CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa - A school record Nine Kohawks have advanced to the NCAA National Wrestling Championships. Four Kohawks will wrestle tonight for an Iowa Conference Championships, while the five others all took third place honors to gain the automatic berth. One final Kohawk has a shot at a wildcard berth to the national tournament.

Junior Clayton Rush (Aledo, Ill./Aledo) at 125 pounds and freshman Chris LeClere (Coggon, Iowa/North-Linn) join seniors Tyler Burkle (Coggon, Iowa/North-Linn) and Rob Kramer (Swisher, Iowa/Prairie) in tonight's Iowa Conference Championship matches. Burkle will wrestle at 184 pounds, while Kramer is at 197 pounds.

Rush started the day with a 20-5 technical fall in 5:45 over Ryan Lessner of Dubuque. He followed that up with a 24-12 major decision against Luther's Jayson Swanson. Rush, the top seed at 125 pounds, will face second-seeded Mark Kist of Wartburg in the championship match.

After a first round bye, Chris LeClere pinned Dubuque's Derick Smith in 1:14. In the semifinals, LeClere needed overtime to beat fourth-seeded Kevin Bokoski 14-12 to advance to the finals. LeClere, the top seed at 141 pounds, will face second-seeded Kevin Donahue of Cornell in the title bout.

Top seeded Burkle at 184 pounds also earned two bonus point wins to advance to the finals. In the quarterfianls, he won by major decision 13-5 over Loras' Josh Kirkland. In the semifinals he won by technical fall over fifth-seeded Jake Durbin of Dubuque by score of 19-4 in 4:49. Burkle will face second seeded Todd Becker of Wartburg in the finals.

Coe's final participate in tonight's championship match advanced to the finals with a pair of bonus point wins. At 197 pounds, Kramer pinned seventh-seeded Alex Grafft of Loras in 3:17. In the semifinals, the second-seeded Kramer beat third-seeded Brian Broll of Buena Vista by technical fall 15-0 in 7:00.

As a team, Wartburg leads the race with 168.5 points. Coe is second with 159 points. A complete recap of all of the day's matches will be available following the finals.