Brew and Vanderhyde seeded at 2008 NCAA Wrestling Championships

Two of three Olivet College wrestlers competing at the 2008 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships Friday and Saturday, March 7-8, have been seeded. Junior Jason Brew (Sparta) has received the No. 2 seed at 157 pounds, while junior Kyle Vanderhyde (Sparta) is the No. 3 seed at 174 pounds. The third Olivet wrestler competing is senior Daron Cruickshank (Inkster/John Glenn) at 165 pounds. The Comets are ranked No. 11 in the latest National Wrestling Coaches Association poll.

"This is the first time since 2001 that we are going to nationals with three regional champions, and with wrestlers who have experience competing at a national level," said Head Coach Todd Hibbs. "All three are amazingly hard-working and confident competitors who circled these dates on their calendars long ago. It is a very tough tournament and we will respect our opponents, but our clear goal is to win matches and bring home titles."

Brew has posted a 33-8 record this season and takes the highest seed of any Olivet wrestler to the nationals in many years. In the first round he will face Jay Milz from University of Wisc.-LaCrosse. Earlier this season, Brew beat Milz, 3-2, at the Comet Duals Nov. 17, and 3-1 in the championship match of the Wheaton/Pete Willson Invitational Feb. 2.

Vanderhyde has an 18-3 record and will be wrestling from the same seed that he did a year ago when he advanced to the national championship match. In the first round, Vanderhyde will wrestle against Andre DeCristo from Hunter (N.Y.) College. His weight class will be a brutal competition as the last year's national champ (Josh Chelf from Wisc.-LaCrosse), runner-up (Vanderhyde) and third-place (Eric Bath from University of Wisc.-Stevens Point) finishers are all back to compete for the 2008 national title.

Cruickshank, who competed at last year's national championships, enters the championships with an 18-13 record this season. In the first round, he will face Justin Hanson from the No. 1 team in the nation, Wartburg (Iowa) College. The winner advances to face No. 3 seed Gino Russo from Baldwin-Wallace (Ohio) College.

In addition, the Division III national academic wrestling champions will be announced at the coaches' social and Hall of Fame ceremony Thursday night. The past two years, Olivet has been fourth in the nation.

"We are eager to see where we will be ranked this year," Hibbs said. "We submitted our highest GPA ever (3.496). We also expect Kyle and Sean (Misko) to be named Division III Scholar All-Americans based upon their 3.88 and 3.66 GPA respectively."

The first two rounds of action at the national championships get under way Friday morning at 11 a.m. at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Action continues with Session II Friday night at 6 p.m. Saturday's action starts with one session at 10 a.m., followed by the championship finals at 7 p.m. All times are CT.