Lance Evans ’18
Biology 
Wrestling

2017-18 honors: Academic All-Conference, NWCA All-Academic, All-American (fourth-place finish, 285), CoSIDA Academic All-District

Why did you decide to attend Wartburg?

I went to the University of Iowa first, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that wasn’t the place for me. Throughout high school Coach (Chris) Ortner recruited me, and he seemed very concerned about his athletes being successful as an athlete and student. I came here at the beginning of Winter Term my freshman year and started wrestling right away.

How did the coaching staff emphasize academics once you were on campus?

They knew how important it was for me to be successful in school so I could go to medical school when I was done. The first term of my junior year, I had anatomy and biochemistry at the same time. There were times I had so much going on, and I would go in and talk to the coaches about it. They would excuse me from practice and tell me to get a workout in on my own so that I could take care of my schoolwork.

What is the athletic highlight of your Wartburg career?

There has been a lot of pretty cool stuff, like winning three team titles. But it would have to be last year at the “Battle of the ’Burgs.” The guy I was wrestling, we’d gone back and forth all year, and the dual came down to that match. He took me down right away, but I came back and won with like 15 seconds left to win the dual.

And academically?

It would have to be my MCAT score. (He scored in the top 3 percent of all test-takers nationwide.)