Wartburg Knights

The Wartburg Knights are the athletic teams that represent Wartburg College, located in Waverly, Iowa. The Knights have varsity teams in 27 sports, 13 for men and 14 for women. The teams participate in Division III of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and are members of the American Rivers Conference. Currently, the school's athletic director is John Cochrane.

Wartburg Knights
College	Wartburg College
Conference	American Rivers Conference
NCAA	Division III
Athletic director	John Cochrane
Location	Waverly, IA
Varsity teams	27
Football stadium	Walston-Hoover Stadium
Basketball arena	Levick Arena
Baseball stadium	Harms Stadium at Hertel Field
Softball stadium	Lynes Field
Soccer stadium	Salzwedel Field
Golf course	Prairie Links Golf Course
Tennis venue	Meirink Family Tennis Facility
Outdoor track and field venue	Hoover Fieldhouse
Mascot	Sir Victor
Nickname	Knights
Fight song	U RAH RAH RAH!
Colors	Orange and Black[1]
Website	go-knights.net/index.aspx
Team NCAA championships
24

Wartburg has had a strong history in athletics at the Division III level. The Knights wrestling team has an NCAA Division III leading 15 national championships.^[2] The Knights also have multiple national championships in both women's indoor track and field(3) and women's outdoor track and field(5), with men's track and field winning one in 2021.^[3][4] The Knights made history in the spring of 2012 when they became the first and only school to win two national titles in one day when both wrestling and women's indoor track and field won.^[5] In basketball, the Wartburg women have reached the NCAA Final Four on three occasions, most recently in 2024. The men's team has made the Elite Eight once and the Sweet Sixteen on three separate occasions, most recently in 2017.^[6] The baseball team has reached the College World Series twice, most recently in 2005. Wartburg's softball team has played in the Women's College World Series once, in 2003.

In the spring of 2024, Wartburg secured their 20th straight American Rivers Conference all-sports trophy.^[7] The Knights have won the trophy every year since its inception in 2003. They also won the men's all-sports trophy for the 25th time and have won the women's all sports trophy 18 times.

Championships

NCAA team championships

Wartburg has won 24 NCAA team championships.^[3]

National Championships (24)
Men's (16)
Sport	Year	Head Coach	Tournament
Outdoor Track & Field	2021	Marcus Newsom	NCAA
Wrestling	1996	Jim Miller	NCAA
	1999	Jim Miller	NCAA
	2003	Jim Miller	NCAA
	2004	Jim Miller	NCAA
	2006	Jim Miller	NCAA
	2008	Jim Miller	NCAA
	2009	Jim Miller	NCAA
	2011	Jim Miller/Eric Keller	NCAA
	2012	Jim Miller/Eric Keller	NCAA
	2013	Jim Miller/Eric Keller	NCAA
	2014	Eric Keller	NCAA
	2016	Eric Keller	NCAA
	2017	Eric Keller	NCAA
	2018	Eric Keller	NCAA
	2022	Eric Keller	NCAA
Women's (8)
Indoor Track & Field	2009	Marcus Newsom	NCAA
	2010	Marcus Newsom	NCAA
	2012	Marcus Newsom	NCAA
Outdoor Track & Field	2005	Marcus Newsom	NCAA
	2009	Marcus Newsom	NCAA
	2012	Marcus Newsom	NCAA
	2013	Marcus Newsom	NCAA
	2014	Marcus Newsom	NCAA

Conference championships

Wartburg has 260 Iowa Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (IIAC) and American Rivers Conference (A-R-C) championships:

Conference Championships (260)
Titles	Sport	Year
41	Wrestling	IIAC: 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1954, 1960, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 A-R-C: 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024
24	Womens Outdoor Track and Field	IIAC: 1993, 1994, 1995, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 A-R-C: 2020, 2021, 2024
22	Baseball	IIAC: 1961, 1962, 1963, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017
21	Men's Basketball	IIAC: 1952, 1955, 1959, 1960, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 2001, 2005, 2006
20	Men's Cross Country	IIAC: 1963, 1967, 1970, 1982, 1991, 1994, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 A-R-C: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
20	Women's Cross Country	IIAC: 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2002 , 2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 A-R-C: 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023
19	Football	IIAC: 1958, 1959, 1968, 1982, 1983, 1993, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2017 A-R-C: 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023
17	Women's Indoor Track & Field	IIAC: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018 A-R-C: 2020, 2021
12	Men's Outdoor Track & Field	IIAC: 1999, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2013, 2014, 2017 A-R-C: 2019, 2021, 2023
12	Women's Golf	IIAC: 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017
11	Men's Indoor Track & Field	IIAC: 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2014, 2015 A-R-C: 2019, 2021
11	Women's Basketball	IIAC: 1990, 1992, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2017, 2018 A-R-C: 2019, 2020, 2023, 2024
10	Women's Volleyball	IIAC: 2002, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017 A-R-C: 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021
6	Men's Golf	IIAC: 1955, 1960, 1971, 1972, 2004, 2006
5	Men's Soccer	IIAC: 2004, 2005, 2006, 2010, 2013
4	Women's Soccer	IIAC: 2008, 2011, 2015 A-R-C: 2020
3	Softball	IIAC: 2001, 2006, 2008
1	Men's Tennis	IIAC: 1993
1	Women's Tennis	A-R-C: 2018
260	Total	IIAC:220 A-R-C: 40

^[8][9]

Director's Cup

The NACDA Directors' Cup is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and universities with the most success in collegiate athletics. Points for the NACDA Directors' Cup are based on order of finish in various NCAA sponsored championships or based on various polls. The following is Wartburg's finish out of over 300 NCAA DIII institution's in the Director's Cup since 1995:^[10]

Year	Standing
Wartburg Learfield Director's Cup Standings
1995–96	T89th
1996–97	63rd
1997–98	39th
1998–99	T-25th
1999-00	34th
2000–01	10th
2001–02	15th
2002–03	7th
2003–04	13th
2004–05	12th
2005–06	17th
2006–07	24td
2007–08	8th
2008–09	15th
2009–10	32nd
2010–11	15th
2011–12	18th
2012–13	18th
2013–14	11th
2014–15	15th
2015–16	21st
2016–17	26th
2017–18	18th
2018–19	24th
2019–20	N/A (COVID)
2020–21	N/A (COVID)
2021–22	17th
2022–23	16th
2023–24	17th

^indicates a current standing
Red indicates ranking down from previous year
Green indicates ranking up from previous year

Current head coaches

Team	Coach
Wartburg NCAA Sport Head Coaches
Baseball	Casey Klunder
Basketball (Men's)	Sam Leal
Basketball (Women's)	Bob Amsberry
Cross Country	Ryan Chapman
Football	Chris Winter
Golf (Director of golf)	Jason Steege
Golf (Women's)	John Thompson
Soccer (Men's)	Mike Madigan
Soccer (Women's)	Emily Ryan
Softball	Jamie Mueller
Tennis (Men's and Women's)	Chris Gustas
Track and field (Men's and Women's)	Marcus Newsom
Volleyball	Jen Walker and Doug Frazell
Wrestling (Men's)	Eric Keller
Wrestling (Women's)	Brady Kyner

References

1. "Brand Guidelines" (PDF). Wartburg College. Retrieved March 19, 2023.
2. "DIII Wrestling Championship History | NCAA.com". www.ncaa.com.
3. "Wartburg National Championships". Wartburg College Athletics.
4. services, Register news. "Iowa Scene: Wartburg women's track wins D-III meet, DMACC softball". The Des Moines Register.
5. Bishop, Greg (March 14, 2012). "For Wartburg College, Titles Are Twice as Nice". The Quad.
6. "College men's basketball: Wartburg on to Sweet 16, 76-43". Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier.
7. https://rollrivers.com/news/2023/5/25/baseball-wartburg-sweeps-american-rivers-conference-all-sports-trophies-for-the-2022-23-year.aspx
8. "Tracking Titles - Men's". rollrivers.com.
9. "Tracking Titles - Women's". rollrivers.com.
10. "Previous Directors Cup Standings". nacda.com. Learfield Directors Cup. Retrieved September 2, 2024.