Wartburg Knights

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Wartburg Knights
Wartburg Knights logo.svg
College Wartburg College
Conference American Rivers Conference
NCAA Division III
Athletic directorJohn Cochrane
Location Waverly, IA
Varsity teams27
Football stadium Walston-Hoover Stadium
Basketball arenaLevick Arena
Baseball stadiumHarms Stadium at Hertel Field
Softball stadiumLynes Field
Soccer stadiumSalzwedel Field
Golf coursePrairie Links Golf Course
Tennis venueMeirink Family Tennis Facility
Outdoor track and field venueHoover Fieldhouse
MascotSir Victor
NicknameKnights
Fight songU RAH RAH RAH!
ColorsOrange and Black [1]
   
Website go-knights.net/index.aspx
Team NCAA championships
24

The Wartburg Knights are the athletic teams that represent Wartburg College, located in Waverly, Iowa. The Knights have varsity teams in 27 sports, 13 for men and 14 for women. The teams participate in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are members of the American Rivers Conference. Currently, the school's athletic director is John Cochrane.

Contents

Wartburg has had a strong history in athletics at the Division III level. The Knights wrestling team has an NCAA Division III leading 15 national championships. [2] The Knights also have multiple national championships in both women's indoor track and field(3) and women's outdoor track and field(5), with men's track and field winning one in 2021. [3] [4] The Knights made history in the spring of 2012 when they became the first and only school to win two national titles in one day when both wrestling and women's indoor track and field won. [5] In basketball, the Wartburg women have reached the NCAA Final Four on three occasions, most recently in 2024. The men's team has made the Elite Eight once and the Sweet Sixteen on three separate occasions, most recently in 2017. [6] The baseball team has reached the College World Series twice, most recently in 2005. Wartburg's softball team has played in the Women's College World Series once, in 2003.

In the spring of 2024, Wartburg secured their 20th straight American Rivers Conference all-sports trophy. [7] The Knights have won the trophy every year since its inception in 2003. They also won the men's all-sports trophy for the 25th time and have won the women's all sports trophy 18 times.

Championships

NCAA team championships

Wartburg has won 24 NCAA team championships. [3]

National Championships (24)
Men's (16)
SportYearHead CoachTournament
Outdoor Track & Field 2021Marcus Newsom NCAA
Wrestling 1996Jim Miller NCAA
1999Jim Miller NCAA
2003Jim Miller NCAA
2004Jim Miller NCAA
2006Jim Miller NCAA
2008Jim Miller NCAA
2009Jim Miller NCAA
2011Jim Miller/Eric Keller NCAA
2012Jim Miller/Eric Keller NCAA
2013Jim Miller/Eric Keller NCAA
2014 Eric Keller NCAA
2016 Eric Keller NCAA
2017 Eric Keller NCAA
2018 Eric Keller NCAA
2022 Eric Keller NCAA
Women's (8)
Indoor Track & Field 2009Marcus Newsom NCAA
2010Marcus Newsom NCAA
2012Marcus Newsom NCAA
Outdoor Track & Field 2005Marcus Newsom NCAA
2009Marcus Newsom NCAA
2012Marcus Newsom NCAA
2013Marcus Newsom NCAA
2014Marcus Newsom NCAA

Conference championships

Wartburg has 265 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) and American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) championships:

Conference Championships (265)
TitlesSportYear
42 Men's Wrestling IIAC : 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1954, 1960, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004,
2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018
A-R-C : 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025
24 Women's Outdoor Track and Field IIAC : 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
A-R-C : 2020, 2021, 2024
22 Baseball IIAC : 1961, 1962, 1963, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
21 Men's Basketball IIAC : 1952, 1955, 1959, 1960, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 2001, 2005, 2006
21 Men's Cross Country IIAC : 1963, 1967, 1970, 1982, 1991, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005
A-R-C : 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
21 Women's Cross Country IIAC : 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014
A-R-C : 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
20 Football IIAC : 1958, 1959, 1968, 1982, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017
A-R-C : 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024
17 Women's Indoor Track & Field IIAC : 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
A-R-C : 2020, 2021
12 Men's Outdoor Track & Field IIAC : 1999, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2017
A-R-C : 2019, 2021, 2023
12Women's Golf IIAC : 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017
11 Men's Indoor Track & Field IIAC : 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015
A-R-C : 2019, 2021
11 Women's Basketball IIAC : 1990, 1992, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2017, 2018
A-R-C : 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024
10 Women's Volleyball IIAC : 2002, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
A-R-C : 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
6Men's Golf IIAC : 1955, 1960, 1971, 1972, 2004, 2006
5Men's Soccer IIAC : 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2013
4Women's Soccer IIAC : 2008, 2011, 2015
A-R-C : 2020
3Softball IIAC : 2001, 2006, 2008
1Men's Tennis IIAC : 1993
1Women's Tennis A-R-C : 2018
1Women's Wrestling A-R-C : 2025
265Total IIAC :220
A-R-C : 45

[8] [9]

Director's Cup

The NACDA Directors' Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in collegiate athletics. Points for the NACDA Directors' Cup are based on order of finish in various NCAA sponsored championships or based on various polls. The following is Wartburg's finish out of over 300 NCAA DIII institution's in the Director's Cup since 1995: [10]

YearStanding
Wartburg Learfield Director's Cup Standings
1995–96T89th
1996–9763rd
1997–9839th
1998–99T-25th
1999-0034th
2000–0110th
2001–0215th
2002–037th
2003–0413th
2004–0512th
2005–0617th
2006–0724td
2007–088th
2008–0915th
2009–1032nd
2010–1115th
2011–1218th
2012–1318th
2013–1411th
2014–1515th
2015–1621st
2016–1726th
2017–1818th
2018–1924th
2019–20N/A (COVID)
2020–21N/A (COVID)
2021–2217th
2022–2316th
2023–2417th

^indicates a current standing
Red indicates ranking down from previous year
Green indicates ranking up from previous year

Current head coaches

TeamCoach
Wartburg NCAA Sport Head Coaches
Baseball Casey Klunder
Basketball (Men's) Sam Leal
Basketball (Women's) Bob Amsberry
Cross CountryRyan Chapman
Football Chris Winter
Golf (Director of golf)Jason Steege
Golf (Women's)John Thompson
Soccer (Men's)Mike Madigan
Soccer (Women's) Emily Ryan
Softball Jamie Mueller
Tennis (Men's and Women's)Chris Gustas
Track and field (Men's and Women's)Marcus Newsom
Volleyball DeAnn Akins
Wrestling (Men's) Eric Keller
Wrestling (Women's)Brady Kyner

References

  1. "Brand Guidelines" (PDF). Wartburg College. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
  2. "DIII Wrestling Championship History | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com.
  3. 1 2 "Wartburg National Championships". Wartburg College Athletics.
  4. services, Register news. "Iowa Scene: Wartburg women's track wins D-III meet, DMACC softball". The Des Moines Register.
  5. Bishop, Greg (March 14, 2012). "For Wartburg College, Titles Are Twice as Nice". The Quad.
  6. "College men's basketball: Wartburg on to Sweet 16, 76-43". Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier.
  7. https://rollrivers.com/news/2023/5/25/baseball-wartburg-sweeps-american-rivers-conference-all-sports-trophies-for-the-2022-23-year.aspx
  8. "Tracking Titles - Men's". rollrivers.com.
  9. "Tracking Titles - Women's". rollrivers.com.
  10. "Previous Directors Cup Standings". nacda.com. Learfield Directors Cup. Retrieved September 2, 2024.