Final match of college wrestling career is national title victory
A wrestler looking for a path to success could do a lot worse than the Apple Valley-Augsburg track.
Apple Valley has won a state-record 25 high school team championships. Augsburg University has 15 NCAA Division III championships, the most recent coming last month. The Auggies are tied with Wartburg College for the most Division III titles in history.
Tyler Kim, who completed his college career in March as a national champion at 285 pounds, is a product of the Apple Valley and Augsburg programs. He’s also evidence that everything you get in wrestling is earned, not given.
He medaled at the Class 3A state tourney as a high school senior in 2019, finishing fourth at 285 pounds – a weight class owned the previous three years by Apple Valley teammate Gable Steveson, who won three of his four state individual championships at 285.
Kim originally planned to play football at the University of St. Thomas, but eventually soured on that idea. In the fall of 2019 he showed up at the Augsburg wrestling room, not knowing the Auggies were defending national champions.
Even after years of training in the Apple Valley wrestling room, Kim said one thing became clear when he joined the Augsburg program – he had to step up his game to survive there, let alone succeed.
“As a high school senior, I was nowhere near Division III caliber,” Kim said. “I was a fat guy trying to get recruited.
“The funny thing is, our practices at Augsburg were shorter than our practices at Apple Valley. But a Division III room is filled with guys looking or earn a spot or trying to keep a spot. The competition is pretty intense, but that didn’t faze me. If you can get through that it’s going to make you better.”
That was true for Kim, who was 124-24 over five seasons at Augsburg and earned All-America status four times. In his final collegiate match he defeated Michael Douglas of Wisconsin-La Crosse 4-2 for the 285-pound title at the Division III nationals in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Kim finished second nationally during an abbreviated 2020-21 season when the NCAA canceled the Division III nationals because of COVID-19. The National Wrestling Coaches Association stepped in and organized a Division III tourney.
With three seasons remaining, including the extra year of eligibility the NCAA awarded to athletes whose careers had been disrupted by COVID, Kim made it his goal to win a national championship. Seeded third in this year’s nationals, he defeated the No. 2 seed in the semifinals 2-1 when his opponent was penalized one point for pulling the edge of the mat in overtime.
Kim and Douglas had split two regular-season matches. In the national final, Kim took a 3-0 lead early in the second period and held the lead the rest of way.
In the moments following his victory, Kim said he felt “a lot of relief. We were also trying to win the team championship, and Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann had an absolutely stellar performance at 184. He clinched the team championship with his victory in the finals, and it took a lot of pressure off of me.”
Augsburg finished 7.5 points ahead of Wartburg in the team competition, with Wisconsin-La Crosse another five points behind Wartburg. Augsburg or Wartburg has won every Division III national championship since 1995.
“The team championship is always the most important thing to us,” Kim said. “We were a little disappointed after the first day at nationals; it didn’t go the way we planned. But we had a strong second day. I think everybody who wrestled scored (team) points.”
Kim had been a lacrosse player at one time and enjoyed the sport, but literally grew out of it as he transitioned to wrestling and football. He said he became a more dedicated athlete in college and actually weighed less as a college senior than as a high school senior.
“I came to college weighing 270, 275, but I wasn’t in the best shape,” he said. “Over time, I got stronger and smaller. I wrestled at about 250 during nationals.”
While wrestling his final collegiate season, Kim also had a chance to begin shaping his future. He has a bachelor’s degree in communications and worked toward a master’s certificate in leadership. Next up, he hopes, is a master’s program in public policy.
He’s currently an intern in the Minnesota Legislature, working in the office of state Senator Erin Maye Quade, whose district includes Apple Valley and portions of Eagan and Rosemount.
“Right now I’m involved in anything that comes up,” Kim said. “It could be research, it could be answering constituent emails. I’m getting a chance to find out if this field is something I would enjoy, and it turns out that I do.”
He doesn’t want to walk away from wrestling. When Kim has time, he’s been a training partner for Augsburg alumnus Donny Longendyke, who’s attempting to qualify for the 2024 Olympics in Greco-Roman. He expects coaching to be part of his future.
“I don’t know where or when yet, but I want to coach,” Kim said. “After all I’ve learned in this sport, to not pass some of it on would be a disservice.”
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