EDMOND, Okla. — St. Cloud State (Minn.) enters the 2011-12 season as the No. 1 team in NCAA Division II wrestling, according to the preseason poll released by the NCAA Division II Wrestling Coaches Association Wednesday.

The Huskies, coming off a best-ever runner-up finish in last year’s national tournament, received four of the eight first-place votes cast in balloting of coaches from around the country and finished with 153 points in earning the favorite’s tag.
Newberry (S.C.), which has won four straight Super Region I titles and was sixth nationally last season, earned three first-place votes and is second in the poll with 150 points. Upper Iowa came in third with 144 points, Nebraska-Kearney had the other first-place vote in finishing fourth with 132 and Grand Canyon (Ariz.) is fifth with 130.

Rounding out the top 10 is Augustana (S.D.), Central Oklahoma, Pittsburgh-Johnstown (Pa.), Wisconsin-Parkside and Ashland (Ohio).

Twenty-nine teams received points in the wide-open voting, with first-year program Maryville (Mo.) coming in 15th with 47 points. Nebraska-Omaha had its program disbanded last year after winning its third straight national championship and several members of that team, led by long-time head coach Mike Denney, went to Maryville.

Courtesey of Mike Kirk, Central Oklahoma Sports Information

Date Ranked:10/26/2011

Ranked By Division II Coaches Association

Teams
Rank School (State), Points, Last Year’s Finish
1. St. Cloud State (Minn.) 153, 2nd
2. Newberry (S.C.), 150, 6th
3. Upper Iowa, 144, 4th
4. Nebraska-Kearney 132, 8th
5. Grand Canyon (Ariz.) 130, 7th
6. Augustana (S.D.) 124, 3rd
7. Central Oklahoma 107, 13th
8. Pittsburgh-Johnstown (Pa.) 94, T-10th
9. Wisconsin-Parkside 90, 9th
10. Ashland (Ohio), 74, 20th
11. Mercyhurst (Pa.), 70, 25th
12. Minnesota State 69, T-10th
13. Adams State (Colo.) 63, 21st
14. Findlay (Ohio) 53, 14th
15. Maryville (Mo.), 47, NR
16. Fort Hays State (Kan.), 44, T-22nd
17. Limestone (S.C.), 31, 27th
18. North Carolina-Pembroke, 28, T-17th
19. San Francisco State (Calif.) 23, T-17th
20. Shippensburg (Pa.), 15, T-22nd

Others receiving votes: Central Missouri, Colorado School of Mines, East Stroudsburg (Pa.), Gannon (Pa.), King (Tenn.), Kutztown (Pa.), Mary (N.D.), Northern State (S.D.), Western State (Colo.).

Individuals
125 Pounds
1. Connor McDonald, Newberry (S.C.)
2. Kyle Pedretti, Upper Iowa
3. Corey Ulmer, Minnesota State-Moorhead
4. Terrell McKinney, Maryville (Mo.)
5. Ben Sergent, Findlay (Ohio)
6. Jerry Huff, Adams State (Colo.)
7. Brandon Davis, Ashland (Ohio)
8. Shane Summerlin, Belmont Abbey (N.C.)

133 Pounds
1. Trevor Franklin, Upper Iowa
2. Jason Jeremiason, Augustana (S.D.)
3. Ryan Link, Pittsburgh-Johnstown (Pa.)
4. Trison Graham, Central Oklahoma
5. Matt Oliver, Newberry (S.C.)
6. Michael Magaha, Limestone (S.C.)
7. Dan Mandara, Ashland (Ohio)
8. Tyler Nelson, Colorado Mesa

141 Pounds
1. Dalton Jensen, Nebraska-Kearney
2. B.J. Young, Newberry (S.C.)
3. Jack Bachman, Pittsburgh-Johnstown (Pa.)
4. Dan Genetin, Ashland (Ohio)
5. Simon Rice, Shippensburg (Pa.)
6. Adam Hluschak, East Stroudsburg (Pa.)
7. Madison Gambrell, Grand Canyon (Ariz.)
8. Nick Wykoff, West Liberty (W. Va.)

149 Pounds
1. Nate Herda, Augustana (S.D.)
2. Mitchell Means, Fort Hays State (Kan.)
3. Tommy Abbott, Minnesota State
4. Josh Hensley, Adams State (Colo.)
5. Ethan Swope, Gannon (Pa.)
6. Deral Brown, Newberry (S.C.)
7. Nathan Link, Pittsburgh-Johnstown (Pa.)
8. Ryan Maus, Truman State (Mo.)

157 Pounds
1. Dillon Bera, Wisconsin-Parkside
2. T.J. Hepburn, Nebraska-Kearney
3. Jordan Shields, Mercyhurst (Pa.)
4. Teddy Bristol, Grand Canyon (Ariz.)
5. Cory Dauphin, Central Oklahoma
6. Marcus Edgington, Augustana (S.D.)
7. J.D. Horn, St. Cloud State (Minn.)
8. Winston Robbins, Upper Iowa

165 Pounds
1. Tad Merritt, St. Cloud State (Minn.)
2. Joey Wilson, Nebraska-Kearney
3. Mike Williams, North Carolina-Pembroke
4. Dylan Granard, Colorado Mesa
5. Sean Brynes, Newberry (S.C.)
6. Isaiah Jimenez, San Francisco State (Colo.)
7. Jordan Larsen, Colorado School of Mines
8. Ronald Tetreault, American International (Mass.)

174 Pounds
1. Michael Lybarger, Findlay (Ohio)
2. Luke Rynish, Wisconsin-Parkside
3. Victor Carazo, Grand Canyon (Ariz.)
4. Shamus O’Grady, St. Cloud State (Minn.)
5. Kelly Henderson, Central Oklahoma
6. Bryce Sopko, Limestone (S.C.)
7. Carl Serck, Augustana (S.D.)
8. Brendan Eichman, Minnesota State

184 Pounds
1. Ross Brunkhardt, Nebraska-Kearney
2. Mitch Schultz, Upper Iowa
3. Matt Gille, Wisconsin-Parkside
4. Derek Skala, St. Cloud State (Minn.)
5. Tanner Keck, Central Oklahoma
6. Brady Anderson, Mary (N.D.)
7. Brandon Tressler, King (Tenn.)
8. Londele Cox, Mercyhurst (Pa.)

197 Pounds
1. Carl Broghammer, Upper Iowa
2. Dan Scanlan, Limestone (S.C.
3. Luke McPeek, Adams State (Colo.)
4. Matt Baker, Maryville (Mo.)
5. Pat Mahan, Minnesota State
6. Frank Morgan, King (Tenn.)
7. Eddie Ebewo, East Stroudsburg (Pa.)
8. Karl Reed, Newberry (S.C.)

285 Pounds
1. Matt Meuleners, Northern State (S.D.)
2. Jacob Kahnke, St. Cloud State (Minn.)
3. Jacob Southwick, Ashland (Ohio)
4. Jake Elkins, Newberry (S.C.)
5. Zach Rosol, Upper Iowa
6. Fred Hale, Mercyhurst (Pa.)
7. J.D. Ramsey, West Liberty (W. Va.)
8. Cody Beck, Central Missouri

A couple of questions come to mind as I look over these rankings.

I am assuming that the team rankings take into account the new incoming freshman/transfer wrestlers while the individual rankings do not?

The reason I am asking, for example; Andy Pokorny has transfered to SCSU and I would think he would be ranked? While the SCSU team is ranked #1 preseason?

Is this a fair assumption?

I think that's a reasonable assumption in most cases. If you had a kid who was a D-1 AA and he transferred to a D-2 the following year for some reason, I would guess the guy would be ranked in the pre-season (rare case obviously).

The first ratings of the year are largely based on how guys finihsed last year.

Yeah, Kearney will definately have someone ranked high at 174 too, but neither guy was there last year. These rankings aren't very accurate until second semester.

Also, with SDSU, NDSU, UNO, UNC, all no longer DII, I can't for the life of me understand how UCO isn't a top three team year in and year out.

Should be a good team race at NCAA's this year.

They were when I was at UNK. Not sure what the deal is. They do not even need to recruit outside the states of Oklahoma and Texas and they should still be a top 3 every year.

My guess would be that maybe Coach James has been there a little too long. After 20 some years the fire probably is not there like it used to be. That being said OK City and Baccone have not done much either. I would have thought with the talent in OK they would be legitimate programs also.

I would say Coach James has not brought in good enough people to help? Though I don't know them and don't want to bag on them. Coach James is awesome I think. But, something appears to be out of whack though doesn't it.

Along those lines though a few years back UCO won it when it was at Kearney? And everyone was raving about how good Kearney because Kearney was so young. Well, UCO won it and was even younger...but they never really did anything after that.
Part of it is the tourney isn't seeded, so perhaps they had easy draws...because they put about 5 in the finals that year.

That year there were four contenders in UNK, UCO, UNO, and Mankato State. UCO got a big, early upset at 133 in the first round and rolled from there on. Wrestle the same tournament a week later and they probably finished fourth. A national tournament is all about momentum and that weekend they had it.

I think that they should be winning because 1.) they have a great recruiting base 2.) they have great tradition 3.) they offer twice as many schoolarships as everyone else.

The RMAC and NCC both capped schoolies at 5 per team. Some of those teams opperated at less. UCO had the DII limit of 9 to give, almost twice as many as everyone else.

Okie State and Oklahom have, by there standards, both been a little down lately. So maybe guys that would be going to UCO are going to OU or OSU, so the overall talent is down in Oklahoma.....IDK, just a hypothosis

Dalton
YOU are a thinker!
I like it.
I agree with everything you said and didn't realize they offered more schollies!

That could be outdated info. They have switched conferences to the MIAA, but wrestling isn't that big in the MIAA. Hays is still a charter member of the RMAC in wrestling despite belonging to the MIAA in everything else. The MIAA doesn't have a wrestling tournamnet (or hasn't in the past prior to UNK and UCO joining). The MIAA may cap wrestling schoolies, but I doubt it considering as a conference they seem to not care too much about wrestling.

That being said, the MIAA is a power conference, a have. There are have and have not conferences in NCAA DII just like DI. But you won't see DI schools or conferences limiting schoolarships more so than the NCAA already does. That is a common practice in DII have not conferences.

Therefore I doubt they limit schoolarships because a.) they don't care, and b.) they are fiscally well off as a conference; generally speaking.