1979 NCAA Championships
Champions, team standings, and brackets for all 10 weights.
The 1979 NCAA championships had 10 weights and 496 bouts. Iowa won the team title with 122.5 points; Iowa State was second with 88. Iowa had two of the 10 individual champions.
Most falls in the least time: Bruce Kinseth, Iowa · 5 falls in 22:43
Individual champions
| Weight | Champion | Program | Title bout |
|---|---|---|---|
| 118 | Gene Mills (2)Syracuse (NY) | Syracuse (NY) | Dec 16–13 over Joe Gonzales (1), California-Bakersfield |
| 126 | Randy Lewis (1)Iowa | Iowa | Dec 20–14 over John Azevedo (2), California-Bakersfield |
| 134 | Darryl Burley (2)Lehigh (PA) | Lehigh (PA) | Dec 9–7 over Mike Land, Iowa State |
| 142 | Dan Hicks (1) · 2nd titleOregon State | Oregon State | Dec 6–6 (tiebreaker) over Scott Trizzino (2), Iowa |
| 150 | Bruce Kinseth (1)Iowa | Iowa | Fall 2:34 over Dick Knorr (3), Oregon State |
| 158 | Kelly Ward (1)Iowa State | Iowa State | Dec 7–2 over Dan Zilverberg (2), Minnesota |
| 167 | Mark Churella (1) · 3rd titleMichigan | Michigan | Fall 3:10 over Mike DeAnna (3), Iowa |
| 177 | Mark Lieberman (1) · 2nd titleLehigh (PA) | Lehigh (PA) | Disqualification over Bud Palmer (3), Iowa |
| 190 | Eric Wais (1)Oklahoma State | Oklahoma State | Dec 12–5 over Mike Brown (3), Lehigh (PA) |
| Unlimited | Fred Bohna (2)California-Los Angeles | California-Los Angeles | Dec 9–5 over Dave Klemm (5), Eastern Illinois |
Team standings
Scoring details →Published standings · Source: NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships Records Book, All-Time Team Results, 1979
Head coach for the 1979 tournament, from the coaching record; a dash where none is established yet.
| Rank | Program | Head coach | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iowa | Dan Gable | 122.5 |
| 2 | Iowa State | Harold Nichols | 88 |
| 3 | Lehigh (PA) | Thad Turner | 69.75 |
| 4 | Oregon State | Dale Thomas | 60.5 |
| 5 | Wisconsin | Duane Kleven | 56.5 |
| 6 | Oklahoma State | Tommy Chesbro | 52.75 |
| 7 | Minnesota | Wally Johnson | 43.75 |
| 8 | Arizona State | Bobby Douglas | 34.5 |
| 9 | Oklahoma | Stan Abel | 31.5 |
| 10 | Michigan | Dale Bahr | 25 |
| 11 | Syracuse (NY) | Ed Carlin | 23.75 |
| 12 | California-Los Angeles | Dave Auble | 21.75 |
| 13 | Clarion (PA) | Bob Bubb | 20 |
| 14 | Brigham Young (UT) | Fred Davis | 18.5 |
| 15 | California-Poly | Vaughan Hitchcock | 16.25 |
| 16 | Missouri | Bob Kopnisky | 15.5 |
| 17 | North Carolina | Bill Lam | 14.5 |
| T18 | Oregon | Ron Finley | 13.75 |
| T18 | Portland State (OR) | Len Kauffman | 13.75 |
| 20 | Arizona | William J. Nelson | 13 |
Show all 69 teams
53 more programs that entered but are not in the published standings
* Calculated from the bouts under the 1979 scoring rules.
Cite this page: “1979 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships”, March Matness, NCAA Division I championship record, release affad6e7. https://www.marchmatness.app/tournaments/1979/