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Council Bluffs, IA – For the first time in program history, the Indian Hills Men's Wrestling team captured the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Men's Wrestling National Championship. The Warriors ran away with the title on Saturday, winning the championship by 40.5 team points.
The Warriors set a national record with 182 team points, the most points scored in a national championship in the 64 years of men's wrestling at the NJCAA level. Indian Hills captured two individual national champions in freshmen Gavyn Whitehead (New Castle, IN/New Castle) at 141lbs and Andrew Marquez (Rock Island, IL/Rock Island).
In just its fifth year of competition, Indian Hills added two runner-up performances on Saturday. In total, the Warriors brought home eight top-five finishes and nine All-Americans, completing one of the most dominant performances in NJCAA national championship history.
Whitehead became the program's first-ever national champion after battling through the 141lb bracket over the past two days. Whitehead starred in the semifinals with a 19-5 major decision to advance to the finals. In the championship bout, Whitehead earned his third overtime victory of the tournament after recording a three-point takedown in the extra session to knock off second-seeded Dmitri Alarcon of Western Wyoming Community College.
After a dominant opening day, Marquez ran away with the title on Saturday by knocking off No. 3 seeded Ghee Rahcal of Triton College (IL) in the semifinals before upending fourth-seeded Coen Grimm of Iowa Central Community College to claim the program's first-ever national championship at 197lbs.
Sophomore Jaquan East (Kokomo, IN/Kokomo) earned his second consecutive All-American performance after placing second in the 184lb bracket for the Warriors on Saturday. Freshman Mohamed Tarek Abdelhady (Alexandria, Egypt/Sports Military School) earned a runner-up finish after a breakout rookie campaign, placing second overall in the 174lb bracket.
Sophomore Brice Coleman (Indianapolis, IN/Indiana Tech) put together a remarkable comeback performance for the Warriors, battling through the consolation bracket after an opening round defeat to finish third overall in the 157lb bracket. Coleman captured his first-career All-American honor with the podium finish.
Sophomore Riley Bettich (Stevensville, IN/Crown Point) became a two-time All-American for the Warriors after placing fourth overall at 125lbs.
Freshman Cinsere Clark (Des Moines, IA/Valley) produced an All-American performance by placing fourth overall at 165lbs while fellow freshman Shehabeldin Mohamed (Alexandria, Egypt/Smouha Military) placed fifth overall for All-Americans honors at 149lbs.
Freshman Naasir Edmonds (Virginia Beach, VA/Landstown) rounded out the All-American performances with a sixth-place finish at 285lbs for the Warriors.
Indian Hills becomes the first program since 2019 to earn multiple individual championships.
In addition to the men's program, the women's wrestling squad captured their fifth consecutive national title, including their third consecutive NJCAA National Invitational championship.
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