By J.F. Pirro

  In the ever increasingly interesting, dynamic and diverse National Collegiate Wrestling Association National Championships held in Easton, Pa.
 at Lafayette College's Kirby Sports Center in mid-March, the two-time defending team champion, Grand Valley State (Mich.), was denied a threepeat
 as was a two-time individual champion, the University of Delaware's Mike Collins, who was attempting to become the association's first three-time
 gold medallist.
     Along with several other noteworthy developments -- the University of Central Florida crowned its first two NCWA champions and its coach, John
 Rouse, was named Coach of the Year -- it demonstrated that while only in its sixth year, the NCWA is not only surviving, it's thriving.
     The University of Nevada-Reno, a second-year entry which had nine All-Americans and collected 154 1/2 points, won the heated three-team race,
 outpacing Virginia's The Apprentice School (138) and Grand Valley State (130), which was after its third straight team trophy.  It seemed to have
 the title all but sewn up until Nevada-Reno, which took second the year before, came on strong the second day after some first-day setbacks.
     "This is a great feeling because we won this with our backs to the wall," said Nevada-Reno coach Kevin Carter, the 2002 NCWA Coach of the Year.
 "We had seven guys in the consolations after the first round, while Grand Valley had seven in the championship rounds."
     Nevada-Reno, the Western Conference champions, won the team title despite crowning only one champion, Chris Hammer, a junior who finished the
 season 41-3 with the 125-pound title.  It had two other finalists, the 235-pound Andre Moore, a Western Conference champion, and the 133-pound
 Camilo Gonzales, an undefeated Western Conference champion and the defending NCWA champion in his weight class.
     The tournament's Outstanding Wrestler, Baptist Bible College's Jason Meister, a senior who capped his career and undefeated season (32-0) with an
 absolutely awesome 18-7 major over Gonzales, a two-time JUCO national champion and Greco-Roman specialist.  Twice in the third period, Meister
 took Gonzales down to his back to build the big bulge in the score.  He was a no-brainer pick as OW, then afterwards had only high praise for the NCWA.
     "Every year it seems like they bring in a Grand Valley State (which had 56 NCAA Division II All-Americans in its history before the varsity program
 was dropped in 1991) or some team like that which competes against an all Division I and Division II schedule," said Meister, who finished third the
 last two years.  "They are starting to build this up.  They're doing a good job.  Who knows?  Maybe in a few years this will be bigger than (NCAA)
 Division II and Division III."
     Like Nevada-Reno, even as team scores were updated after nearly every title bout, Grand Valley State only ended up with one champion, Brian Thomas
 (174), although it had another finalist, Rick Bolhuis (184).  The Apprentice School had a trio of finalists fall.  Adam Bessinger (125), Ron Vecchione

 (149) and Daryl Stackhouse (285) all settled for second.
     Douglas College, a Canadian entry, crowned two champs in Dean DeHamel (157) and Travis Cross (184).  Pensacola (Fla.) Christian College did the
 same with the dynamic duo of Steve McGettrick (149) and Benjamin Bieber (197).  For Midwestern flavor, the University of Southern Colorado's Cody
 Crawford (141) and Kansas State University's David Karnowski (285) also took home the gold.
     For Coach -of-the-Year Rouse, who was an assistant at the University of Central Florida in 1979, the last year the school fielded an NCAA program,
 he had the privilege of hanging gold medals around the necks of fellow Southeast Conference champions Raun Jessee, the 165-pound champion, and Tom
 Lawlor, the 235-pound champion by virtue of a 3-1 decision over Nevada-Reno's Moore.  Teammate Jeff Ruberg (157) lost his title bout.
     "If not for this association, I definitely wouldn't be wrestling in college right now," said Jessee, an Orlando, Fla. native and the first NCWA
 champion in his school's history before Lawlor joined him in that elite circle later on.  "For me, this was an opportunity."
     NCWA Executive Director and founder Jim Giunta's entire vision was based around exactly that -- opportunity -- when he formed the NCWA six years ago.
 Now, in its history, 102 teams have competed, according to Giunta.  This past season, 920 individuals registered, quite a jump from the 680
 participants a year ago -- or the 180 wrestlers on 18 teams the first season.
     In the 1970s, Randy Jessee, Raun's father, wrestled at Central Florida when Rouse was an assistant, and when wrestling was an NCAA sport.  His
 son, Raun, took a year off from school after high school, then tried to walk on last year at N.C. State, but admitted he grew "homesick" before
 transferring to Central Florida.
     The NCWA is for wrestlers like Jessee to have second chances.
     And for state's like Nevada to have second chances.
     The year was 1974, and the University of Nevada-Reno dropped its NCAA
 program.  Until Nevada-Reno joined the NCWA two years ago, there hadn't been collegiate wrestling anywhere in the state.  Once the NCWA program was
 formed, Carter, who had been an NCAA placewinner at Southern Oregon, went on a recruiting spree in Nevada, California and Oregon.  Now, his team also
 raises some $25,000 a year as a travel budget.
     At the NCWA National Championships, Nevada-Reno kicked it into high gear on day two.  Besides the three finalists, Gabe Rukkala (fifth at 141), Alden
 Lee (third at 149), Anthony Sharron (sixth at 165), Danny Curtis (fifth at 174), Jose Ruano (sixth at 184) and Deniz Akmese (fifth at 285) were all
 named All-Americans.
     "The first day (of the tournament) we lost team points and didn't have our heads in our matches," Carter said.  "The second day, we turned it
 around.  We pulled it off.  This is impressive because we won it with our hearts, and that's what makes this so sweet.  We sat them down and explained
 that we had all the tough draws (day one), but that now all the tough matches were done.  They believed what we said and went and got it done."
     Getting it done for a third consecutive time in the championship finals was something Delaware's Collins couldn't get done.  Maybe it was the
 pressure of becoming the first three-time NCWA champion, and maybe it was just that Grand Valley State's Thomas, a freshman, brought too much to the
 table.  He took Collins down twice in the first period and cruised to a 10-5 decision in the 174-pound title tilt.
     "I guess my heart wasn't in it as much," Collins said.  "I wasn't in the best shape. Ii could have done a lot more to prepare all season, but it was
 hard this year without anyone pushing us at practice.  Having a coach in the room (as Delaware did when Ed Bailey pitched in during previous seasons
 in between double and triple wrestling duties elsewhere) really makes a lot of difference."
     Still, for Collins, who will graduate, the NCWA provided that
 all-important opportunity.  A former Delaware state champion from St.
 Mark's, Collins looked at a couple NCAA Division III programs but said he didn't have much desire to wrestle in college -- until Delaware started an
 NCWA team in his sophomore year (1999).
     "I guess the only reason I did it again was because I missed it," Collins said.  "Then, once I won it (his first NCWA title), I had to do it
 again to see if I could do it again, plus they started giving out rings to the champions.  This year, I did it too see if I could win it again -- and

 to get another ring."
     What rings true for all NCWA's participants is the chance for a second opportunity at the sport.
     "All these guys out here love the sport," Giunta said.
     Even for those who haven't yet become champions, but who have already taken steps to becoming an NCWA champion like Bucknell sophomore Justin
 Hartrum, who finished fourth at 149, the second chance is all important.  In his senior year at Wilson Area High School, the three-time defending
 Pennsylvania Class AA champion, Hartrum had signed and sealed a deal to wrestle at Bucknell, but even by that spring word spread that the university
 hadn't yet delivered the bad news: It intended to drop wrestling as an NCAA sport.  By the middle of his freshman season, Bucknell made it
 official.
     "We all saw it was coming but we tried not to look at it," Hartrum said.
 "I had to wonder what I was going to do next winter without a sport I was in since I was 5 years old."
     The NCWA solved his dilemma.