Contact: Justin Gurke, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, jagurke@noctrl.edu

CCIW Press Release 
NWCA Coaching Poll
Individual Ranks

Naperville, Ill. (Nov. 16th, 2022) - North Central's Julian Valtierrez picked as the College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) Wrestler of the Week on Tuesday, after a dominating start to the season. Valtierrez is 2-0 in duals so far this season and placed first at the pointer open. Also, the men's wrestling program was ranked fourth among Division III schools according to NWCA. 

Valtierrez, from Chicago, Illinois wrestled the 125-pound weight class at the Pointer Open on Saturday and won the weight class. He won by Tech Fall over his first opponent and followed that up with a major decision in the second round to advance to the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, Valtierrez won by decision over North Central's Justin Brown and advanced through the semifinals with a decision win over Luca Paladino of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. In the finals, Valtierrez won by decision over Wisconsin-Parkside's Shane Corrigan to take home first place. 


The NWCA Coaching Poll released their rankings for Division III wrestling on Tuesday, November 16th and has the Cardinals ranked fourth as a team. 

In individual weight class rankings for Division III by the NWCA, six Cardinals were named in the rankings. Julian Valtierrez is ranked thirteenth in the 125-pound weight class, Robert Precin is ranked first in the 133-pound weight class, Javen Estrada is ranked seventh in the 149-pound weight class, Alex Villar is ranked fifth in the 157-pound weight class, Cole Cervantes is ranked fifthteenth in the 165-pound weight class, and Robby Bates is ranked seventh in the 285-pound weight class. 

The Cardinals return back to the mats this Saturday for the CUW Open as they travel to Mequon, Wisconsin at 9am inside John Buck Fieldhouse. 

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