INDIANAPOLIS – Keegan Gehlhausen wrapped up a dominant junior season by advancing to the national championship match, eventually finishing as the 184-pound runner-up at the Division II NCAA National Championships on Saturday in Indianapolis. 

Gehlhausen, the No. 3 seed in the bracket, started the day with a massive 4-1 decision win over No. 2 seed Matt Weinberg of Kutztown, who entered the match with a 30-0 record. That put Gehlhausen in the championship final, where he fell to the No. 1 seed, West Liberty's Ty McGeary, via a 20-4 tech fall. 

With the victory, McGeary clinched his third consecutive national title at the weight. Gehlhausen denied a championship rematch by beating Weinberg, the defending national runner-up. Weinberg finished third at this year's competition.

By advancing to the second day of competition, Gehlhausen had already clinched All-American honors by sealing a top eight finish in the bracket. In advancing to the final, Gehlhausen becomes just the fourth Chadron State wrestler in program history to reach an NCAA Division II national championship match. 

Two of the other three are currently on the Eagles coaching staff – head coach Brett Hunter won national titles in 2007 and 2009 while Quen Campbell was the 133-pound runner-up two years ago in 2023. Josh Majerus lost in the 197-pound final in 2007 before returning to win it in 2008. Gehlhausen has an opportunity to replicate that path next year, as the redshirt junior has a year of eligibility remaining. 

After racking up the points on his way to two major decision victories in the first two rounds of the tournament, Gehlhausen relied on his defense to get past the semifinal round. Gehlhausen and Weinberg wrestled into scramble after scramble, with the two spending plenty of time on the ground but continuously locking into stalemates and not allowing the other to score. 

The match was tied 1-1, with both points coming on start-of-period escapes, when Gehlhausen made a decisive move to break a headlock and was able to wrangle a takedown from the ground with 25 seconds to go in the match. He remained on top of the rest of the way to win 4-1, with riding time not a factor. 

The win for Gehlhausen snapped a 30-match win streak for Weinberg, a three-time All-American, and gave Gehlhausen a shot at the nation's top 184-pounder, Ty McGeary. Gehlhausen and McGeary had faced off once before in the quarterfinals of the 2022-23 tourney, with Gehlhausen an unseeded, upstart redshirt freshman and McGeary yet to win any of his eventual three national titles. 

Ultimately, the West Liberty wrestler would not be denied on his quest to three-peat. Gehlhausen thwarted the top seed's attacks for the first 90 seconds, but McGeary soon scored a takedown plus a near fall to lead 7-1 after one period. Gehlhausen escaped to start the second to make it 7-2, but McGeary scored another takedown in the second and overpowered Gehlhausen in the third with three more takedowns to earn the 20-4 tech fall with 21 seconds left in the match. 

Despite Gehlhausen being the only Eagle to score team points, his run to the finals enabled CSC to finish 25^th of 50 competing schools in the team standings. Nebraska-Kearney won the team title in runaway fashion, with UNK's 115.0 points nearly doubling second-place Augustana's 63.0. The rest of the top five went to St. Cloud State (57.5), Lander (56.0) and Central Oklahoma (55.5). Among RMAC schools, Colorado Mesa had the best finish (17^th, 30.0), followed by Adams State (22^nd, 21.0), Chadron State and Western Colorado (26^th, 15.5). 

Gehlhausen finishes the 2024-25 season with a 22-3 record.