CEDAR RAPIDS - Disappointments gradually fade away.

National championships? Those can never be erased from the memory banks or the history books.

Not everything went in Wartburg's favor Saturday, but enough good things happened as the Knights easily won their sixth NCAA Division III national championship at the U.S. Cellular Center.

Wartburg crowned three individual champions as it outdistanced runner-up Wisconsin-La Crosse by 47 points to win its fourth championship since 2000. Defending champion Augsburg College was third.

"We had a couple of disappointments at the end, but we had three national champs, six finalists, nine all-Americans, da da da," said Knights head coach Jim Miller. "So I really feel good about the year. We kept raising the bar on them, and they kept climbing over it all year long."

Jacob Naig at 149 pounds, Aaron Wernimont at 157 and Romeo Djoumessi at 184 all claimed individual crowns and all nine Knights qualifiers earned all-America honors.

The only blemishes on the day were losses by Jake Helvey, T.J. Miller and Brian Borchers in their individual championship matches.

"There is not much more you can ask for, it was a pretty good tournament … team and individual," said Wernimont.

The Knights will graduate four of its nine all-Americans - Robert Struthers, Helvey, Miller and Borchers.

"I didn't know how good we were going to be, to be honest with you," said Jim Miller. "We just kept on improving from week to week, and things just kept on snowballing, and people took leadership. We had good chemistry, and that is what happens sometimes to win a championship."

Wartburg stashed away its sixth national title well before any finals match was contested. The Knights won all six of their semifinal matches, but they led by more than 40 points over La Crosse before the semifinals were even contested.

Nothing personifies Wartburg's continued success other than Borchers, who sat for four years behind Blake Gillis, waiting his turn to take the mat.

But the senior from Holstein avenged two of his three regular-season losses, one in the quarterfinals over Elmhurt's Mark Corsello, and the second in the semifinals over Delaware Valley's Kyle Bilquist, to give Wartburg a heavyweight finalist for the sixth consecutive year.

"There are a lot of people who knew I was a good wrestler, but I was just stuck behind somebody good," said Borchers. "There were a lot of people who believed in me, and it just worked out that I had an injury that allowed me to come back for another season and get my chance to shine."

Miller also avenged one of his two regular-season losses in the semifinals, beating Wisconsin-Stevens Point's Craig Bollig, 3-1, and was happy the Knights wrapped up the title early.

"This whole team, we're all good buddies, and I pretty much hang out with them every day," said Miller. "So when you see your good friends win, get to the finals, it kind of motivates me to want to do it again.

"I feels good to have had it clinched early, because it allowed all of us to concentrate and worry about what each of us had to do in the finals, instead of peaking around the curtain to see what my buddies were doing."

Altogether, Wartburg had nine all-Americans as Struthers finished fourth at 125, Matt Kelly was fifth at 141, and Justin Hanson was seventh at 165.

After Helvey fell in sudden death to King's College's David Morgan in the 133-pound title match, the Knights got dominating performances from Naig and Wernimont at 149 and 157.

Naig got takedowns in each of the first two periods en route to a 8-2 victory over Elliott Spence of Mount St. Joseph at 149. Naig has had to overcome to two complete ACL repair surgeries to reach the top, including one that cost him last season.

"I had to take last year off, but it all paid off, and this is awesome," said Naig. "It was great to finally to be there and take advantage of the opportunity and get the title."

Wernimont followed with a 7-3 victory over Jason Brew of Olivet at 157, leading from start to finish. Wernimont built a 4-1 lead in the first period.

Djoumessi dominated his match with Delaware Valley's Mike Wilcox, winning 8-2. He scored two quick takedowns in the match and rolled.

"There is one thing I remembered before my match and it was, 'Victory comes with obstacle.' So I knew I had to make my own breaks," said Djoumessi. "It was a great way to wrap up this season - individual, team title."

Naig, Wernimont and Djoumessi are all juniors.

All three losses the Knights suffered in the finals came by two points.

After Wartburg had won three title matches, T.J. Miller was denied his second title by Lycoming's Matt Miller, who rode a first-period takedown to victory.

Borchers led La Crosse's Dan Laurent late before Laurent scored the winning takedown with 15 seconds left for a 7-5 victory.

Luther had four all-Americans - Zac Bartlett was seventh at 133, Travis Grawin earned his second trip to the podium with a fourth at 141, Yonny Quist took eighth at 149 (becoming what is believed to be the first Division III all-American from the state of Hawaii), and Alec Bonander was fifth at 197 for his third all-American award.

Coe College, which finished fourth, saw its assistant coach and head coach, Dustin Hinschberger and John Oostendorp, win assistant coach and coach of the year honors.

La Crosse's Josh Chelf, who captured his second 174-pound championship with a major decision over Coe's Tyler Jentz, was named Outstanding Wrestler of the meet. Chelf won all four of his matches by either major decision or pin.

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

- DATE TO CELEBRATE: Wartburg will hold a celebration for its national championship wrestling team at Joe's Knighthawk in Waverly on Monday at 6 p.m.