MINNEAPOLIS -- Augsburg College wrestling alumni Scott Whirley '82 and Henry Gerten '98 were inducted into the National Wrestling Coaches Association Division III Hall of Fame in a ceremony in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, prior to this year's NCAA Division III Wrestling National Championships.

Whirley and Gerten are the ninth and 10th Auggies to be inducted into the NWCA Division III Hall of Fame. Jesse Armbruster '96 was inducted in 2014, Joe Hoialmen '93 was inducted in 2012, and in 2011, Nick Fornicioia '93 was inducted. Steve Gliva '85 was inducted in 2010, John Beatty '90 was inducted in 2007, Gary Kroells '93 was inducted in 2005 and Dan Lewandowski '97 was inducted in 2003. Former head coach Jeff Swenson '79 was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2005.

The NWCA Division III Wrestling Hall of Fame has honored NCAA Division III wrestlers, coaches and contributors since 1989. Augsburg has been an NCAA Division III member since 1983. To be considered for Hall of Fame induction, wrestlers must be three-time All-Americans or two-time national champions.

SCOTT WHIRLEY '82
A three-time All-American wrestler for the Auggies, Scott Whirley served his alma mater for 22 seasons (1982-84, 1986-2005, 2006-07) as an assistant coach under head coach Jeff Swenson, helping to build the Augsburg wrestling program into a small-college national power.
 
During Whirley's tenure as a member of the coaching staff, Augsburg won 10 NCAA Division III wrestling national titles in a 17-year span. The Auggies had 145 All-Americans and 39 individual national champions (one NAIA, 38 NCAA-III) in Whirley's coaching career.
 
The coaches also developed Augsburg into successes in the classroom. During Whirley's tenure, Augsburg produced 94 NWCA Scholar All-Americans. Augsburg also had eight Academic All-Americans in wrestling, as awarded by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA), during Whirley's tenure. Over the 10 seasons the NWCA awarded Division III academic team national championships while Whirley was an assistant coach, Augsburg finished second three times and first once (1998-99).
 
With Whirley as an assistant coach, Augsburg won Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament titles 18 times and MIAC Team Duals titles 14 times, along with winning the NCAA Division III Great Lakes Regional title four times.
 
In 2002, Whirley was inducted into the Augsburg Athletic Hall of Fame. Whirley, who won 113 matches at Augsburg, claimed the NAIA national championship at 126 pounds in 1979 and earned NAIA All-American honors three times, finishing first, second and fourth nationally. He won MIAC titles in 1978 (126), 1981 (134) and 1982 (134) and earned the MIAC tourney MVP award in his senior year.
 
Whirley joined Jeff Swenson on the Auggie coaching staff in 1982. In 1984, he left to serve as head coach for two seasons at Farmington (Minn.) High School before returning to Augsburg. The native of Robbinsdale, Minn., was an honor student and a two-time state placewinner as a high school wrestler.
 
Whirley is currently a physical education teacher in the Robbinsdale School District, and lives in Maple Grove, Minn., with his wife, Kelley, and children Adam, Megan and Michael.  

HENRY GERTEN '98
Henry Gerten won two individual national titles for the Augsburg wrestling team, winning titles at 118 pounds in both 1997 and 1998. Gerten was a three-time All-American for the Auggies, adding a fourth-place finish in 1996 to his two national crowns.
 
He finished his three-year Augsburg career (transferring from the University of Wisconsin after his freshman year) with a record of 104-7 -- at the time, the best all-time wrestling winning percentage (.937) in school history. In 1996-97, Gerten went 44-0 -- the first Augsburg wrestler ever to go through a season unbeaten -- and had a then-school-record 64-match winning streak during his career. Gerten was a three-time Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference champion, winning titles at 118 pounds in 1996, 1997 and 1998.
 
Gerten was a team co-captain for Auggie squads that won NCAA Division III national titles in both 1997 and 1998, while also a member of the Augsburg squad that finished second in 1996.
 
Gerten won titles in all 16 tournaments entered during his junior and senior seasons, including a win in the Orange Bowl Sunshine Open his senior season, where he was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler after beating the bronze medalist in the 1996 Olympics from Cuba.
 
In the classroom, Gerten finished with a 3.52 grade-point average with an elementary education major, graduating cum laude. He was a two-time National Wrestling Coaches Association Scholar All-American.
 
In 1998, Gerten was named as the Division III honoree for the NCAA's Today's Top VIII award, which honors outstanding student-athletes for excellence on the athletic field, in the classroom and as a student leader. 
 
A native of Rosemount, Minn., Gerten was also named as the 1998 Midwest Sports Channel Sports Salute's Mike Augustin/Division III Athlete of the Year. He also was named a co-Senior Honor Athlete at Augsburg in 1998.
 
Since graduating from Augsburg, Gerten had served as an assistant coach at Augsburg, as a coach for the Minnesota Storm, as head coach at Dakota County Technical College, and as an assistant coach at Rosemount (Minn.) High School. He is currently the co-head coach, along with fellow Augsburg alum Chad Olson, of the Farmington (Minn.) High School wrestling team. He is a social studies teacher at Rosemount Middle School.

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(NOTE: Story includes information from previous NWCA Hall of Fame stories on the Augsburg website, and from nomination materials.)