CEDAR RAPIDS - The snow was pretty cool at first. Then the cold set in.

When Jerry and Susan Quist left Hilo, Hawaii, last week, the temperature was 80 degrees.

Upon arrival at their final destination, Cedar Rapids, it was a balmy 8 degrees with a wind-chill factor well below zero.

It was a good, old-fashioned welcome to Iowa for the Quists and especially Jerry, who hadn't experienced a winter in more than 30 years after growing up in upstate New York.

But the Quists had made a promise. If their son, Yonny, made the Division III national championship wrestling tournament, they'd travel to see him wrestle.

Yonny kept his end of the bargain by earning one of the automatic berths at the Iowa Conference wrestling tournament two weeks ago.

Dad, mom, sister Kaitlin and Susan's mom held up their end when they landed in Rochester, Minn., and drove to Cedar Rapids last week.

"It was a big part of my motivation to qualify," said Yonny, a junior at Luther College. "It really means a lot to me they came this far."

Yonny made the 3,976-mile trip rewarding by finishing eighth at 149 pounds and earning All-America status.

It was also a rewarding experience on many different levels, from the hospitality the Quist family got from everyone they met to watching Yonny wrestle well to Jerry meeting his old college wrestling coach, Don Murray of Brockport State.

"It's been a terrific week," said Jerry, who coaches wrestling in Hilo. "We've met a lot of nice people, and to get to see coach Murray after 36 years was a neat deal."

In addition to Yonny becoming an all-American, the Quists have some great stories to take back to Hawaii, including a 3 a.m. evacuation at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cedar Rapids Saturday morning caused by a mechanical malfunction.

"The funniest story is when the girls went to explore the workout room at the hotel," laughed Jerry.

"There is a sauna in there, so they stick their heads in to look at it. What they didn't expect was to find somebody, a guy, in there.

"He looks up at them and says, 'I'm guessing you guys are from Hawaii and are Yonny's family.'"

The mystery guy happened to be Cornell College head coach Mike Duroe, who had met Yonny through Hawkeye Wrestling Club coach Pablo Ubassa, a Hilo native who wrestled for Jerry in high school.

"I was like, 'How do you know who we are?'" said Susan. "He said, 'Well … nobody wears coats into a sauna here in Iowa, so I figured you probably weren't from around here and kind of guessed you might be of Hawaiian descent."

Yonny's arrival in Iowa is an equally entertaining story.

Quist was a two-time Hawaii state champion in both wrestling and judo at Hilo High School and told his dad he wanted to wrestle at the Division III level.

Ubassa, upon being contacted by the Quists, recommended Luther as a possible destination.

"We started visiting him about it, and he ended up liking it based on those conversations and through videos he saw," said Luther coach Dave Mitchell. "Yonny basically showed up on our doorstep sight unseen. He's been a great addition, even though the winters have been real hard on him."

When Yonny informed his parents of his college choice, they had just one message for him.

"I told him I didn't want him to come back, but to stick it out," said Susan. "And he has really grown to like it in Decorah. He tells us the food is great.

"I also think part of why Yonny wanted to come here is because it would be a diverse experience. He wanted to go somewhere that wasn't going to be familiar."

One other experience was neat for the Quists, the snow, especially, Kaitlin.

"She said for the first minute it was cool, but then after that she was freezing," laughed Yonny.

Tournament notes

FOUR-TIMERS - Three wrestlers - Buena Vista's Jestin Hulegaard, SUNY-Brockport's Shaheim Bradshaw and Wisconsin-La Crosse's Josh Chelf capped outstanding careers by becoming four-time all-Americans. Hulegaard became the first four-timer in program history.

HIGH TALLY - Wartburg's winning total of 147 points was the fourth-highest in Division III championship history. The Knights hold the record of 166 1/2, set in 2003, and have the third-best mark of 156 1/2 set in 2004. Augsburg scored 162 in 2005.

MITCHELL TO GRAND VIEW - Wartburg assistant coach Nick Mitchell has been named head coach for the new program at Grand View College in Des Moines. Mitchell has spent the past nine seasons as one of Jim Miller's assistants after winning 114 matches and earning three all-America certificates as a Knight wrestler.

"Grand View College is a great school in a great location," said Mitchell in a press release. "The administration has shown great support, and I feel like everything is in place to build a winning tradition on and off the mat."

The Vikings compete in the NAIA Midwest Collegiate Conference.

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