattening of Roush in the championship match.

Pyle's lone non-pin of the tournament was a 6-2 victory over Pflug in the semifinals.

SLIGHTLY BELOW PAR: The Iowa Conference earned 19 all-America awards at the tournament, the third time the IIAC has dropped below 20 since 2000.

Over the last eight national tournaments, the IIAC has averaged 21.2 all-Americans.

The last two seasons the conference has garnered only 40, while the 2002 and 2003 tournaments saw the IIAC at its best with 49 over the two-year span.

UNSEEDED TO CHAMPIONSHIP: Possibly the most surprising run of the tournament came from Buena Vista's Ben Strandberg.

He entered the 197-pound field unseeded, but he toppled sixth-seeded Tyler Wozniak of UW-Stevens Point in the first round, third-seeded Jim Swanson of UW-La Crosse in the quarterfinals and second-seeded Matt Loesch of Muhlenberg to reach the finals.

In the finals, Strandberg eventually met his match in Wartburg's T.J. Miller.

BREAKING IT DOWN: The top seed won at every weight except at 149, where the second-seeded Pyle won, and at 184, where fourth-seeded Terrance Madden of Hunter College captured a title.

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