Saint John's University junior Connor Krueger (Superior, Wis.) begins the 2026 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships at 10 a.m. Friday, March 13, at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. – Live Results | Live Video

THE SCHEDULE: The 2026 Division III Wrestling Championships begin with Session I (the first two preliminary rounds and first consolation) at 10 a.m. Friday. Competition resumes Friday with the second session, which consists of the quarterfinals and the consolation second and third rounds, at 5 p.m. Saturday's matches start at 10 a.m. and finals begin at 7 p.m.
 
A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Krueger qualified for nationals and three other Johnnies placed Feb. 27-28 at the NCAA Regional hosted by Wisconsin-Eau Claire. As a team, SJU finished 10th out of 16 teams. 

Krueger finished second overall and punched his ticket to nationals with a 7-3 win over Wisconsin-La Crosse's Wyatt Magolski in the semifinals. Magolski struck first with a takedown in the opening minute, but Krueger escaped and scored a takedown of his own with a minute left in the first period and added a two-point near fall for a 6-3 lead. He started the second period down and escaped eight seconds in for what proved to be the match's final point. The victory avenged a pair of losses – in the quarterfinals (7-3) and third-place match (5-1) – to Magolski at last year's regional.

Despite a furious rally to tie the championship match at 5-5, Krueger fell to Augsburg's Chance Suddeth 8-5 in sudden victory. Suddeth recorded a takedown 17 seconds into the match and, after a scoreless second period, chose down to start the third period. He escaped early for a 4-1 lead, but Krueger was awarded a point for stalling and recorded a takedown in the closing seconds to send the match to overtime. Suddeth, however, scored a takedown with 25 seconds left in overtime for the title.

Freshman Carson Gellerman (Becker, Minn./Big Lake) was one win away from the national tournament but finished sixth at 184 pounds. He fell to Wisconsin-Stevens Point's Easton Hull via technical fall, 19-4, in the semifinals. Gellerman scored a takedown 47 seconds into the match, but Hull escaped and tallied a takedown of his own. The Johnnie freshman escaped to tie the match at 4-4, but Hull rattled off 15-straight points for the tech fall in 6:09.

Gellerman medical forfeited his remaining two matches for sixth place and end the season with a 19-5 record.

Sophomore Thomas Holmquist (Mendota Heights, Minn./St. Thomas Academy) led the Johnnies with three wins (3-3 record) to place sixth at 125 pounds and end the season with a 25-7 record. He started the day with a 10-8 victory over Wisconsin-Platteville's Chris Karbash. With the match deadlocked at 6-6 entering the third period, Holmquist started down and escaped, and then scored a takedown with 28 seconds left. He was issued a harmless stalling penalty with five ticks left.

Holmquist entered the third period of his consolation semifinal against Chris Kish of Carthage (Wis.) with a 4-1 lead, but Kish escaped and posted a takedown with 45 seconds remaining for a 5-4 loss. Linfield's (Ore.) Jacob Moore then defeated Holmquist via fall in 2:59 for fifth place.

Junior Aidan Wayne (Maple Grove, Minn./Osseo) dropped both of his matches Saturday for eighth place at 197 pounds. He fell to the Pointers' Logan Neitzel 3-0, of which the match's scoring consisted of two stalling points and nearly four minutes (3:59) of riding time, and suffered a 4-1 loss to Concordia-Moorhead's William Freking in the seventh-place bout. Wayne ended the season with a team-best 31-7 record.

SJU'S 133-POUND HISTORY: Krueger, who is 20-2 this season and just missed a trip to the NCAA Championships with a fourth-place finish last season, is SJU's first national entrant since Noah Becker '20 – also at 133 pounds – in 2019-20. Nine Johnnies, including Krueger, have appeared in the national tournament at 133 pounds a total of 13 times, including three at 134 pounds before the weights shifted for the 1998-99 season. The most recent All-America performance (top eight) in the weight class was Chad Henle '12 in 2011 (seventh). Becker earned NWCA All-America honors in 2020 despite the national meet not taking place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

THE OPPONENTS: Krueger is unseeded and faces sophomore Esuar Ordonez from Springfield (Mass.), who is 26-9 this season, in the first round. Ordonez finished third at the NCAA Region I Championships. The winner advances to take on College of New Jersey junior Garrett Totten, the bracket's top seed who is ranked No. 2 in the nation with a 31-4 record.

THE BRACKET: The 133-pound weight class includes five returning All-Americans, including each of the top four seeds, and five others who qualified for last year's NCAA Championships. Totten finished sixth last season, while second-seeded Jake Craig of Southern Main was sixth a year ago at 125 pounds. James Day of Wabash, the third seed, claimed fourth in the weight bracket in 2025 and third at 125 in 2024. The fourth seed, Connor Kidd of Luther (Iowa), was eighth at 133 last year and Suddeth was seventh.

FEATURE STORY: It was almost like the plot of a movie.

One year ago, now-Saint John's junior Connor Krueger lost a pair of matches to Wisconsin-La Crosse's Wyatt Magolski in NCAA Division III regional competition, including a 5-1 decision in the third-place match at 133 pounds.

That loss kept Krueger from a top-three finish in his weight class and a berth in the Division III national meet – a near-miss that both gnawed at and motivated him throughout an entire offseason.

"To be so close and not get there was absolutely devastating," said Krueger, a Superior (Wis.) High School graduate. "It felt like it was right there, then to have it stripped away left a giant pit in my stomach."

But Krueger converted that despair into drive, remaining on campus all summer and working closely with assistant athletic trainer and head strength and conditioning coach Justin Rost.

All that hard work paid off this past Saturday (March 7) when Krueger again found himself staring across the mat at Magolski at the regional meet, this time in the semifinal match at 133 pounds with the winner guaranteed to punch his ticket to the national meet.

Magolski took the lead with a takedown in the opening minute of the first period, but Krueger countered with a takedown of his own and added a near fall. An escape in the opening moments of the second put the finishing touches on a 7-3 redemptive victory.

Krueger went on to fall 8-5 in overtime to Augsburg's Chance Suddeth in the championship match. But he still becomes the first Saint John's wrestler to qualify for nationals since 133-pounder Noah Becker in 2020.

Becker, though, never got the chance to compete that year because the meet was cancelled due to the onset of COVID-19. The last Johnnie to wrestle at nationals was Luke Dodd at 197 pounds in 2019.

"What Connor did is an important step for us," SJU head coach Kevin Schiltz said. "It shows Saint John's wrestling is getting better. And we had a couple of other guys who came close too. So we're building.

"Connor stayed on campus all summer and basically lived in the weight room," Schiltz continued. "He made himself an even better wrestler."

Beyond the effort he's put in, Krueger has also had to overcome a fair share of adversity. He broke a rib in the season opener against Nebraska Wesleyan a year ago.

"Stuff happens sometimes," he said. "I got in a position I'm in regularly, but all of a sudden, I heard something pop. I could feel my rib popping in and out. Justin came out to look at me and told me I needed to go to the emergency room right away.

"My dad drove me, and every time we went over a bump on the way there, I experienced some of the worst pain I've felt in my life."

He didn't return to action until a month before the region meet. Then, this season, he's been wrestling through a torn labrum.

"I look at it like adversity is a gift," Krueger said. "It forces you to grow and evolve and become a better person."

Krueger – an elementary education major who'd like to one day be an athletic director – wasn't initially sure he even wanted to attend college.

"I was a 17-year-old kid and part of me was thinking maybe I'd join the military or go into the trades," he recalled. "But Coach Schiltz had emailed my high school coach, and after some pushing from my parents, I decided to take a tour.

"As soon as I started the drive into campus and saw the Abbey Church, I was hooked. The campus was so pretty. Then I got to meet some of the wrestlers and I had a blast. It was pretty clear this was the place for me."

This weekend, though, his place is at the Division III national meet – scheduled for Friday (March 13) and Saturday (March 14) at the Alliant Energy Power House in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

"I'm just excited to go out there and compete," he said. "It's an honor to represent Saint John's. I know I'm not just wrestling for myself, but for all the alumni and my current teammates who'll be supporting me.

"If I can go out there and wrestle the way I know I'm capable of, the rest will take care of itself."