Defending the Title: 1992: Those Who Did and Those Who did Not Defend the Title

 A year of repeat champions as Penn State's Jeff Prescott & Wisconsin's Matt Demaray returned to finish out their careers as two time NCAA champions.  

Iowa's Tom Brands finished off his career with title #3, as brother Terry a national champion in 1990 finished off his with title #2 as did Clarion's Kurt Angle who also won a title in 1990.   

Pat Smith won title #3 of 4. 

1992 Champion 142
Troy Steiner of Iowa 

A three time North Dakota state champion for Bismarck Century High School, Troy Steiner had an outstanding career for the Iowa Hawkeyes.  A three time BIG 10 champion, Steiner was 5th in the nation as a freshman in 1990, taking runner-up honors in 1991 as a sophomore.  Securing an NCAA title in his junior season of 1992, he finished out his career with a 3rd place showing in 1993.  Along with winning a World Cup Gold medal in 1992, he was also a Pan-American Gold medalist in 1996.  he had a collegiate career of 148-12.  Post his days of competition, he turned to coaching.  He coached at Oregon State and will hopefully continue to be the coach at Fresno State if Terry Tumey & Saul Jimenez-Sandoval ever decide to pull their own heads out of their own butts. 

1992 Champion 167 
Charles Jones of Purdue 

Charles Jones is an unlikely story in collegiate wrestling.  A two time Ohio state place-winner in high school, Jones was an "old man" by collegiate terms when he entered Olivet-Nazarene as a 24 year old freshman after serving our country in the Air Force.  Taking NAIA runner-up honors in 1989, he was 3rd in the NAIA in 1990.  Transferring to Purdue for his final two seasons of eligibility, he was 3rd at the NCAA's in 1991, capping off a perfect 33-0 season as a senior in 1992 with the NCAA title.  At 28 years of age, he was one of the oldest champions we have seen in NCAA wrestling in modern times. 

1992 Champion 177
Kevin Randleman of Ohio State 

Ironically enough, Randleman too was from Sandusky, Ohio.  A state champion in high school, he was a force to be reckoned with on the Buckeye wrestling team.  A three time BIG 10 champion, he made the NCAA finals as a freshman in 1991, winning back to back NCAA titles in 1992 and 1993.  He missed out on the 1994 season as a senior due to being academically ineligible.   He later had a career in both UFC and professional wrestling.  Take one look, and it's easy to see how he earned the nickname, "The Monster." 

1992 Champion 190 
Mark Kerr of Syracuse 

Although Kerr wrestled one year of high school wrestling in Iowa competing for Bettendorf, he spent the majority of his high school wrestling career in Ohio, where he won a state title for Toledo Waite.  By the time he was a senior at Syracuse, he did not seem a likely NCAA champion.  After all he went 0-2 at the NCAA's as a true freshman in 1988. He then went 0-1 at the 1989 NCAA's as a true sophomore. Redshirting in 1990, he went 0-1 as a redshirt junior in 1991.  His combined record in three NCAA tournaments was 0-4.  He decided he wanted to end his collegiate career with a winning record at the NCAA's, winning the NCAA title in 1992 as a senior.  5 wins to be an NCAA champion, and with those 5 wins, it made him 5-4, winning record overall at the NCAA championships. 

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Prescott, Tom Brands, Terry Brands, Demaray, Pat Smith, and Angle previously mentioned 

Troy Steiner did not repeat

Randleman repeated in 93 but did not repeat in 94 

Jones and Kerr both seniors