SIOUX FALLS- Five members of the UIndy Wrestling team will start their quest for an NCAA Division II National Championship Friday, at the PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls. Action from the National Championships opens at 11 a.m. CST from Sioux Falls Friday, and continues through Saturday evening's national finals.

THE QUALIFIERS
The five Greyhounds earned their NCAA spots by virture of finishing in the top three in their respective weight classes at the 2020 NCAA Super Region three tournament. Both Ana Abduljelil (125) and Jack Eiteljorge (165) won their weight classes to qualify, while Gleason Mappes (174) finished as the runner up in his bracket. Both Dawson Combest (157) and Brody Conner (184) finished third place to earn their spot in the National Championships.

THIRD TIME'S A CHARM
Both Abduljelil and Conner are making their third trip to the NCAA meet. Abduljelil previously qualified in 2017 at 125, and in 2019 at 133. Conner is making his third trip in three seasons, all at 184. 

AMONG THE WINNERS
Conner comes into the 2020 NCAA Division II Championships with 92 career wins as a Greyhound This number puts him in the 19th spot all-time on the UIndy win list.

Coincidentally, 92 is also the total number of dual wins that head coach Jason Warthan has amassed after the conclusion of this season. The UIndy head man has had 45 National Qualifiers and 16 All-Americans in his 11 years of leading the Greyhounds.

SLUMP BUSTER
Before Gleason Mappes this year, no 174 pound Greyhound has qualified for the NCAA meet since 2007, when Mike Jackson was the runner up at the weight for the second time. 

At 125, Abduljelil was the last to qualify at 125 in 2017, while Heath Lange was the last 157 qualifier last season. At 165, current graduate assistant Shelden Struble was the last to qualify last season, while Conner was the last, and only Greyhound, to qualify at the weight, in the last two years.

AT THEIR WEIGHTS
The last All-Americans at each of the 2020 National Qualifier weights:

125- Josh Kieffer, 7th, 2016
157- Heath Lange, 8th, 2017
165- Jeff Weiss, 3rd, 2014
174- Mike Jackson, 2nd, 2007
184- N/A

There has never been a Greyhound All-American at 184, dating back to the NCAA weight class changes in 1999.

There have been six total UIndy All-Americans at 125, three at 157, two at 165, four at 174 and none at 184.

WELCOME BACK TO SIOUX FALLS
This is the second time the NCAA Division II National Championships will be constest at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. The last time the event was in Sioux Falls was 2016, four Greyhounds made the trip: Josh Kieffer (125), Nick Crume (133), Taylor DeLong (184) and Dylan Faulkenberg (285). 

Two of those Greyhounds emerged as All-Americans, with Kieffer closing out his UIndy career with a seventh place finsih and Crume earning the highest All-American finish of his four as the runner up at 133.

WELCOME TO THE SHOW
A pair of this weekend's qualifiers have made the trip to the NCAA meet in their first year of competition, with both Combest (157) and Eiteljorge (165) redshirt freshman this year. The last freshman qualifiers for the Greyhounds were Abuduljelil who made the trip in 2017 as a true freshman and Faulkenberg who made his 2016 trip to Sioux Falls as a redshirt freshman.

Crume was the last freshman All-American, with his seventh place finish at 133 in 2015 coming when he was a redshirt freshman. Josh Kieffer's sixth place finish at 125 in 2012 was the last placement by a true freshman Hound.

THE CHAMPS ARE HERE
Abduljelil and Eiteljorge both won their first career Regional Championships en route to coming to Sioux Falls. The last time UIndy had more than one regional champ in a season was in 2018, when both Crume and Faulkenberg were regional champs.

20-WIN CLUB
Three of the Greyhound qualifiers enter the weekend with more than 20 wins on the 2019-20 season:

Brody Conner: 27-7; 6 pins tied for second on the team
Dawson Combest: 23-6; 7 tech falls are third in NCAA Division II
Jack Eiteljorge: 21-8