UNI PANTHERS

Has Northern Iowa won an NCAA wrestling championship? A look at UNI's championship history

Emery Glover
Des Moines Register

As the NCAA Wrestling Championships draw closer, Northern Iowa hopes to add to its program’s rich tradition. 

Since 2011, when Doug Schwab was hired as head coach, the Panthers have had 10 wrestlers combine for 13 All-American finishes. That includes three wrestlers — Dylan Peters, Drew Foster, Parker Keckeisen — who became two-time All-Americans in that span.

Foster won an NCAA title in 2019 at 184 pounds. He was Northern Iowa's first national champion wrestler since Tony Davis won in 2000. In all, the program has won 22 combined individual NCAA Division I titles and another 22 NCAA Division II national titles.

Northern Iowa begins this postseason ranked No. 18 by InterMat, and the Panthers hope to add more names to the NCAA wrestling history books. The 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships are set for March 16-18 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.

Here's a list of Northern Iowa's national champion wrestlers, with the year they won and the weight class in which they competed:

Previously:Weight-by-weight breakdown of Northern Iowa's wrestling lineup for the 2022-23 season

UNI wrestling's NCAA Division I national champions

  • 1937: Ray Cheney, 135 pounds
  • 1946: Cecil Mott, 121 pounds; Gerald Leeman, 128 pounds; Bill Koll, 145 pounds
  • 1947: Russ Bush, 128 pounds; Bill Koll, 145 pounds; Bill Nelson, 165 pounds
  • 1948: Bill Koll, 147.5 pounds
  • 1949: Keith Young, 145 pounds; Bill Nelson, 155 pounds; Bill Smith, 165 pounds
  • 1950: Keith Young, 145 pounds; Bill Nelson, 155 pounds; Bill Smith, 165 pounds
  • 1951: Keith Young, 147 pounds
  • 1952 Gene Lybbert, 130 pounds; Bill Weick, 157 pounds
  • 1953: Jim Harmon, 157 pounds
  • 1955: Bill Weick, 157 pounds
  • 1963: Bill Dotson, 137 pounds
  • 2000: Tony Davis, 149 pounds
  • 2019: Drew Foster, 184 pounds

More:55 Iowa wrestlers have won at least one NCAA title. Here's a look at the complete list

UNI wrestling's NCAA Division II national champions

  • 1963: Bill Dotson, 137 pounds; Jim Sanford, 147 pounds
  • 1966: Don Parker, 177 pounds
  • 1967: Don Parker, 177 pounds
  • 1968: Kent Osboe, heavyweight
  • 1969: Kent Osboe, heavyweight
  • 1971: Clint Young, 158 pounds
  • 1972: Mike McCready, heavyweight
  • 1974: Tom Garcia, 126 pounds; Jim Miller, 134 pounds; Ken Snyder, 142 pounds
  • 1975: Jim Miller, 134 pounds; Ken Snyder, 142 pounds; Randy Omvig, heavyweight
  • 1976: Gary Bentrim, 142 pounds
  • 1977: Gary Bentrim, 142 pounds
  • 1978: Gary Bentrim, 158 pounds; Keith Poolman, 167 pounds; Kirk Myers, 190 pounds
  • 1979: Kirk Myers, 190 pounds
  • 1980: Ken Gallagher, 150 pounds; Kirk Myers, 190 pounds