Three Auburn-area grapplers were among hundreds of collegiate wrestlers vying for NCAA Division I titles at this past weekend’s championship tournament in Des Moines, Iowa.

The trio – Oregon State’s Michael Mangrum and Taylor Meeks and Boise State’s Jake Swartz – are all lifelong friends who trained together at Auburn’s Vision Quest Sport and Fitness.

Meeks, an Orting High School graduate, helped power Oregon State to an eighth-place team finish with his fourth-place finish at 197 pounds.

Meeks, who won three state titles as a prep wrestler, battled to the semifinals, where he dropped an 8-6 decision to Kent State’s Dustin Kilgore.

Forced into the wrestleback bracket, Meeks earned a 5-2 decision over Minnesota’s Scott Schiller before losing to Matthew Willps from Pitt with a technical fall in the match for third-place.

“He battled real good,” Oregon State coach Jim Zalesky said of Meeks. “You win some heartbreakers and you lose some heartbreakers and we did both today.”

Mangrum, who won three state titles at Auburn Riverside, came into the championship tourney as the Pac-12 141-pound champ.

His quest for a national championship came to end on Friday with a 3-2 overtime loss to Undrakhbayar Khishignyam of The Citadel in a 141-pound quarterfinal.

Mangrum, who has qualified for the national meet four times, ended his collegiate career later on Friday, losing his second match, a 5-3 decision to Minnesota’s Nick Dardanes.

Mangrum finishes his career with 135 wins – fifth most in Oregon State history and one more than Oregon State’s last national champion, Les Guches, who won titles in 1995 and ’96.

Swartz, a 184-pound Boise State junior who won a state title for Auburn High School, went 3-2 in the tourney and finished the season with a 33-7 record.