CEDAR FALLS - Top-ranked and defending national champion Wartburg College roared into the Christmas break with a resounding victory at the Desert Duals in Las Vegas.

The Knights took up right where they left off after the 10-day break, steamrolling the field at Cornell College's Matman Invitational last weekend.

Saturday, Wartburg hopes to keep the ball rolling as it seeks its third consecutive Cliff Keen/NWCA National Duals title at the UNI-Dome.

"I think the time off was good for us, but I'm glad we went to the Matman, got a weigh-in in before the National Duals," said Wartburg coach Jim Miller. "We're going to go in there and try to do whatever we can to win it.

"The Nationals Duals are one of the top three things, probably, on everybody's schedule. It is on ours. We're going to try to be as good as we can be."

For the first time all year, the Knights will have their entire starting lineup on the mat at the same time, which means returning national champions Jacob Naig (149) and Romeo Djoumessi (184) are back.

Naig won at the Matman after sitting out the first half with just one semester of eligibility left, while Djoumessi has been slow to recover from knee surgery.

"We're going to weigh him in," Miller said of Djoumessi. "He's not going to wrestle all of the matches, but we're going to get him some work."

Wartburg is in the top bracket, which also includes Wisconsin-La Crosse, last year's national runner-up, and Iowa Conference foe Coe College.

Longtime rival Augsburg is seeded second, and East Coast powerhouse Delaware Valley is seeded third.

The Auggies' lineup was also recently boosted with all-American Willie Holst rejoining the squad for his final semester of eligibility and North Dakota State transfer Zach Molitor has stepped in at 174.

Additionally, Augsburg has top-ranked wrestlers Seth Flodeen and Travis Lang at 125 and 133, respectively.

Delaware Valley has six ranked wrestlers, led by top-ranked Mike Wilcox at 184. Kyle Bilquist is ranked second at heavyweight.

"The competition is going to be stiffer than what we've faced so far this season," Miller said. "It's time to see where we are at.

"Augsburg got a couple of guys back at the break that boosted them, and Delaware Valley … a lot of people out East are impressed with them.

"With Jacob and Romeo both back, we also feel more confident, and it has been a boost for us."

Wartburg opens against Wabash College of Indiana at 9 a.m.

While Luther head coach Dave Mitchell likes the development of his team, he doesn't think the Norse are built to make a strong run.

"Dual-wise, we have some holes that are tough to overcome. I feel we're a much better tournament team, and our best event left on the schedule may be the national tournament," Mitchell said.

Luther will field a stronger lineup this weekend with the return of pair of regulars - Kevin Bokoski at 141 and Bradon Reyerson at 174 - who each missed a significant part of the first half of the season.

"We are a little better at spots than what we have been and we're developing, seeing progress," Mitchell said. "We're probably not one of the top two, three, four or five teams, but if we come to compete we can place somewhere."

The ninth-seeded Norse are led by top-ranked 197-pounder Alec Bonander and open with eighth-seeded Olivet College at 9 a.m. Saturday. A victory would likely set up a quarterfinal match against Wartburg at 1 p.m.

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

Team

1. Wartburg, 2. Augsburg, 3. Delaware Valley, 4. Coe, 5. UW-Whitewater, 6. North Central, 7. UW-La Crosse, 8. Ithaca, 9. St. John's, 10. UW-Stevens Point, 11. Cornell, 12. U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, 13. Elmhurst, 14. Olivet, 15. Luther, 16. Wilkes, 17. Cortland, 18. College of New Jersey, 19. SUNY-Brockport, 20. Williams, 21. Johnson & Wales, 22. Concordia (Minn.), 23. Trine, 24. Heidelberg, 25. Lycoming, 26. Dubuque, 27. Messiah, 28. Lakeland, 29. York, 30. Roger Williams.

Individual

125 - 1. Seth Flodeen (Augsburg), 2. Jake Oster (Elmhurst), 3. Clayton Rush (Coe), 4. Mike McInally (Rochester IT), 5. Chris Sheetz (Delaware Valley), 6. Rob Miller (Thiel), 7. Mark Kist (Wartburg), 8. Tyler Erdman (Elizabethtown), 9. David Penny (Ohio Northern), 10. Dan Bloom (Wesleyan).

133 - 1. Travis Lang (Augsburg), 2. Matt Kelly (Wartburg), 3. Zac Bartlett (Luther), 4. Nick Cucciniello (Johnson & Wales), 5. Mogi Baatar (St. John's), 6. Nick Garber (Waynesburg), 7. Nick Northern (Cornell), 8. Adam Kriwinsky (John Carroll), 9. Phillip Greene (USMMA), 10. Brandon Clemmer (Delaware Valley).

141 - 1. Austin Bautista (UW-Whitewater), 2. Zach McKray (Wartburg), 3. Ben Anderson (Concordia), 4. Lucas Murray (Augsburg), 5. Minga Batsukh (St. John's), 6. Luke Baum (Rochester IT), 7. Vince Tucker (Olivet), 8. Stephen Perez (Cortland), 9. Eric McCann (Delaware Valley), 10. James Beshada (USMMA).

149 - 1. Jacob Naig (Wartburg), 2. Willie Holst (Augsburg), 3. Paul LeBlanc (Cortland State), 4. Frank Cammisa (Bridgewater), 5. Matt Mauseth (UW-La Crosse), 6. Johanson Quist (Luther), 7. Dan Twito (USMMA), 8. Blaine Woszczak (Ithaca), 9. Rob Kein (Muhlenberg), 10. Mark Carey (Coe).

157 - 1. Aaron Wernimont (Wartburg), 2. Jason Brew (Olivet), 3. Jesse Milks (UW-Platteville), 4. Erik Hanson (Loras), 5. Jason Adams (Augsburg), 6. Dave Paramski (Cornell), 7. Matt Baarson (St. John's), 8. Willie Horwath (Ithaca), 9. Lane Lunde (Concordia), 10. Luke Miller (Ohio Northern).

165 - 1. Justin Hanson (Wartburg), 2. Tyler Burkle (Coe), 3. Ben Youel (North Central), 4. Ben Hoover (Maranatha), 5. Chris Dahlheimer (Lycoming), 6. Pat Nagel (UW-Whitewater), 7. Jake Wozniak (UW-Stevens Point), 8. Michael Morin (Southern Maine), 9. Trent Zempel (Messiah), 10. Justin Bonititus (College of New Jersey).

174 - 1. Jerome Owens (Johnson & Wales), 2. Kyle Vanderhyde (Olivet), 3. Eric Van Patten (SUNY-Brockport), 4. Troy Carlson (Chicago), 5. Grant Jenkins (Wartburg), 6. Kyle Kehrli (Cornell), 7. Rocky Mantella (Delaware Valley), 8. Mike Schmitz (UW-La Crosse), 9. Evan Brown (Dubuque), 10. Greg Hurd (Wesleyan).

184 - 1. Mike Wilcox (Delaware Valley), 2. Gabe Youel (North Central), 3. Ryan Malo (Williams), 4. Bryan Lenhardt (Johnson & Wales), 5. Ben Engelland (UW-Stevens Point), 6. Josh Zabel (UW-La Crosse), 7. Dustin Baxter (St. John's), 8. Phil Moenkedick (Concordia), 9. Toby Boltz (Wheaton), 10. Nic Barclay (Luther).

197 - 1. Alec Bonander (Luther), 2. Jared Massey (Augsburg), 3. Karl Voeck (UW-Whitewater), 4. Josh Holforty (UW-Eau Claire), 5. Andy Moore (UW-La Crosse), 6. Zach Pizzaro (Wilkes), 7. Nick Shandri (Wartburg), 8. Rob Kramer (Coe), 9. Anthony Neumann (Concordia), 10. Joe Silverman (MIT).

285 - 1. Glenn Geesman (MIT), 2. Kyle Bilquist (Delaware Valley), 3. Andrew Witzel (Augsburg), 4. Jon Schmidt (UW-Whitewater), 5. Dan Laurent (UW-La Crosse), 6. Mitch Sander (Coe), 7. Allyn Plattner (Luther), 8. John Helgerson (Wartburg), 9. Trevor Kaufman (Loras), 10. Mark Corsello (Elmhurst).