John Oostendorp learned a few things about sustained excellence during his years as an All-American wrestler for Dan Gable at the University of Iowa.

He's carried those lessons with him to Coe College as their successful head coach the past 13 years.

The Kohawks cannot match the Iowa Hawkeyes in terms of NCAA wrestling titles, but they've performed at a high level under Oostendorp for a long time now.

Coe did it again Saturday night, finishing fourth at the NCAA Division III national tournament at the U.S. Cellular Center in downtown Cedar Rapids, extending an impressive streak that began in 2008.

In six of the last seven years, the Kohawks have finished fifth or better at the NCAA tournament on six occasions. They placed fourth in 2008, fourth in 2009, fourth in 2010, fifth in 2001, third in 2012 and now fourth again.

"I'm proud of that," said Oostendorp, citing his assistant coaches and athletes for their excellent work.

The Kohawks did not claim any individual NCAA titles Saturday, but they crowned four All-Americans with Dimitri Boyer second at 157 pounds, Ethan Ball third at 174, Donnie Horner fifth at 197 and Ryan Sheldon of Cedar Rapids sixth at 184.

"I'm extremely proud of our guys," said Oostendorp. "The six guys we brought, they all battled hard. That's what it takes down here. It's really satisfying to see these guys, the way they came together and really put on a good performance and battled to the end."

Farai Sewera (165) and Cory Becker (285) did not finish in the top 8 for Coe, but they both won a match and got a taste of the bright lights in a national tournament.

The Wartburg Knights claimed their fourth straight NCAA title and 11th in school history with 103.5 points. Wisconsin-Whitewater finished second with 67 points. Messiah College was third with 64 points, followed by Coe with 54 points and Augsburg with 43 points. The Cornell Rams placed 16th with 23.5 points.

The Kohawks have proved themselves to be a national power, but they operate somewhat in Wartburg's shadow in the Iowa Conference. While the Kohawks keep finishing fifth or better, the Knights keep winning it all.

Oostendorp welcomes the challenge of trying to catch —  and ultimately pass —  their arch-rivals from Waverly.

"You just keep trying to raise the bar," he said. "You can't ever give in and accept that, 'Well, they've always been first.' We want to keep moving up."

Ball, who finished his career as an All-American for the first time, is proud of what Coe has accomplished in recent years.

"It's pretty incredible," he said. "We probably have the best staff in the country. We've got some guys that have really brought into the program. It's not going to stop here. We'd like to take the jump to second or first (in the nation)."

Ball lost, 4-2, in the quarterfinals Friday night, but shook off the disappointment and won three straight matches Saturday to claim third place.

"It's hard," he said. "You've got your sights set on winning a national title. That's all you can think about for the last few years, probably. To lose and be able to recover and come back ... I felt it was my  responsibility to the younger guys.

"They needed to see that I was going to be able to come back. We have a pretty good run going here. It's a team thing."

Ball, who comes from a wrestling family, said he began wrestling "in diapers" when he was only 2 years old. "I don't think I did very well," he said. "We have it on tape somewhere. I'm pretty sure I got beat."

Twenty years later, he ended his wrestling career as an All-American and helped his team finish in fourth place.

Oostendorp acknowledged Ball's mental toughness for bouncing back on Saturday. "You saw what he's capable of today, beating three quality opponents," the coach said.

Boyer breezed through his first three matches at 157 with a 7-0 decision, a 4-0 decision and a pin in 6:51, but he ran into two-time NCAA champion Nazar Kulchytskyy of Wisconsin-Oshkosh in the finals and got pinned in 4 minutes, 20 seconds.

"Dimitri has wrestled a great tournament," Oostendorp said before the championship round. "He's had a great year. He has continued to raise his level in all the challenges he's had this year."

Horner nipped Joe Giaramita of SUNY-Cortlandt, 3-2, for fifth place at 197 pounds. Sheldon lost to Christoper Chorzepa, 11-0, in a consolation match and finished sixth.

Total attendance for the 41st NCAA Division III tournament was 8,787, setting a record for this event.