Four past Cornell College All-Americans are coaching in Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference

Darren Miller Cornell College Sports Information Director
02/08/2007

Photo identification:
Four Cornell wrestling All-Americans coached against each other at the Eastern Iowa Hawkeye Conference Tournament on Saturday, Feb. 3 in Tipton, Iowa. They are, from left, Nick Dohrmann (Wilton), Justin Dix (Mount Vernon), former Cornell Coach Steve DeVries, Shawn Voigt (West Branch), Dean Miller (Durant). Photo by Darren Miller, Cornell College

Together they won 418 college wrestling matches for Cornell College, registered more than 100 falls and qualified for the NCAA Division III national championship 10 times, bringing home nine All-American honors.

Dean Miller 1986, Shawn Voigt ’90, Nick Dohrmann ’99 and Justin Dix 2001 remain connected by more than their alma mater. They are all still involved with wrestling, coaching at the high school level. But more amazing is that all four are coaching in the same small conference — the Eastern Iowa Hawkeye — that produced both Voigt and Dix at Mount Vernon High School.

Miller is currently the head coach at Durant, Voigt at West Branch and Dohrmann at Wilton. Dix is the top assistant at Mount Vernon. All four wrestled under Cornell Coach Steve DeVries, who compiled a school-record 130 victories and 10 Midwest Conference championships from 1982-2000. He was the coach who led the Rams into the rugged Iowa Conference during the 1997-98 season.

“It’s great that they’re all still making a contribution to the sport of wrestling at the high school level,” DeVries said. “They were always real self-motivated guys and they were team leaders in one way or another. I remember them being willing to do the extras to be All-Americans and they continued to get better and better and better every year.”

Voigt was the most successful as a collegian, posting a school-record 148 wins and 19 technical falls. A four-time All-American, Voigt is Cornell’s most recent national champion, winning the 150-pound class in 1990. Dix, a two-time national qualifier, won 115 career matches and was 69-9 with 39 falls as a junior and senior. He placed fourth at nationals at 174 in 2001 and owns the school record for career falls with 53. Miller won 95 matches from 1982-86 at Cornell and was fourth in the NCAA championship at 134 pounds as both a junior and senior.

Dohrmann, a transfer from the University of Iowa, compiled a 60-5 record in two seasons as a Ram, placing sixth at 126 as a junior in 1998 and fifth at 133 as a senior in 1999. Dohrmann is the only Cornell wrestler ever to win an Iowa Conference individual championship (126-pound title in 1998). Voigt was a four-time champion in the Midwest Conference and Miller won two crowns in the MWC.

The resumйs of the foursome are extensive and impressive: