Kearney welcomes champions back to town
Several hundred gathered at the Health and Sports Center on Sunday
KEARNEY, Neb. --
The champs are back in town.
A rally welcoming UNK wrestlers to the Health and Sports Center as the Division II National Champions.
Several hundred were on hand to share the joy with the blue and gold grapplers.
A season ago, the Lopers won the championship by more than 50 points. This year, they only scored 83, and it came down to the final night.
"To see it come down to two teams who were neck and neck in the team race," said head coach Dalton Jensen, "what a better sports moment than that. You couldn't have wrote a better script."
The situation was plainer than those running through the heartland; pick up a win from one of their three finalists, or hope UCO lost either of their championship matches. If any of those occurred, UNK would be victorious. As luck would have it, they had two finals against Bronchos.
"We have to instill in our guys to be relaxed, calm, and just to understand the root of this sport. That's to have fun," Jensen said of pointing the competitiveness in the right direction considering what was at stake.
Augie Batsuuri was able to defeat a No. 1 Hunter Jump from UCO at 174 pounds to secure the trophy.
"Augie was ready. We kind of just saw it in him that we knew he was going to take care of business, and we knew if it came down to that, we were in good hands," Jensen said.
Batsuuri becoming the 27th individual national champion for the Loper wrestling program all-time, which includes the NAIA level.
It's the third championship in the last five years for UNK wrestling, all under the guidance of Jensen. The back half of his tenure has been a majority of titles.
While keeping the trophy case filled certainly comes with its fair of feel-good, the drive for Jensen goes beyond the glory at the end of the season.
"It's new guys every year that keep coming in," said Jensen. "They have the same passion and fuel that they want to be All-Americans, national champs, so it kind of goes on to a new chapter.
"At the root of it, you want to help these guys become better men and prepare them for life, so that definitely doesn't get old."