MINNEAPOLIS — For the third time in his 26-year career as sports information director at Augsburg University, Don Stoner has received an award from the National Wrestling Media Association, being named as its 2021-22 Small College SID of the Year, it was announced on Wednesday.
Stoner is the first sports information director to ever receive the NWMA SID of the Year award three times, since the award was established in 1991-92. He shared an all-divisions award with Mark Adkins, then the SID at Wartburg (Iowa), in the 2003-04 school year. The award was later split into Division I and Small College divisions, and Stoner received the Small College SID of the Year award in 2012-13. The NWMA solicits nominees for the award from its wrestling media members and sports information directors, and the awards are voted on by NWMA members.
Stoner was one of five finalists for the 2022-23 NWMA Small College SID of the Year award, joining Travis Chell of King’s (Pa.), Brandon Davis of San Francisco State (Calif.), Bobby Fox of Waynesburg (Pa.) and Donnie Smith of Southeastern (Fla.). Chris Brewer of the University of Iowa received the 2021-22 Division I SID of the Year award, receiving it for the second time in his career.
Augsburg’s sports information director since the fall of 1997, Stoner has worked with one of the top small-college wrestling programs in the nation. He has promoted nine NCAA Division III national championship men’s wrestling teams at Augsburg, along with 37 NCAA Division III national champions, 144 NCAA All-Americans and 13 NWCA All-Americans, since the 1997-98 school year. Since women’s wrestling began at Augsburg in 2019, Stoner has promoted four individual national champions, 16 All-Americans and three top-10 team finishes in NCWWC national competition.
The sports information department is in charge of all public relations efforts involving the university’s intercollegiate varsity athletic teams. In the summer of 2021, Stoner was named as the 19th recipient of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference’s Mike Augustin Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions to MIAC athletic programs and their student-athletes by members of the media or athletic communicators.
Check out Auggies Wrestling at athletics.augsburg.edu and on Facebook and Twitter.