Wabash will begin its chase for a fifth consecutive top-five finish at the NCAA Division III Wrestling National Championship Tournament. Six Little Giant grapplers will represent the team beginning Friday morning at the Berglund Center in Roanoke, Virginia.
 
Darden Schurg, Owen Doster, and Kyle Hatch are veteran competitors at the national championship tournament. Schurg and Doster are back for the third time in their careers while Hatch wrestled for the first time at the 2018 tournament. Jared Timberman, Wade Ripple, and Carlos Champagne are wrestling at the championship event for the first time.
 
Schurg is 22-2 this season and enters the tournament as the top seed and number-one ranked wrestler in Division III at 174 pounds. He earned All-America honors in 2017 with a fourth-place finish. He is competing at the national championship tournament for the third time in his career after qualifying in 2017 and 2018. Schurg earned his trip to the 2019 national meet with a second-place finish at the DIII Central Regional Tournament held at Wabash two weeks ago. He advanced to the finals before a medical forfeit moved him out of competition. Schurg's only loss on the mat this season came in the finals of the Indiana Little State Tournament to Brett Bradford from Lindsey Wilson College from the NAIA. Schurg opens this year's championship tourney on Friday with a first-round bout against Jordan Juliano (23-8) from Centenary University.
 
Hatch enters the national championship event for the second consecutive year after winning the 165-pound title at the regional tournament. He cruised through the regional with two pins in under a minute to go with an 11-2 major decision in the quarterfinal round and a 10-6 victory over Anthony Arroyo from Baldwin Wallace in the finals. Hatch is the fourth seed in the bracket with a 29-3 record this season and will open against Adrian Gonzalez (25-10) from Johnson and Wales in the preliminary round with the winner advancing to face Michael Suarez (17-13) from Luther College in the championship first round. Hatch defeated Gonzalez 6-5 in a meeting earlier this year at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute Quad Tournament in December.
 
Doster, 18-9 this season, is competing for the third consecutive season at the championship event. He earned a seventh-place finish as a freshman at the 2017 championship tournament at 133 pounds. Doster competed at the 2018 tournament but was knocked out in the first day. He will wrestle in the preliminary round of this year's tournament against fourth-seeded Bobby Jordan (16-6) from Johnson and Whales University in Rhode Island. The winner will move on to wrestle Yoseph Borai (25-7) from Stevens Institute of Technology in the first full round of the championship bracket.
 
Timberman will wrestle in the 157-pound bracket and will take on the winner of the preliminary round match between fifth-seeded Brandon Murray (21-4) from Loras and Jared Lough (41-5) from Averett. Timberman placed second at the regional tournament to earn his first trip to the national championship event after scoring three consecutive wins before losing a tough 8-6 decision to regional champion and fourth-seeded Antwon Pugh (31-0) from Mount Union. Timberman and Pugh would meet in the final round of competition Friday night should both wrestlers advance through the championship side of the bracket.
 
Ripple (31-8) dominated the first three rounds of the regional tournament at heavyweight by scoring wins by fall in his first two matches before advancing to the finals with a 6-4 decision over Trevor Piggott (28-9) from Olivet in the semifinal round. Ripple lost to Drew Kasper (29-0) from Otterbein in the regional finals. Ripple opens competition Friday morning against eighth-seeded Patrick Irwin (18-6) from the Coast Guard Academy. The winner moves into the championship first round to face Bowen Wileman (23-7) from Wartburg. Ripple wrestled Wileman earlier this year at the National Duals Tournament, losing 10-5. Kasper is the sixth seed at the national championship tournament, while Piggott will compete in the preliminary round of the draw Friday morning.
 
Champagne is 9-3 competing at 125 pounds for the Little Giants. The freshman transferred from Northern Illinois University and made an immediate impact on the Wabash team, winning his weight class at the John Summa Invitational tournament at Baldwin Wallace before finishing third at the Central Regional tournament two weeks ago. Champagne earned his first trip to the national tournament with an 8-7 victory in the finals over Andrew Perelka from John Carroll University. Champagne drew top-seeded Jay Albis (35-4) from Johnson and Wales in the first meeting of the season between the two wrestlers.
 
Action at the Berglund Center begins at 11 o'clock Friday morning. The tournament concludes Saturday evening with the championship bouts of all ten weight classes prior to the awarding of the team championship. Wabash finished fifth at the 2018 championship tournament to go with third-place finishes in 2017 and 2015 and a fourth-place finish in 2016.