Sophomore Matt Malcom won the 157 pound national title to lead the third-ranked Nebraska-Kearney wrestling team at the 2019 NCAA Division II Championships Saturday night in Cleveland.
The Lopers, with four All-Americans, tallied 71.0 points to come in fifth place, its 18th straight top eight finish at this event.
Malcom was the lone Loper to win in the finals as junior Jarod Hinrichs junior (285 lbs.) and sophomores Wesley Dawkins (133 lbs.) and Josh Portillo (125 lbs.) all came up a few points short. Malcom (Glenwood, Ia.) becomes UNK’s 23rd national champ with the Lopers now having 19 national runners up (NCAA D2 and NAIA).
Having one of the more dominant seasons in UNK history, Malcom went wire-to-wire, never losing his number one ranking. He finished on a 20 match win streak, went 20-1 vs. Division II competition and outscored his NCAA competition 50-7. Finally, Malcom’s 29-5 record featured six falls, seven tech falls and eight majors.
