#14 Greyhounds at NCAA Division II National Championships
Thursday, Mar. 3 & Friday, Mar. 4 | Denny Sanford PREMIER Center, Sioux Falls, S.D.
TrackWrestling/TrackCast video  |  game notes  |  brackets

FOLLOW THE HOUNDS: All of this weekend's action will be live on TrackWrestling at the link above, with TrackCast video available as well. Follow @UIndyWrestling on Twitter, and use #HoundsAtNCAAs and #d2wrestle to follow all of the Greyhounds in action this weekend in NCAA Division II Championship competition.

THE ROAD TO SIOUX FALLS: Four Greyhounds will take the flight to South Dakota for the NCAA Division II National Championships, with Josh Kieffer (125), Nick Crume (133), Taylor DeLong (184) and Dylan Faulkenberg (285) representing the #14 UIndy Wrestling Team.

SUPER REGION 2 RECAP: With UIndy playing host to the annual event, Nicoson Hall was the backdrop for the Greyhounds to finish tied for fourth a a team, with championship finishes from both fifth-year Kieffer and redshirt sophomore Crume at 125 and 133. Redshirt junior DeLong punched his ticket via a third-place finish at 184, while redshirt freshman Faulkenberg earned his trip to Sioux Falls with a third-place finish at heavyweight.

BACK-TO-BACK: With his championship win at 125, Kieffer won his second-straight Super Region 2 title, in four trips to the Regional final. He is the second Greyhound to be a four-time Regional finalist, following in the footsteps of Shane Perkey, who was a one-time champion and three-time runner up from 2005-08. Kieffer is just the fourth UIndy wrestler to win a pair of regional titles, and the first since Tony Abbott in 1995.

Crume also made a return trip to the regional final, taking his first win this season after finishing runner-up to eventual national runner-up Michael Labry of Ashland a season ago.

CLOSING OUT A CAREER: Josh Kieffer will close out a remarkable UIndy career this weekend. The four-time National Qualifier is just the third in UIndy history (Perkey 06-08; Mitch Napier 02-05) to make four trips to the National meet. Already a two-time All-American (6th-2012; 6th-2015), Kieffer has a chance to become just the third Greyhound in program history to All-American three or more times (Perkey 4x; Mike Jackson 3x).

We've already mentioned his regional accomplishments above, and the fifth-year senior comes into this final weekend with 86 career wins-- good for 18th in the program recordbook. Kieffer heads into this year's Nationals with his highest ranking ever, #2 in the NCAA DII Coaches Poll, and riding a 10-match win streak with an overall record of 23-4. His last loss came Jan. 8 at NWCA National Duals, to now-#4 Willie Bohince of Mercyhurst, 6-4 in SV-1. In addition to his accolades on the mat, Kieffer is also a two-time NWCA All-Academic selection as a criminal justice major.

HE'S 2-FOR-2: At 133, Crume is 2-for-2 on trips to the National meet. The redshirt sophomore beomes the 23rd two-time National Qualifier in program history, and via his win in the 133 regional title match, is the 20th Regional Champion in program history, joining both head coach Jason Warthan (165#-2000) and assistant coach Alex Johns (125#-2013) on that list.

EXTRA POINTS FOR CRUME: Of Crume's 20 wins on the season, just four are at 133, with the other 16 coming up at 141. Also of his 20 wins, 13 have been of the extra-point variety. The Jimtown, Ind. product has a pair of pins, five major decisions and six tech falls on the year, with the TF mark leading the UIndy team.

THEY'RE 1-FOR-1: Both DeLong and Faulkenberg will be making their first trips to the NCAA Division II National Championships, in their first seasons in the Greyhound lineup.

DeLong, who was an NAIA National Qualifier in 2014 for Indiana Tech, heads into Nationals with a 19-13 record on the year, while Faulkenberg leads the Greyhounds with 26 wins on the season against six losses. The 26 wins ties him for eighth place on the UIndy program's freshman wins list.