JT1Wrestle's Proposal For the 2025 NWCA All Star Classic

 I've been watching collegiate wrestling now for 34 years & I've been writing about collegiate wrestling for 23 years.  Evaluating what I desire and how to get it, I know I want the 2025-2026 to start off with a huge bang.  I want there to be something that everyone everywhere is talking about.  Something with so much build up and hype that every wrestling fan will see as "can NOT miss."  I want everyone within a 100 mile radius to think it's nothing to make the drive, and everyone else sitting at home watching "must watch" television.  

I gave this a lot of thought.  

Youth is something that our sport seems over obsessive with.  We get overtly excited when someone young exceeds expectations and achieves on a high level.  Go to wrestling message boards and wrestling Facebook pages, and the #1 topics usually involve the current best high school wrestlers, the potential/current status of true freshmen, and the potential/current status of redshirt freshmen.   

How can wrestling use this to its advantage? 

I say our All-Star dual should be the top high school recruits Vs the top returning DI wrestlers. 


I've been around the sport for nearly three and a half decades now.  I already know some of the rebuttals I'll get on this proposal.   

"They're not ready for that yet."  "That's not fair. That's throwing them to the wolves!"  

No it isn't.  


Let's look at what would have happened, had we done this idea last year. 

At 125 lbs, we would have had Luke Lilledahl Vs Richard Figueroa.  Lilledahl showed that he would have been fine against the returning NCAA DI champ & might even have beaten him.  By season's end, Lilledahl was a BIG 10 champ & 3rd in the DI nation, while Figueroa came up short of AA #2. 

133, Ben Davino also would have been fine. He could have competed against Ryan Crookham or Nasir Bailey or whoever was put out there.  Davino went 19-1 on the year, winning the Clarion Open & placing 3rd at the Midlands.  Had wins over All American Tyler Wells, as well as qualifiers Ethan Oakley, Ryan Miller, Sean Spidle & Ethan Berginc. 

184 Could have had Angelo Ferrari for crying out loud.  He majored Evan Bockman & defeated four time All American Dustin Plott, while giving five-time NCAA DI champion Carter Starocci one of his biggest scares of the season! 

I could keep on going on with example after example of Grigor Cholokyan, Brock Mantanona, Zack Ryder, Aedon Sinclar, ect.   The point stands.  Many of last year's top high school recruits heading into their true or redshirt freshmen years were ready to compete immediately.   2025 is no different. 

I say this idea of top  h.s. recruits vs top DI returnees would be a major money maker for collegiate wrestling.  I even bet it'd be the most watched and talked about All Star dual of all time. 


Picture it if you will...

Anthony Knox Vs Vincent Robinson
125

We have the #4 recruit in the nation taking on the redshirt sophomore, who won an NCAA DI title last year as a redshirt freshman. Cornell has been doing pretty good on the recruiting front, and many Big Red fans are excited for the future of white & red wrestling.  This would give them a great opportunity to see exactly what they're getting out of St. John Vianney, New Jersey. 

Marcus Blaze Vs Lucas Byrd
133

Penn State has ruled the roost from the Heavens above, as everyone else seems to duke it out far, far below for the silver trophy.  One of the many ways Penn State has been able to maintain their utter dominance is through getting the best of the best in recruits. This year marks no different.  Marcus Blaze, the most talked about incoming freshman, and the #1 recruit in the nation, is going to be a Nittany Lion this season.  Why not see him on the mat Vs the returning NCAA DI National champion Lucas Byrd? The hair on my arms is standing up just thinking about it.  You can't tell me this marquee matchup isn't something you'd love to see. 

Seth Mendoza Vs Jesse Mendez
141

Mt. Carmel, Illinois has been producing phenomenal talent longer than I've been around.  Of course we all remember studs like Tony Davis as well as the Williams brothers, Steve, Joe and T.J.   All these years later, Seth Mendoza is yet another Golden Ace that will soon be showing off his skills on the mat.  The #6 recruit in the nation has decided to be a Missouri Tiger.  No doubt about it, he'll have an outstanding career.  Question is, how at the moment would he match up against two-time NCAA DI champion Jesse Mendez? I'd like to see, wouldn't you? 

Sergio Vega Or Daniel Zepeda Vs Caleb Henson
149

At 149 I think it'd be fun to see either Sergio Vega or Daniel Zepeda against Caleb Henson.  Vega is the #7 recruit in the nation & Zepeda is the #8.  From a marketing standpoint, might give the nod to Vega, simply because he's going to Oklahoma State.  Okie State has a bigger fanbase, and even more noteworthy, the Cowboys seem to be the team hottest on the trail of the Nittany Lions.  Promotional consideration in mind, that doesn't mean that I don't think Zepeda Vs Henson wouldn't too be a great contest, because it would be. 

P.J. Duke Vs Antrell Taylor
157

Now here's a good one.  The state of New York doesn't get brought up enough in discussions of high school talent, but they've produced some outstanding wrestlers over the years.  P.J. Duke, the #2 recruit in the nation, out of Minisink Valley, is one of them.  This is what I mean by sitting around and thinking about the potential and possibilities of these young men right out of the gate.  It's almost like a top secret project, and you're waiting for it to be revealed.  "Penn State is reloading!"  Of course they are, they always are.  Let's take out that gun, lets up in those bullets and see if they can't penetrate the armor of a superior talent like Antrell Taylor.   You can't tell me that a match like this wouldn't put asses in the seats and eyes glued to screens. 

Ladarian Lockett Vs Mitchell Mesenbrink
165

After watching Mitchell Mesenbrink rip through the competition last year in route to the NCAA DI title, my immediate thoughts were, "No one will ever come close to this guy again."  Yet this is collegiate wrestling. No matter how good you are, there is always someone lurking in the shadows to take you down. As said previously, Oklahoma State is on a mission to humble the blue & white Gods, and put the Pokes back on top.  Maybe the #3 recruit in the nation, Ladarian Lockett, a native of Stillwater himself, can be the one who leads them to glory.  There's backstory here.  There is buildup and hype.  There's marquee value.  Let's do it. 

Tyler Eise Vs Levi Haines
174

Coach Mark Manning has a habit of "coming out of nowhere" and getting the most out of his wrestlers.  Nebraska finished 2nd in both the BIG 10 & the NCAA DI tournament last season.  Most eyes are on Oklahoma State, with a few on Iowa, but maybe we ought to be paying more attention to what the Huskers have in store. Maybe it'll be the scarlet and cream that overcomes the seeming unstoppable train hailing from the Mount they call Nittany.  Tyler Eise, the #17 recruit in the nation out of Gilroy, California is one of the best newcomers to the team.  Is he good enough to go toe-to-toe with 2nd-1st-3rd DI finisher Levi Haines?  

William Henckel Vs Max McEnelly
184

Now here's an intriguing match.  Two seasons ago, Max McEnelly the #4 recruit in the country went to Minnesota & had himself a very telling redshirt season.  Last year as a redshirt freshman, he had an outstanding season, doing things that seemed unreal for a freshman to be doing in an upperclassmen dominated weight.  Park Keckeisen of Northern Iowa was 3rd-3rd-2nd-1st going into his fifth NCAA DI championship tournament, and McEnelly gave him everything he could handle in a close & well contested semi-final bout.  Doesn't it blow your mind to think that someone coming up in the ranks could potentially knock McEnelly out of the *1 spot in the DI rankings, that he has more than earned?  Literally this is like trying to comprehend the true size of the universe.  At nearly 600 sextillion miles, it's incomprehensible to the human mind.  Yet you know Penn State rarely gets it wrong on recruiting.  So you know damn good and well that William Henckel is worth every penny that Penn State is spending on him.  The #13 overall recruit in the nation, that you know is going to get even that much better once Cael works his magic on him.  The more I think about this dual, the more I want it to happen. 

Harvey Ludington Vs Josh Barr
197

You know good and well that Iowa, and the black & gold faithful are going to want in on this action if it happens.  Iowa has shown tremendous growth and potential with a great hope in Angelo Ferrari, who could very well start off the season easily ranked #1 at 184 lbs.  Perhaps the Hawkeyes have such talent at 197 in Harvey Ludington?  The #15 overall recruit from Brick Memorial, New Jersey has a lot of cornfed wrestling fans excited.  Iowa also has three-time NCAA DIII champ Massoma Endene in the lineup as well, so I would imagine Ludington will redshirt this season, as did Ferrari in '23-'24.  Can you imagine the kind of excitement it would generate if he were able to knock off or even wrestle NCAA DI finalist Josh Barr to a competitive match?  

Jude Correa Vs Isaac Trumble
HWT

Within the mix of things, Cornell is looking pretty good in the recruiting front and at HWT they are getting the #12 overall recruit out of powerhouse Wyoming Seminary, Jude Correa. It'd be fun to see how he matches up with upperbody specialist Isaac Trumble. 


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There you have it. What I believe would be a fantastic idea for this year's NWCA All Star Classic.  It's the type of idea that would draw a huge crowd and something to get everyone, everywhere super excited about it.  

Let me know what you think! 

The '04-'05 to '06-'07 Northwestern College Red Raiders

 

I just received word that Northwestern College (IA) is going to start up a women's wrestling program that will begin competition in the 2026-2027 school year.  This fantastic news made me go back in time and reminisce about my time at Northwestern college.  Overall Northwestern College was not a good fit for me. It was a rather negative experience. That's the truth of the matter, and I could get into why, but that's not the purpose of this article. The purpose is to focus on the positive and one of the positives of my experience at Northwestern College, was the wrestling team. 

Now before I go any further I want to make it clear.  I was NOT a member of the Red Raider wrestling team.  Nor have I ever claimed to have been.  I made a decision not to wrestle in college & even though in many ways I would have loved to have competed for Head Coach Paul Bartlett & been an official teammate of some really cool guys, I think I made the right decision.  I was a much different person at that time of my life.  If I could put my 40 year old mind, into my 19 year old head, I would've.  You can't do that though. 

WHY I DID NOT? Well for a lot of reasons. I was not in a good place mentally at that time of my life.  Not in a good place emotionally either.  That had a lot to do with it.  Secondly, I had never been a good high school wrestler.  This isn't me displaying false modesty, this is just me being honest.  Had I gone out for the wrestling team in college, I'm pretty sure high school credential/accomplishment wise & overall record wise, I would have been the worst on the team.  65-70 and the best I ever did was 3rd at sectionals.  Breaking my back, missing nearly all of 8th grade & a good portion of 9th grade didn't help.  Going on to tear my left bicep & then tear ligaments in my left ankle my junior season wasn't a great help either.  I also suffered from severe suicidal depression.  In wrestling, we don't make excuses, but I often wonder if it hadn't been for all of that, how my high school wrestling career would've turned out. 

Secondly, I thought I did have a career in theatre.  Such a foreign thing to many in the wrestling community, but theatre was my other passion during my high school years.  I loved acting & I LOVED writing. My dream since I was 7 years old was to write for television and film.  The idea of being a stage or film actor was very appealing to me, but my ultimate desire was to write. I sat down and had a long talk with my high school drama teacher, Cheree Mann (Murtaugh) about it.  She said that if I really wanted to do theatre, I couldn't half-ass it.  It was going to take work and dedication.  So it was then I thought to myself that I need to make a decision.  Wrestling or theatre?  I couldn't see myself going anywhere as a wrestler.  The goal was to get an undergraduate degree in theatre and then go on to get a graduate degree in screenplay writing.  At the time, choosing theatre seemed the right choice. 

But you know me, I couldn't completely stay away.


It's like where do you start?  I suppose I'll start objectively.  I was at Northwestern college from the fall of 2004 through the spring of 2007.   Three wrestling seasons.  The Red Raiders weren't the Grand View Vikings of yesteryear, but they were respectable and had some really tough kids.  My freshman year, NWC finished 22nd in the NAIA nation with 5 NAIA qualifiers.  My sophomore year, NWC finished 24th in the NAIA nation, again with 5 NAIA qualifiers.  My junior year, NWC finished 15th in the NAIA nation, with 6 NAIA qualifiers, two of which earned All American status. 


Coach Paul Bartlett -  Paul Bartlett was the head coach of the Northwestern Red Raiders my freshman and sophomore years of college.  In my life, I've had a handful of individuals who made a very positive and influential impact.  Paul Bartlett was one of them.  He knew my story and he knew my background.  As a 19 year old kid, it made absolutely no sense to me at all why this man wanted me as a member of his wrestling team.  What the Hell did I offer him?  He wasn't looking at a future All American or even an NAIA qualifier. He'd be lucky if I ever made the varsity.  Yet he welcomed me with open arms. He even offered me a partial scholarship.  I was one of the first people he sent a schedule to once he had it complete.  He had me help him with recruiting and he went out of his way to somehow, in some way make me feel like I was a part of it.  He knew if nothing else, Red Raider wrestling had its biggest fan on campus, and he made me feel appreciated.  I've known some very good men in my life, and Paul Bartlett is among the best. 

Coach John Petty - Honestly, when Coach Bartlett stepped down & John Petty took over, Coach Petty was very good to me too.  Coach Petty has a lot to do with my writing (and soon to be video) coverage of collegiate wrestling.  One of my biggest flaws, is that I often concentrate on my weaknesses, rather than my strengths. I was never a good wrestler, so I wasn't going to give back to this sport in that way.  We're a sport that cares so much about what you did and what you accomplished, I realized early on that I was never going to be given a chance as a coach.  I feel differently about that now, then what I did then.  As a young man in my early 20's, all I ever heard was, "he never did nothing" and "don't listen to him, he wasn't any good."  

Coach Petty really encouraged me as a wrestling aficionado.  My talents and abilities were in covering the sport.  That's how I could give back to the sport.  JT1Wrestle may only be a hair in the nose of places like Flo & Intermatwrestle, but I have a respectable following.  If you enjoy my coverage of collegiate wrestling, Ryan Groom a former William Penn Statesmen is one of the guys to thank.  The other is John Petty. 


Now for the Red Raiders themselves....

Might as well get the negative out of the way. 

John Suter - John Suter was a four-time High School State qualifier from South Dakota.  8th-6th-2nd-4th.  He went on to be a two-time NAIA qualifier for the Red Raiders in his freshman & junior seasons.  Looking back now, I can understand John's dislike of me.  His main problem with me, is that in my freshman year, I only practiced with the team 3 days a week. Two of the days, I had what was called Theatre Production Ensemble (TPE).  TPE was something that you had to be a part of, if you were a member of Northwestern College theatre.  You had to give x amount of hours to it every semester.  You could spread the hours out and come in every day.  Or you could work it out to where you did all of your hours in a single day.   It involved working on sets, helping with lights, helping actors rehearse lines, ect.  I worked it out to where I was doing TPE on Tuesdays and Thursdays, then going to wrestling practice on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. 

I can understand and empathize why John had a problem with this.  He was working his ass off all 5 days of the week. He (and the rest of the team) was also going to team runs and team lifts.  What gave me the right to come and go as I pleased? 

John, also I think, plain didn't like me as a person.  I get that too.  I'm not oblivious to who I am.  I'm very self-aware. I have a personality that can be off-putting to some people.  I talk a lot and often don't know when to shut up.  Sometimes, people don't like you.  It's that simple.  That was the case with John Suter. 

I wrestled John a lot in the practices I came into. For the most part, I got my ass handed to me.  I could do ok against John on my feet.  I'd take him down occasionally & even threw him in a headlock from time to time. Yet when John got on top, it was game over.  He was like a leech.  You just couldn't get him off of you.  He had a really good suck back, and he'd tilt you till the cows came home.  On bottom, to be honest, he was rather lazy. I couldn't turn him but keeping him down wasn't an issue.  

I think overall though, I was more liked by others than he was though. He wasn't an easy guy to get along with, and he seemed to get angry and ticked off about a lot of things.  His senior year of wrestling, he also started dating a woman he'd eventually marry.  He put a lot of his time and energy into her, and many of the wrestlers felt he phoned in his final season of wrestling.  At least he was there, and he did it.  I didn't.  I know that's what he'd say.  

The last thing I'll say about John is that at breakfast, lunch and dinner, members of the wrestling team would often ask me to sit with them. John didn't like this, and he let me know he didn't like this. I wasn't a member of the team, I had no right to sit with them.  Again, I do understand where he was coming from and a part of me agrees with him. 

Jon Hodgkinson - Ironic enough that the two guys on the team that had a severe dislike for me were both named Jon. I wasn't around Jon as much as I was around John, and Jon wasn't as vocal about his dislike for me as was John.  Yet I know Jon didn't care for me, as it was relayed to me from other members of the team.  I'm sure some of Jon's problem was very similar to the problems that John had with me.  He wasn't around very long though, so I don't have much more to say about him. 

Scott Treft - the issue between Scott and I was more of a misunderstanding than it was anything else.  At the time I was very bitter about my high school wrestling experience and at times I came off as very angry and pissed off.  I wasn't always aware of just how unpleasant I could be at times. I also at times can be unaware of how my knowledge of stats can come off as "know it all."  One of the wrestler's invited me to come and watch the Iowa State vs Iowa wrestling dual with the team.  I started rattling off all of the accomplishments and credentials of each Hawkeye and Cyclone.  Some thought it was amazing and cool how I knew such much.  Others though, "will you shut up?"   Scott was one of the latter.   

After butting heads a few times, I came to find out that Scott and I had more in common than we initially thought.  Once we sat down and talked it out, I can say that I liked Scott.  He was also a member of the Red Raider soccer team. If memory serves correct, I want to say he ended up concentrating on that. 


I think that's it.  There may have been others who didn't care for me, but if that was the case they never let me know about it.  Nor did it ever come back to me through another person.  John & Jon outright didn't care for me.  Scott, we were cool once we understood one another. 


The rest, I have very positive memories of.   

In no particular order...


Heath Beesley - Heath was an NAIA qualifier for the Red Raiders my freshman season.  An energetic good guy, who also served in the U.S. Military.  Heath loved having me at home dual meets & let me know how much he appreciated me being at the duals, cheering on the team.  Fun guy to be around. 

Matt Wenniger - Extremely tough wrestler, that probably would have been an All American had it not been for injuries.  An NAIA qualifier in 2005, that later on helped coach the team. I really looked up to Matt a lot and admired his mental strength. At that time in my life, I was a mental & emotional wreck. Having a role model like Matt to look up to and emulate, was a help. 

Andrew Lundgren - Andrew's father, Lyle Lundgren, was who put Northwestern College (IA) wrestling on the map.  All wrestling programs have their first superstar, and that distinction for the Red Raiders belonged to the two-time All American who earned his top 8 finishes in 1980 & 1981.  To be honest, I don't think Andrew and I ever said two words to each other the entire three years I was at NWC.  I was aware of him, I think he was aware of me.  Then again, if he were to be asked about me, and not have any clue who I was, that wouldn't surprise me either.  What I know about Andrew, is that he was very well liked by both Coach Bartlett and his teammates. 

Being the same age that I am, Andrew finished one match shy of NAIA All American honors in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. In 2007, as a junior, he finally won that R12 match & eventually finished 7th in the NAIA nation.  When the team got back from the national tournament, they were all so happy for him. It was a rewarding experience to see how genuinely happy his teammates were for him, and how they celebrated his success.  I did not attend NWC the next year, and I'm not sure how Lundgren's career finished up. 

Isaac Schmidt - Isaac's older brother Aaron had been an All American for the Red Raiders a few years before I arrived on campus.  I had Aaron as a professor in one of my classes, first semester freshman year.  It was a class that my Dad was wanting me to take, that I was not interested in at all, at the time. I ended up withdrawing from the class shortly after.   It was a coaching endorsement class, which I believed was a complete waste of my time.  As said before, I had let others convince me that no one would ever want anything to do with me because of how my high school career had turned out.  I was certain of that, and at the time, I could not be told otherwise.  I don't know what Aaron thought of that, if he even thought anything at all. 

Like Andrew Lundgren, I don't recall ever having conversations with Isaac.  He was an NAIA national qualifier in 2005, my freshman year.  He might have been a senior that year, I don't remember.  

Tom Bartello - Tom was a two-time Iowa High School state qualifier from Newton.  A super-serious, no nonsense kinda guy.  He was all business.  I honestly don't think I ever saw the guy smile the entire time I knew him. Very smart guy though. My college years at Northwestern were the time I looked the best.  I was about 175 lbs, ripped and muscular.  I of course worked very hard to achieve that physique, but I owe a lot of it to Tom.  He was the one that explained to me that I was doing bit too much cardio.  How running as much as I was at the time, actually depleted my strength and kept me from making gains.  He also showed me in the cafeteria, the kinda diet I should be eating breakfast, lunch and dinner to achieve my goals  He was an NAIA qualifier his sophomore season of 2006. 

Trent Becker - Speaking of physiques.  Trent Becker was body-builder built.  Big thick neck, huge barrel chest & a set of arms Arnold himself would rank.  I don't know his back story and only spoke with him a number of times.  Very humble and kind individual.  Decided collegiate wrestling was not for him.  I don't know the reason why.  

Chris Keating - my favorite of the Northwestern Red Raiders.  A three-time state champion out of Aztec, New Mexico.  Chris came to Northwestern College as a transfer from another school. I can't remember where from.  Chris in many ways reminded me of myself.  He had an unmatched passion for this sport. A contagious energy that you couldn't help but catch when you were around him. He was easily the hardest worker on the team.  His greatest weakness was psyching himself out.  He studied his opponents, and that was both an advantage and disadvantage to him.  A natural leader, you found yourself looking to him for guidance.  He was someone you wanted to be like.  A two-time NAIA qualifier for the Red Raiders, he finished one match shy of All American status his senior season of 2006.  The kid who beat him in the blood-round ended up finishing 3rd. 

19 years later and that memory still eats away at me.  There's so much more to a wrestler's career than that national tournament.  I believe that strongly.  Hell, I preach it on a regular basis. Chris Keating had a series of highlights throughout his collegiate career.  On top of it, not many people can say they finished top 12.  It's like you know all of that.  You know it's the truth.  Yet if I had the power, to where I could go back in time and have Keating end his career as an All American, I would.  

Courtney Goodwin - tall, lanky guy. If memory serves me correct, I want to say he was either from Kansas or Nebraska.  It was weird wrestling him.  I did ok against him, but often found myself in very weird predicaments.  You'd think you'd have him, and then by the time you realized he actually had you, it was too late. Very meticulous individual. He only spoke when he had something to say.  I don't want to speak for him, but I don't think he was a big fan of John Suter's.  Considering I was cool with Courtney, this may have contributed to John's dislike of me. 

Enock Francois - bar none, the greatest athlete I've ever seen up close & personal. Enock was a soccer player from Florida who had been talked into going out for wrestling his junior year of high school.  A year later, he finished 6th in the state.  How the coaching staff in Orange City, Iowa came across him I have no idea.  They saw the potential in Francois, and knew once it was unlocked, a star would be born.  Enock had it all.  Strength, speed, quickness, technique, cardiovascular conditioning, confidence. You name it he was 10 for 10 in every category.  We're talking the total package.  I thought he might end up a four-time All American. 

In the practice room, I couldn't touch Enock.  I think in multiple goes, I caught him off guard once, and whipped him over to his back. I might have scored on him one other time too, but that would've been it.  Enock was 4th in the NAIA nation as a sophomore for the Red Raiders, and then followed John Petty out to California Baptist for his junior and senior seasons.  He was 6th in the NAIA nation as a junior & 2nd as a senior.  Went on to have some success at the international level, competing with and beating NCAA DI wrestlers.  Coaches NCAA DI wrestling today.   Run into him every once in a while, and always very happy to see him.  Great guy, love watching the success he has had, and continues to have. 

Dustin Farber & Mark "Pun" Perkins - I group these guys together because they were always together. They were both from Arizona and had very similar personalities.  When I first met Pun, I don't think he liked me. My passion and enthusiasm for the sport can sometimes come off the wrong way to people. Pun had went a full 6 minutes with Steve Mocco, the #1 recruit in the nation.  I was extremely impressed by that. Mocco had been pinning and tech'ing everyone, everywhere.  To say you lasted a full 6 with Mocco, meant you were pretty frickin' tough in your own right. It must have been the way I brought it up, that irritated Pun. 

"You went a full 6 minutes with Mocco?!??!" 

He looked at me, came up to me and said, "Yeah....I didn't suck, all right?!?" 

It didn't take long though before Pun began to understand who I was and what I was about.  I own over 100 collegiate wrestling shirts & I'd wear them all the time.  Some kids took a lot of offense to it. I was going to Northwestern College (and I did wear a lot of NWC apparel) and there were kids who felt it was insulting to wear Northern Iowa, Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, ect apparel.  I can see their point, but I guess at the time it never crossed my mind.  I didn't wear those clothes for any other reason other than I love college wrestling.  

Pun and Farber came over to my dorm room once and started going through all of the t-shirts in my closet.  Pun looked over at Farber and said, "I know he has to have one in here. He has every other team on the planet."   Then he pulled out a red Arizona State Sun Devil wrestling t-shirt.  He said I had to start wearing it more often, cause he'd never seen me wear it.  

NWC was no better a match for Pun, than what it was for me.  He was out of place there.  He had a free-spirit, laugh and joke demeanor that did not mesh with the conformist, assimilate and eradicate environment of Northwestern College.  I believe he transferred to Jamestown in North Dakota.  He coaches football and wrestling today. 

Farber is one of those guys that makes me wish I was who I am now, back then.  I had found my place within the Northwestern College wrestling environment as this weird fanatic, that most to my surprise seemed to appreciate, some seemed to get a kick out of, and only a couple seemed annoyed by.  Dustin tried to convince me that I could be an actual member of the team and that nearly everyone would welcome me.  At 19, 20, 21,  I wasn't in a place mentally where I could do that.   He'd come by my room all the time, and say, "Come on Stonebraker, we have wrestling practice."  Even though Coach Bartlett let me know I was always welcome, Dustin Farber is the reason I started going three times a week.  He understood my commitment to theatre, but on the other days, he wouldn't take no for an answer.  

You know it's funny, some of the worst people I will ever know in this life I met at Northwestern College.  That's a fact.  It's also a fact that I knew some damn good people at Northwestern College too. Some very positive people.  People that I look back on now with very fond memories, in a place both environmentally and mentally, where I desperately needed them.  Dustin Farber, who had a dream of being a firefighter one day, was one of those people. 

Chris Ernster - Northwestern College Red Raider wrestling won the sportsmanship award of the NAIA one of the seasons I was there.  This is no surprise to me at all.  Coach Bartlett recruited a group of guys that never were my teammates, but a group of guys that I would be very proud to call my teammates.  When I think of class, humility and sportsmanship, a guy like Chris Ernster is one of the first that pops into my head. A quite and humble guy, we never said much to one another.  Win or lose on the mat, Ernster was a class act.  I admired that from afar. 

David Bray - Yes, THAT David Bray.  JT1Wrestle and Flo's David Bray both went to the same small private college in Northwest Iowa.  The chances of two prolific (I'm well aware I'm probably giving myself way too much credit here) wrestling media personalities going to the same college is like 1 in a 1,000,000.  Yet, it happened.  I can only imagine what has been said about me behind closed doors. 

I've always liked David.  David was the one that invited me over to watch the Iowa Vs Iowa State dual that night when Scott Treft and I got into it. He's always been cool with me as far as I know.   I'd wrestle him in practice quite a bit.  He was better than me, but not a lot better than me.  I'd say 65/35, maybe even 60/40.  Every 10 takedowns, he'd get 6 or 7, and I'd get 3 or 4.  

I think David is doing a great job at Flo and any time anyone ever tries to stir up something between JT1Wrestle and Flo, I usually shoot it down in a hurry. It's not secret to anyone that I think more of a deuce a cow took in a field than I ever will of Willie Saylor, but Saylor isn't Flo, nor was he ever Flo. He was one man. When people try and diss Flo around me or say that Flo is made up of a bunch of asshats, I always stick up for Flo.  I have a lot of respect for David and what he does.  I also know firsthand that he's a class act, and I'll always defend him. 

Matt Gibson - I'd like to have Matt Gibson as a guest on JT1Wrestle some day.  I think he'd make a great interview.  Honestly, I'd love to have all of these guys on eventually, but in particularly Gibson because he has such a neat story.  Matt was never anything special in high school.  Like me, figured he wasn't good enough to wrestle in college. He originally went to Iowa State & studied there for two seasons.  Then he got an itch to get back on the mat.  He transferred to Northwestern College, and as a junior, two years removed from the sport, stepped back onto the mat again. 

His first year of wrestling he didn't win a match, but his second year of wrestling he did.  I was there to witness it, and again, what a rewarding moment that was.  It was at the Red Raider open. I was watching from the stands, Coach Bartlett was coaching another wrestler on another mat.  I think Matt Wenniger was in Gibson's corner.  Gibson won the match 4-2, and other members of the team were gathered around the mat going nuts! They were more excited than he was.  They were jumping up and down.  One of the wrestlers I'll talk about here in a minute, came over grabbed me and started shaking me.  It was one of the coolest things I've ever witnessed in my life. 

They ran over to Coach Bartlett.  "Gibson won a match, Coach! Gibson won!" 

 That type of family atmosphere was what I was hoping I would have found in Northwestern College theatre. It wasn't.  Instead, I observed it on the wrestling team, while often questioning if I made the right decision. 

The Halford Brothers - Adam and Seth Halford. I loved these guys.  Two completely different people. You wouldn't know they were brothers unless they told you. Both, outstanding human beings.  

Seth was a fun, goofy guy who never failed to make you laugh. He was always doing something outlandish and crazy.  He once captured a squirrel and dyed it pink (with safe dyes that would not hurt the squirrel).  He was also ungodly strong.  All these years later I can bench press 405 lbs & military press 275 lbs.  It makes me want to get into a time machine, go back and see how my strength would match up with Seth's.  At the time, it was like a Dad wrestling with his toddler.  Seth was that much stronger than I was.  He was an undersized heavyweight that was too big to cut down to 197.  He would have benefited from a 220 lbs weight class, or something similar.  The handful of times when I did wrestle him in practice, he'd usually put me into a move and then just hold me there.  He'd also talk to me while putting me in the hold.  

Here, I'd be in a cradle or this weird move that I think he invented himself, and he'd be talking to me.  

"How are classes going for you Stephen?"  
"Good"
"Did you get a part in the play you auditioned for?"
"No" 

Then the whistle would blow and he'd release me. 

Adam.  I look back at Adam and again wish that I could go back in time and put my 40 year old mind, into my 19 year old body.  Adam was a very wise individual.  He recognized my passion and my energy, and he tried so hard to channel both into something positive.  Learning how to deal with my sister's death, my depression, & my coming up short of my goals in high school wrestling was a painfully slow and grueling process. I guess I have to accept that it took time.  Adam knew that there was a best side to Stephen Stonebraker, and he at times got that side of me to come out. I wish I would have been in a place mentally at that time, to where he would have came out more often. 

The other thing I'll say about Adam is that he was very supportive of my theatre goals.  One of only a handful of times I was cast in a play, he and some of the other wrestlers came to support me.  I cannot imagine for a second anyone in the theatre ever coming to watch a match had I wrestled in College.  Most of the theatre kids hated athletics and hated athletes.  

Derek Kosters and Bill Frederick - Inadvertently, Derek taught me a lesson that I needed to learn.  In high school, Derek was the kind of guy I would have been easily intimidated by.  He was ripped and chiseled.  Big veiny biceps and a big thick, solid back.  If I had saw a guy like him during my high school years, I would have been terrified.  Yet by the time he arrived on campus, I had been lifting weights really hard for two years.  I wasn't anywhere near as muscular as he was, but I wasn't the same pathetic 145 lbs little pipsqueak that I had been two years prior.  I wasn't using the 35 lbs for dumbbell bench press anymore, I was using the 75s (I now use the 110's & 120s).  I held my own against Derek in the practice room.  We weren't 50/50, he was better than I was, but I'd get him from time to time.  It was a turning point in my life, I suppose similar to the moment when "Moonlight" Doc Graham comes to his realization in Field of Dreams of what could have been.  I locked up a side cradle one day on Derek and took him straight to his back.  He was a two-time state qualifier.  Had it not been for all of my injuries, that kept me off the mat, and out of the weight room for such a long time, I would have been good too. 

On a personal level, Derek seemed to always be hanging out with Bill. I'd run into the two of them every now and again, and we'd make small talk.  They had both been recruited by Paul Bartlett and they both liked the way Bartlett ran the team.  When Bartlett stepped down and Petty took over, they didn't like the changes. I understand how difficult that can be on a wrestler, especially at the collegiate level. You come into a system, with a clear idea of what is expected out of you and what you can expect out of it. When that completely changes in a dramatic fashion, that can be very difficult to deal with. I get that totally.  Both Bill and Derek decided not to continue their wrestling careers.  Bill later became a champion pool player.  I ran into him last year at an Iowa State wrestling dual.  He's a tad hairier than what he was, but otherwise he hasn't changed a bit in nearly 20 years. 

Jordan Keckler - I don't think Jordan and I ever spoke a word to each other.  In fact, I'd bet that if you were to meet him and ask him his feelings on Stephen Stonebraker, he'd reply, "who?"   Jordan I think was either a freshman or a transfer from another school my junior (and final) season at NWC.   A very fun wrestler to watch. I remember going to the first home dual of the season that year and some of the other wrestlers on the team telling me how much fun I was going to have watching Keckler wrestle.   They were right, he had an exciting style.  Wasn't afraid to go after it.  Stuck a kid from I believe Dakota Wesleyan that first dual with a cement mixer. 

Levi Price - Levi came to Northwestern College from one of the UW schools.  I can't remember if it was La Crosse or Eau Claire or where exactly.  Very quite kid, never said much.  He wrestled for the Red Raiders for three seasons going R12-8th-8th at the NAIA national tournament.  Don't get me wrong, that's an outstanding career, but I always thought he was much better than that.  At the NWC open, I watched him give eventual NCAA Division III champion Quincy Osbourne a really good match. Levi was really good at upper-body wrestling.  I never confirmed this, but you could tell he had a Greco-Roman background by watching him.  

LaMar Reed -  Before I talk about LaMar, I have to explain something about my junior season.  The summer before my junior year started, I was seeing a psychiatrist.  He had came to the conclusion that the only way I was going to move on from my failures in high school wrestling, were if I were to completely step away from wrestling for a while. He did not want me attending practices that year, so I didn't.  I also don't know how Coach Petty would have reacted had I have.  Coach Bartlett understood my situation and he worked with it.  I can't say one way or the other how Petty would have taken it.  

As a result, I didn't get to know a lot of the new guys all that well. I had met LaMar a handful of times that year, but nothing more than the casual hello.  At the Red Raider Open, I think Lamar thought I was messing with him when I wasn't.  

His first collegiate match of his career, and he draws Marcus LeVesseur, an undefeated three-time NCAA DIII champion, who would go on to win title #4, having never suffered a loss.  LaMar wrestled him pretty tough.  I think LeVesseur only won 8-1 or 9-2.  I know that LaMar kept from getting majored.  After the match I told LeMar that I was impressed with how well he wrestled.  I took for granted that he was aware of who he had faced out there on the mat.  He looked at me funny. I think he thought I was being a smartass because he had lost the match.  Then I told him I was being serious and the guy he wrestled was a three-time DIII champ.  Now he really thought I was messing with him.  A while later he comes up to me and says, "Man, you were serious! He really is a three-time D3 champ!'   It was quite comical. 

LaMar followed Petty and Enock out to California Baptist, and ended up having a great career for the Lancers.  Earned back to back NAIA All American honors in 2009 & 2010. 

Adam Mohr - I never knew much what to make of Adam Mohr.  You have guys in life like John Suter, who you know good and well, don't like you.  You have other guys in life, like Adam Halford you get along with really well.   Then you have guys like Adam Mohr, who one second makes you feel like he can't stand you and then the other makes you think that he respects and admires you.  Adam was a complicated guy.   

Like me, Adam wasn't happy about the way his high school career had turned out.  He told me that he had finished 3rd at districts three years in a row competing for Lewis Central Abraham Lincoln.   Three years in a row, one match from state.  He also, like me, found the Calvinistic Hell, Fire and Brimstone demeanor of many on campus to be off-putting.  I discovered later in life after much self-searching and self-discovery that I was an agnostic. I think he came to a similar conclusion about himself.  I always enjoyed my conversations with Adam. He was a deep, philosophical thinker.  Years ago I went to go ask him a question on Facebook and he was no longer there.  I can only imagine that he either completely got rid of his social media or for one reason or another he grew sick of me.  Either way, best to him. 

Cole Spree -  Yep, the 2025 NJCAA Coach of the year, who coached the Indian Hills Warriors to an NJCAA title last season went to the same college as me.  Had a sorta similar experience with Spree than I had with Kosters.  In high school our 160 lbs'er (I was 145) Dan Hammes kicked the ever loving shit out of me.  Just tossed me around like a red-headed stepchild.  I occasionally, and I do mean occasionally could score a point on Dan, but it was rare.  On a scale of 100, I want to say when Dan Hammes wrestled Stephen Stonebraker, it was 95/5 Dan, and I might not be giving him enough credit. 

Dan's junior season, he qualified for state and had to wrestle Spree in the consolation semi-finals.  Spree whaled on him, tilting him left and right to a 13-3 major decision.  He had his way with Dan.  So, when I wrestled Spree in practice, I accepted my fate.  I figured I'd be Hiroshima and he'd be the bomb.  Now Spree did beat me, but it wasn't quite the getting murderized experienced that I thought it would be.  Again, I had built up my body. I now had a chest, I had a back, I had a pair of arms on me.  In my mind before we started wrestling, I figured he'd be taking me down at ease and turning me with ease.  Yet he had to work for his takedown, and he was having trouble turning me.  It again was a bittersweet feeling.  It made me realize that I didn't "just suck" like many, including myself had tried to convince me of.  Had I have had the upper body strength than I now possessed, my high school career may have very well turned out the way I had dreamed that it would have. 

Cole's entire time of coaching at the collegiate level, he's been supportive of my writing.  Years ago, when I finally stopped being one of these snubs that only covered DI, I started covering DII, DIII, and NAIA. Cole got on me about not covering NJCAA. I promised him that the next season I would start doing NJCAA, and I have been ever since.  Cole's a great guy, a great Coach and proof that good things do happen to good people.  It's fun watching good guys succeed. 

D.J. Jackson - Never knew D.J. real well.  He was a hard worker.  I really admired his ability to stay focused and trust in his plan. Sometimes when things aren't going someone's way, they have a tendency to doubt themselves of even give up.  Not DJ.  He had a fixated vision.   D.J. earned NAIA All American honors of 8th place in his sophomore season.  I really think with as much as he improved from him freshman to his sophomore season that the sky was the limit for him as a junior and senior.  I would have loved to have seen what he could have done in his final two seasons.  Instead D.J. decided to turn his focus to other forms of martial arts.  He's had success in those fields. 

Rich Meekhof - Rich was a transfer from a school that did not have an official sanctioned wrestling program, but had an NCWA team.  I was curious about the NCWA at the time and he provided me with quite a bit of information about it. We also had a Spanish class together and I once laughed at what I thought was a joke being told by the Spanish teacher.  He was saying, "Mi Suegra es muy, muy mala."  In American culture, sons-in-law make jokes about their mothers-in-law all the time.  I thought that was what he was doing.  I remember Rich looked at me like I had done something extremely evil and said, "She's dying dude."  I realized what the professor was actually saying and I felt an abundance of embarrassment and shame. That was fun going into the professor's office later on that day and explaining the situation to him.   When I made the discovery that I was an agnostic, Rich and I had a few conversations about it.  You'd think I would, but I don't remember much about his wrestling career. 

Mark Bradley - Mark was my roommate my freshman year.  A three-time state qualifier out of the state of Michigan. We got along pretty well, although I think Mark found me a bit too boring.  I'm a juxtaposition in many ways. I'm friendly and talkative when I am out and about, but I'm also very keep to myself and like to be alone.  I enjoy listening to music, reading, and (if it ain't obvious) writing.  I think he was hoping more for a roommate that liked to play video games, watch TV, have other people over and go out.  

At the time, along with hitting the gym on a regular basis, I was also doing 300 pushups a week.  I'd do them Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  Mark would count them, and if I didn't go all the way up and all the way down, they didn't count.  

We'd play pranks on one another from time to time. The best one he ever played on me was freezing all of my underwear.  Nothing like going to Wal-Mart and having to buy new packages of underwear.  The bright side was I tried a new kind, that I liked much better and I've been wearing them ever since.  The best prank I pulled on him was taking a black permanent marker and drawing a curly wax mustache on his face.  I watched him wake up and go out and about.  He was going on like normal, talking to other people, walking down the sidewalk, heading to lunch.  He kept on noticing people looking at him funny and laughing.  He looked at me and said, "Do I have something in my teeth or something? Is my hair messed up?"  Of course I played dumb.  'I had no idea.'   When he went into the bathroom and saw himself in the mirror, he came out letting me know that he would get even.  He did. 

I can be a rather oblivious person.  I think this is something that can get on people's nerves about my personality.  I am often in my own world, minding my own business.  Things can happen around me and I don't notice.  Gossip, what's going on around town, I'm the last one to know.  This became an issue. 

At the beginning of the school year, I met Mark's girlfriend.  At the end of the school year, Mark was dating a different girl and I wasn't aware of it.  I hadn't seen his girlfriend since the end of August or beginning of September.  Now it was like May.  So I called the new girlfriend by the old girlfriend's name.  This wasn't intentional, this was me being unobservant.  Mark wasn't too happy with me about this, but I'm pretty sure he's since forgiven me.  

Then there was also the time when Mark found out that I had never seen the LORD OF THE RINGS films.  He insisted that they were a must watch and that they had to be watched back to back.  I made it through the first one.  Halfway through part two, I fell asleep.  Mark didn't notice I was asleep until I started snoring.  He woke me up in a frantic, wanting to know exactly where at in the film I fell asleep so he could go back to that scene.  I told him I was too tired to finish them right now, but I promised someday I would.  20 years later, I still haven't seen all of part 2 and I haven't seen any of part 3. 

Mark was a good roommate.  Like me he thought very highly of Coach Bartlett. I want to say that he didn't wrestle after either his sophomore season or his junior season, but I don't know for sure.  I drop him a line every few years or so.  I think he's doing well.


There was also Aaron Wheeler & Brian Heiberger who were on the team during the years I was at Northwestern College.  I hate saying this as I hate to forget anyone, but I don't remember anything about these guys.  I wish I did, but I don't.  It's also not lost on me that there are some that probably have no memory of me either. In fact, I'd bet on it. 

And that's it. 

I was never officially a member of the Northwestern College Wrestling team.  I look back all these years later and often have to remind myself that my circumstances, and my philosophies back then were a lot different.  For who I was at the time, and the direction I thought my life was going to go, not wrestling in college was the right decision.  Had I have known how things were going to turn out, it's funny to think of how I would have done things differently. 

I regret taking it all so seriously.  Throughout college I maintained between a 3.2 & 3.5 GPA the entire time.  Would my life really be any different if that had been a 2.5?  I was never going to be a slack off kid. I was always going to attend class, and study.  Yet if I had a C+ on a test, instead of an A-, would I be any worse off today, than what I am?  

At that time of my life wrestling was all about being good, winning matches, being a national qualifier, ECT.  I only saw myself for what I wasn't. Adam Halford saw this guy with this unmatchable passion for the sport. A guy who wasn't even on the team, but was out running sprints on the football field, running 2 miles every other day on the nearby trail & pumping iron four days a week.  He saw that guy, and I wish I would've seen him too. 

These guys weren't my teammates, and I wasn't there's.  That's reality.  Perhaps in another life, in a parallel universe, maybe they were. 

NCAA Market Place - FOR SALE - NCAA DI Wrestler-Edition '25-'26

There have already been some huge announcements in the transfer portal.  A.J. Ferrari from Cal State Bakersfield to North Carolina, Richard Figueroa from Arizona State to Oklahoma State, Rocky Elam from Missouri to Iowa State & Lachlan McNeil from North Carolina to Michigan.   That's not all either.  It makes it almost impossible to look at collegiate wrestling from a team standpoint until the start of the season.  Even then it isn't set in stone, as wrestlers can still transfer even after the season has begun! 

 There's still a ton of talent left looking for a new home.  Here are the ones that stick out most to me. 

Kurt McHenry
Penn State
125/133

From Michigan to Penn State, things haven't quite gone the way for Kurt McHenry that we were hoping for out of the three-time Maryland High School State champ & three-time Beast of the East champ.  That's not to say that he hasn't shown potential.  8th at CKLV & 5th at the Southern Scuffle, he's had some impressive wins, including Nick Babin & Kyle Gollhofer.   In the come and go, trade off atmosphere of NCAA DI wrestling, I would think McHenry might be a good fit at a school like Little Rock, which recently lost its lightweight talent to Iowa. 

Jaden Bullock
Michigan
184

Jaden Bullock would make a nice addition to any team that he ends up joining for his final season of collegiate eligibility.  He's proven on more than one occasion that he knows how to win with victories over All Americans Isaac Dean, Gavin Kane & Gavin Hoffman.  He also owns impressive W's against Ryder Rogotzke, Brian Soldano & Lane Malczewski.  The soon to be former Wolverine has back to back CKLV finishes of 6th & 8th. 

Rafael Hipolito
Virginia Tech
157

Only a sophomore, the Brazilian native had a standout freshman campaign last year, going 18-5 on the season winning an ACC title & capturing an 8th place finish at Cliff Keen.  A master of Jiujitsu, he had an assortment of high-profile victories in '24-'25.  A 12-4 major decision over All American Peyton Kellar, he defeated All American Caleb Fish 20-15, owning two victories over Ed Scott by scores of 3-2 & 7-3. 

T.J. Stewart
Virginia Tech
184

T.J. Stewart is perhaps the most interesting case there is in NCAA DI wrestling at the moment.  Much like the stock market, coaches are looking to strike when commodities are hot.  The value market of of '23-'24 T.J. Stewart would be sky high, selling at a high price.  Very valuable.  7th in the DI nation.  How and why the price dropped as low as it did, I have no idea.  But, the '24-'25 T.J. Stewart barely went .500 with a 12-12 record & failed to qualify for the NCAA DI championships.  That's not to be negative, that's to be frank. 

To be positive, Stewart wouldn't be the first wrestler to ever make a redemption.  Look at teammate Eddie Ventresca.  7th in the DI nation in '23, who knows what happened to him in '23-'24.  He was a far, far, far, cry of himself that looked horrible on the mat.  Then in '24-'25, he came back with a vengeance.  Finished a strong 5th at the national tournament and cemented himself as an NCAA DI title contender for the '25-'26 season.  This could very well be the case with Stewart in '25-'26.  

John Wiley
Oklahoma
157

The future Doc Wiley has two (maybe even three...eligibility these days is impossible to figure out) seasons of collegiate wrestling left, before his career is said and done.  A two-time Oklahoma high school state champion, I don't think we've seen Wiley at his full potential yet.  This is the kind of guy, when on, handed Paniro Johnson a 6-4 loss.  He also owns a 10-8 victory over Southern Scuffle champ Blake Saito. 

Tate Picklo
Oklahoma
165/174

Another Sooner looking for a new home is 2023 NCAA DI qualifier Tate Picklo. While inconsistent, he's shown that he can beat some top talent.  A win over All American Cade DeVos, he also owns victories over Lance Runyon, Gaven Sax, and Alex Cramer.  He's placed at the past two Southern Scuffles, taking 4th & 3rd place finishes respectively.  Be a good fit at 165 or 174. 

Jesse Vasquez
Arizona State
149

The 2024 PAC-12 champion is looking for a new home.  Not sure if he could make 141 lbs again or not, but if so, I'd go as far as to say that the soon to be former Sun Devil could contend for All American honors.  He has wins, such as Casey Swiderski & Carter Young to help make the case, plus wins over Cody Phippen, Jason Miranda  & Cleveland Belton. 

James Lledo
Lock Haven
174/184

Let's be real here a minute.  We're in a day in age where we've already seen a lot of DI wrestlers go to DII, DIII or NAIA, and with the climate being as it is, we're bound to start seeing a lot more.  Lledo has some nice wins thus far in years of wrestling for Pittsburgh & Lock Haven.  A 9-7 decision over All American David Key is proof of that.  However, I think Lledo is ripe for the pickins to end his career on  high note competing somewhere in D2 or D3.  We'll see what happens. 

Isaiah Powe
Chattanooga
141

To be quite honest I was a bit disappointed to see Isaiah Powe's name in the transfer portal. I understand that wrestlers need to do what is best for themselves, and I'm all for that.  I also know that it's been a while since the Mocs have had a superstar amongst their ranks, and Powe was already proving that he was in route to fulfill that role.  A SOCON champion in 2024 who put together a 25-4 record, Powe has at least two, if not three seasons of eligibility left.  Will be a nice fit wherever he ends up. 

Sean Spidle
Central Michigan
133

A 29 win season, Sean Spidle took 5th at the Midlands & a runner-up finish at the Mid-American Conference.  In his final season of collegiate wrestling, Spidle looks to compete for a different university. 

Richard Sandoval-Castro
Cal State Bakersfield
125

As a big fan of head coach Luke Smith, it pained me to see Richard Sandoval-Castro's name in the transfer portal. Again, always supportive in wrestlers doing what is best for themselves, but I also know how hard Smith has worked to rebuild Roadrunner wrestling & all that he has been up against.  He loses a good one in 2025 NCAA DI qualifier RSC.  Anxious to see where Valley Union's first four-time California high school state place-winner ends up. 

Chris Cannon
Northwestern
141

I was shocked when I found out Chris Cannon had more eligibility last year, so you can imagine my surprise when I found out that he still has eligibility remaining for this season.  As an historian of the sport & someone who's been following collegiate wrestling for over 30 years, Cannon's story is an interesting one.  Northwestern to Michigan & then back to Northwestern.  Now he's going to end up somewhere else for one last go.  Thing is Cannon is a damn good wrestler.  Owns two 7th place All American finishes.  Injuries have plagued him, but if he can find a little plutonium, the flux capacitor should function at a rate of 88 mph. 

Evan Bates
Northwestern
197

Cannon isn't the only Wildcat looking for a new home.  Two-time NCAA DI qualifier Evan Bates had a great season last year with highlights at both CKLV & the Midlands.  While taking a runner-up finish in Vegas, he was bronze in Chicago.  Will be a strong addition wherever he ends up. 

Kellyn March
North Dakota State
141

If you've been following me for long, you know my utter disdain for injuries. I hate injuries with a passion & looking over the career of Kellyn March it is easy to see why.  When healthy, this guy is capable of some very high achievements. I think he proved that in winning the Southern Scuffle a couple of years back.  If injuries decide to finally get off of his back, whoever he competes for this upcoming season will be very happy to have him on the roster.  

And That's a Career - A Final Salute to the Class of '25 - NCAA Division I

 

Matt Ramos
Purdue
125 lbs

Truth is, I think Matt Ramos will forever be remembered as the guy who kept Spencer Lee & the University of Iowa from seeing its first four-time NCAA DI champion.  Truth is, there's so much more to his career than that.  R12-2nd-R12-4th at the NCAA DI championships, he's a walking testimony to how incredibly tough it is at the DI level to earn a top 8 finish in all of your years of competition.  7th-3rd-4th-3rd in the BIG 10's, one of the best to never win a conference title.  He did however win a CKLV title, which is indisputably the toughest in-season tournament in DI.  8th-2nd-7th-1st in Vegas.  111 career wins & 31-3 on the year. 

Caleb Smith
Nebraska
125 lbs

Started his career off at Appalachian State where he was 3rd & 1st in the Southern Conference. Transferred to Nebraska for his final two seasons of competition where he made the BIG 10 finals as a senior, earning All American statuses of 6th & 7th.  Back-to-back 5th places finishes at the Southern Scuffle as a freshman & sophomore, his junior & senior seasons saw 3rd & 4th place finishes at CKLV. 115 career wins, 24 this season. 

Tanner Jordan
South Dakota State
125 lbs 

Here's a guy that made tremendous strides during his collegiate career.  As a freshman, it was questionable whether he'd ever make the NCAA DI tournament.  By the time he was a junior, he was beating guys that had previously majored him & he stood in 8th place as one of the best wrestlers in the DI nation.  Unfortunately, he was unable to recapture All American honors this season, but what he did do is become a three-time CKLV place-winner.  6th-8th-7th for the Jackrabbit.  5th & 8th in the BIG XII, had 91 career victories.  A Wildlife & Fisheries major, I'm anxious to see what he ends up doing with that. 

Anthony Noto
Lock Haven
133 lbs 

4th & 3rd in the DI nation as a sophomore & junior, this year's NCAA DI championships didn't quite turn out the way the Bald Eagle was hoping.  Nonetheless, Anthony Noto added his name to the short list of wrestlers who have won four Mid-American Conference titles & he won 105 matches in his career. 

Kai Orine
NC State
133 lbs

An Art & Design major, who does all of his own tattoos, I'm not sure what the deal was with Kai Orine this season.  Twice 8th in the DI nation, Orine seemed to struggle in his final season of competition.  Nevertheless, still had highlights, including becoming a four-time ACC place-winner with finishes of 3rd-1st-1st-2nd.  84 career wins & a CKLV title last year. 

Cael Happel
Northern Iowa
141 lbs

Cael Happel entered the '24-'25 season as one of the best in NCAA DI yet to All American & I'm happy to report that the former Lisbon Lion finally got the job done.  2nd & 1st in the BIG 12, Happel brought home a 5th place showing in his final NCAA tournament.  25-5 on the year, also became a three-time CKLV place-winner this season with finishes of 2nd-4th-8th.  Owned three wins over NCAA DI finalist Brock Hardy by scores of 7-5, 11-8 s.v. & 15-13. 

Josh Koderhandt
Navy
141 lbs

Ironically enough, also competing at 141 lbs, Josh Koderhandt was another wrestler who entered '24-'25 as one of the best yet to All American.  Happy to report that with a 6th place finish in the DI nation, he too got the job done on his final try.  2nd-3rd-1st-1st in the EIWA, the Midshipman was 5th-4th-4th at CKLV & 4th-1st at the Soldier Salute.  102 career wins. 

Ridge Lovett
Nebraska
149 lbs 

Add another on the list of those from Idaho to win an NCAA DI title.  The Cornhusker finished off his collegiate career with 2nd-6th-1st place finishes at the national tournament.  A two-time BIG 10 champion, he was also 3rd-1st-2nd at CKLV.  99 career wins & a 25-2 season. 

Dylan D'Emilio
Ohio State
149 lbs 

A five-time NCAA DI qualifier for the Buckeyes, Dylan D'Emilio finished top 12 in one of the toughest weight classes his last three years of competition going 8th-R12-4th at the National tournament.  100 career wins. 

Sammy Alvarez
Rider
149 lbs

"Never Give Up" a saying my high school wrestling coach was quite fond of & a saying that sums up the career of Sammy Alvarez.  Beginning his career at Rutgers, things looked promising as he won a Southern Scuffle title & earned NCAA DI qualification.  Unfortunately, life would fall apart after that as he then transferred to Oklahoma State.  He didn't find what he was looking for in Stillwater, but set sail again, this time finding his treasure about an hour's drive inland from the shores of New Jersey.  In his final season competing for the Broncos, Alvarez went 25-7, racking up a series of credentials & accomplishments.  6th at CKLV, won an MAC title & finishes 7th in the DI nation. 

Malyke Hines
Lehigh
149 lbs

The Florida native made five trips to the NCAA DI championships during his career as a Mountain Hawk.  1st-4th-4th-2nd in the EIWA, had 84 career wins. 

Kyle Parco
Iowa
149 lbs

Things didn't quite end the way they should have for Kyle Parco.  From Fresno State to Arizona State to Iowa, the Bulldog/Sun Devil/Hawkeye had quite the career, that most likely would have ended as a five-time All American had it not been for injury.  6th-8th-4th-5th in the DI nation is quite impressive.  A Soldier Salute champ, on the year handed eventual NCAA DI champ Ridge Lovett a 3-2 loss.  All defeated All Americans Lachlan McNeil 8-5 & Dylan D'Emilio 8-3 & 4-0.  21-4 on the year, 124 wins in total. 

Jaden Abas
Stanford
149 lbs

With Dad Gerry as three-time NCAA DI finalist & Uncle Stephen as three-time NCAA DI champion, I'm sure the pressure on Jaden Abas had to be enormous.   7th in the DI nation in his redshirt freshman campaign, the Cardinal was never able to recapture All American status, but he did have a series of highlights throughout the rest of his career.  100 career wins, Abas was 3rd at the Southern Scuffle & 5th at CKLV his junior season.  As a senior he'd finish 3rd at CKLV & win a Midlands title.  1st-4th-2nd-3rd in PAC-12 competition, he was 5th in the ACC.  A five-time NCAA DI qualifier. 

Trevor Chumbley
Northwestern
157 lbs

In the years of five varsity seasons, Trevor Chumbley earned three qualifications to the NCAA DI championships, making the most of his final trip, earning 4th place All American honors. A walking advertisement for why At Large/Wildcard berths are so vital at this level of wrestling.  During his career also earned a 5th place showing at CKLV & Midlands finishes of 1st & 2nd. 

Caleb Fish
Oklahoma State
157 lbs

Spending the bulk of his career at Michigan State, Caleb Fish would end his collegiate career a Cowboy of Oklahoma State.  96 career wins, Fish finished off his time on the mat with a 3rd place showing at CKLV & an 8th place finish in the DI nation. 

Chase Saldate
Michigan
157 lbs

Another who spent the bulk of his career at Michigan State, the California native finished off his career as a Wolverine of Michigan.  95 career wins, Saldate finished twice one match shy of being an All American. 

Jacori Teemer
Arizona State
157 lbs

Like teammate Kyle Parco, Jacori Teemer's career didn't end the way it was supposed to.  Injury unfortunately got the best of Teemer in his final go-round.  Teemer came to Iowa from Arizona State, where he was a four-time PAC-12 champion with NCAA DI All American finishes of 4th-6th-2nd.  93 career wins in total, this year he did have a 10-6 victory over Caleb Fish. 

Ed Scott
North Carolina State
157 lbs

Like teammate Kai Orine, there was something off about Ed Scott this season & I was never quite able to put my finger on it.  There were times when he looked like his old self on the mat, yet there were other times he looked sluggish, tired & deprived of speed & strength.  This was a guy that used to go out on to the mat, come at your 110 mph & have you on your back with a headlock within the first 30 seconds.  This year, he didn't have anywhere near that fire.  Wrestling as cryptic as it often is, we might not ever know why.  Nonetheless, Scott earned 91 wins during his career.  Had R12-5th-R12 DI finishes & was 1st-3rd-1st-2nd within the ACC.  Also had 2nd & 3rd place finishes at CKLV. 

Peyton Hall
West Virginia
165 lbs

What an outstanding career for the West Virginian competing for West Virginia.  A BIG XII champion this year, Peyton Hall posted R12-8th-7th-3rd place finishes in the DI nation.  4th at CKLV as a junior, he won back-to-back CKLV titles as a senior & now what some call a "grad."  35-2 on the year, won a 124 matches in total. 

Terrell Barraclough
Utah Valley
165 lbs

Terrell Barraclough is a rare story in the book of collegiate wrestling that as the years go by will become more and more common.  Spending the bulk of his career as a reserve at Penn State, Barraclough decided to take his last year of eligibility back to his home state of Utah to compete for the Wolverines.  He made the most of his one & only season of varsity going 32-4 racking up a series of credentials that included 3rd place showings at both the BIG XII & CKLV, and a 5th place showing at the DI national championships.  Want a testimony to how incredibly stacked each weight class is at Penn State, please, look no further. 

Cam Amine
Oklahoma State
165 lbs

At this level of wrestling you have to bring it each and every single time you step on the mat.  Nothing less than everything you have to offer.  That's what it takes to succeed in collegiate wrestling & that's what Cam Amine brought every time he put his straps up on his shoulders.  Four years at Michigan & one year at Oklahoma State, Amine called himself one of the top 12 wrestlers in the DI nation all five years he competed.  7th-4th-4th-R12-8th, he also earned CKLV finishes of 5th-4th-2nd.  93 career wins. 

Julian Ramirez
Cornell
165 lbs

Life & wrestling have a lot in common. They're both fiercely competitive.  They can both be triumphantly rewarding.  They can both be cruelly unforgiving.  Putting it all into perspective is key & I'll argue that till by dying breath.  Yet I cannot deny the heartbreak that comes with finishing R12 in the DI nation four times in a row.   94 career wins, Ramirez was 4th-1st-1st in the EIWA, before becoming one of the Big Red's first ever Ivy League champs.  Also had 4th-1st-2nd finishes at CKLV. 

D.J. Hamiti
Oklahoma State
174 lbs

Looking at a guy like D.J. Hamiti, that's when you really begin to understand how insane DI wrestling truly is.  I thought this guy might win an NCAA DI title his freshman year.  Turns out, he had to wait until his final season to accomplish that goal.  6th-6th-R12-1st in the DI nation for the Wisconsin Badger/Oklahoma State Cowboy.  Also hard to believe, but as good as Hamiti was, he only won one conference title.  BIG 10 wise he was 3rd-1st-2nd & BIG 12 wise he was 2nd.  Also a CKLV champion this year, he was 27-1 on the season, 108 career wins.  Fun fact, from the same high school as Rudy, Joliet Catholic. 

Keegan O'Toole
Missouri
174 lbs

His collegiate career now over, I have a feeling his international career is about to really get going & that we'll see O'Toole racking up World/Olympic medals in the same way he did NCAA.  108-5 during his collegiate career.  That's unreal in so many ways, to be that good & have that kind of record facing the kind of competition that he had to face.  Today's wrestling environment isn't Superman Vs petty thieves and criminals most of the time.  Today's wrestling is Superman having to face General Zod, Lex Luther, Nuclear Man & Doomsday on a weekly basis.  Few ever carried enough kyrptonite to ever get past O'Toole.  3rd-1st-1st-3rd-2nd in the DI nation, he won a MAC title as a freshman & then finished 2nd-1st-1st-1st in the BIG 12. 

Cade DeVos
South Dakota State
174 lbs

Looking over the career of the former Southeast Polk Ram, I'm reminded of Karate Kid Part III where Mr. Myiagi gives Daniel the, "stay focused" speech.  Staying focused, and getting tough when it came time to get tough is exactly what Cade DeVos was all about.  Things didn't always go the way they were supposed to for the Jack Rabbit.  4th-4th-1st at CKLV in his first three seasons, this year DeVos slipped to an 8th place finish.  3rd-1st in BIG 12 competition the past two years, this year DeVos finished in 5th place.  Nevertheless, come NCAA DI tournament time, DeVos would NOT be denied.  5th in the DI nation last year, he earned his second All American honor with a 6th place finish.  A 5 time qualifier, 129 career wins. 

Lennox Wolak
Virginia Tech 
174 lbs

Didn't quite have the final season he was hoping to, but nonetheless came alive towards the end to finish one match shy of earning his second All American honor, after having placed 6th a year ago.  73 career wins which saw 3rd & 1st place finishes within the EIWA & a 3rd place finish in the ACC. 

Nick Incontrera 
Pennsylvania
174 lbs

One of the many collegiate standouts that Blair Academy has produced over the years, Nick Incontrera stood out most at the Midlands championships where in his final three seasons of competition he was 2nd-3rd-2nd.  3rd in the Ivy League this year, he was a four-time NCAA DI qualifier overall, finishing out one match shy of All American status.  93 career wins. 

Carter Starocci
Penn State
184 lbs

Our fanbase's unhealthy obsession with being undefeated is about the only reason Carter Starocci would ever be placed anything less than 2nd on anyone's "Greatest Collegiate wrestler of all time list."   Being an All American at this level even once is an accomplishment of unmeasurable magnitude & to think Carter Starocci won five NCAA DI titles.  I honestly don't think it was given the response that it deserved.  The Hodge Trophy has been shared twice in previous years & there is no reason it shouldn't have been shared once again this year.  That's my opinion & I'll die on that hill.  119-4 overall, it's unreal how good this guy was.  Perhaps in 50 years or so the word ONLY will have more meaning. 

Parker Keckeisen
Northern Iowa
184 lbs

Northern Iowa wrestling has been around for a long time.  The Panthers are rich in tradition & they've produced some outstanding wrestlers.  Being well versed & knowledgeable on the subject, I can confidently say that Parker Keckeisen has officially cemented himself as the greatest to ever suit up in the Purple and Gold.   129-7 during his illustrious career, the Panther was a five-time BIG XII champion who captured 3rd-3rd-2nd-1st-2nd place finishes at the NCAA DI championships.   He was also 2nd-1st-1st at CKLV. 

Dustin Plott
Oklahoma State
184 lbs

Every year, right before the season starts you'll see wrestlers moving up & down in weight, trying to avoid certain wrestlers.  You never saw Dustin Plott do that.  You could bring out the biggest, meanest, toughest bull & the Cowboy was always ready to ride.  Plott ducked no one & faced everyone head on during his career & in this day in age, that's a very admirable trait.  A five-time NCAA DI qualifier, Plott earned All American finishes of 6th-6th-2nd-4th.   In the BIG XII he was 4th-1st-1st-2nd-2nd & he 3rd-2nd at CKLV.  112 career wins. 

Chris Foca
Cornell
184 lbs

Ups and downs in the career of Chris Foca, who finished out his time as a member of the Big Red with an up.  Winning both EIWA & Ivy League titles during his career, Foca was 3rd in the DI nation two seasons ago, coming back this year to earn All American honors once again with a 5th place finish.  96 career wins, also owned two 3rd place showings at CKLV. 

D.J. Washington
Indiana
184 lbs

You've probably noticed by now that I'm also a movie fanatic and that I enjoy making references and analogies to films.  In the case of D.J. Washington, I'm reminded of the film Hook.  In the film Peter Banning aka Peter Pan has forgotten who he is.  He has to go through a series of tests and events to rediscover himself.  I feel that is the case with D.J. Washington.  I feel somewhere along the line, Washington forgot how good he was.  A three-time NCAA DI qualifier, he missed out on qualification last year.  I'm not sure who sprinkled him with fairy dust, but I'm sure glad they did, because he flew at this year's NCAA DI championships, picking up some very impressive wins to finish out his career with an 8th place All American honor.   90 career wins, also had a runner-up finish at the Southern Scuffle & 6th & 7th place finishes at Midlands. 

Edmond Ruth
Illinois
184 lbs

All things considered, Edmond Ruth put together a pretty good collegiate career.  One match shy of placing twice, he did manage a 7th place All American honor last year.  85 wins overall, he was 6th-1st-3rd in the BIG 10.  Looks to have a career in film.  

Gavin Kane
North Carolina
184 lbs

The Georgia native captured NCAA DI All American honors two years ago and was a four-time NCAA DI qualifier overall with 83 career wins.  2nd-2nd-4th-3rd in the ACC. 

Stephen Buchanan
Iowa
197 lbs

The first of what I feel will one day be many, Stephen Buchanan earned NCAA DI All American honors four times in his career, representing three different schools in the process.  8th & 3rd for the Wyoming Cowboys, 3rd for the Oklahoma Sooners & a national championship for the Iowa Hawkeyes.  112 career wins, was a runner-up at the BIG 10's this year, having won both CKLV & the Southern Scuffle in previous seasons. 

Jacob Cardenas
Michigan
197 lbs

Spending the bulk of his career at Cornell, Jacob Cardenas decided to spend his final season of collegiate wrestling competing for the Wolverines of Michigan. Earned All American status three times, placing 8th-4th-4th.  A BIG 10 champion, also was a CKLV champion, with 94 career wins. 

Michael Beard
Lehigh
197 lbs

Competing for both the Nittany Lions of Penn State & the Mountain Hawks of Lehigh, Michael Beard finished in the top 12 of his weight class all five seasons he competed.  R12-7th-R12-8th-R12.  104 career wins, was a three-time EIWA finalist going 2nd-1st-1st. 

Isaiah Salazar
Minnesota
197 lbs

82 career wins, Isaiah Salazar's time as a Golden Gopher came to an end this season, with '23-'24 being his best year.  Last year was both a BIG 10 champion & 6th in the DI nation. 

Trey Munoz
Oregon State
197 lbs

A five-time NCAA DI qualifier, Trey Munoz enjoyed the most success in both '22-'23 & '23-'24.  A two-time All American with finishes of 6th & 3rd within those seasons, Munoz was 2nd-1st-1st-1st-3rd in PAC-12 competition, going 8th-R12-5th/6th at CKLV.  Earned 96 career wins with one season at Arizona State & four seasons at Oregon State. 

Wyatt Hendrickson
Oklahoma State
HWT

In the history of collegiate wrestling we've had a lot of great upsets, but when it comes to the greatest upset of all time & who pulled it off, the answer is the 2025 NCAA DI HWT championship & Wyatt Hendrickson.  Hendrickson's dramatic victory over Gable Steveson in the finals IS what won him the Danny Hodge award this year & what will cement him as the one who pulled off the greatest upset in collegiate wrestling for the decades to come.  At 40 years old, I could live another 60 years and not see an upset of this magnitude.  Representing our country as a member of the Air Force, Hendrickson was 1st-1st-2nd at the BIG 12's & 3rd-3rd at the NCAA DI's.  Spending his final season at Oklahoma State, he won both the BIG 12's & the NCAA DI's, as well as a CKLV title.  123 victories in total. 

Gable Steveson
Minnesota
HWT

I'd easily say that Gable Steveson is the most popular & well known collegiate wrestler of modern times.  The doors of possibility and opportunity seem to all be open to him now & it'll be interesting to see what the years ahead have in store for the Golden Gopher.  3rd-1st-1st-2nd in the DI nation, he was supposed to go down undisputedly as the greatest HWT of all time (collegiately speaking).  Hendrickson put an end to that saga.  Perhaps it might be the spark that lights the fire for Steveson internationally speaking.  As of right now, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist has a long way to go before we start placing him ahead of the likes of Bruce Baumgartner.  Yet with that said, potentially speaking, he has the talent and he has the tools.  101-3 during his career, 75% of his wins came via bonus.  2nd-1st-1st-1st in the BIG 10. 

Cohlton Schultz
Arizona State
HWT

With the likes of Gable Steveson and Wyatt Hendrickson at the HWT division, it was rather easy this year to get overlooked & underappreciated.  Yet what Cohlton Schultz was able to accomplish in his illustrious career should be recognized and celebrated.  Earning All American honors once in your career is something to be ecstatic about, and the Sun Devil managed to do it five times.  4th-2nd-7th-6th-3rd for the Colorado native.  A four-time PAC-12 champion, he was the runner-up at the BIG 12's this season & he also finished in 3rd place at CKLV.  101 career victories, many of which were via fall. 

Already having earned both PAN-AMERICAN silver & bronze, Schultz's career is far from over on the international stage.  I'd say it's just beginning.  The United States has been looking for a Greco-Roman superstar for quite some time now.  We've had them in freestyle, but we have yet to have anyone in Greco that has really captured the imagination since Rulon Gardner.  Schultz could likely be that someone. 

Owen Trephan
Lehigh
HWT

Spending the majority of his career at North Carolina State, Owen Trephan transferred to Lehigh for his final season of competition.  24-2 on the year, the final year was the greatest year.  An EIWA champ, finished off with his 93rd career victory & a 5th place showing in the NCAA DI nation. 

Greg Kerkvliet
Penn State
HWT

97-12 during his collegiate career, it seems asinine to say this, but it is the truth...even with all that Greg Kerkvliet achieved, he probably would have achieved a lot more had it not been for injuries.  7th-4th-2nd-1st-6th in the DI nation, it's very likely that the five-time All American would have added more national titles to his resume.  Had he been 100%, perhaps it would have been him instead of Hendrickson, pulling off the greatest upset of all time.  Injuries are often the least talked about, yet most prolific of the reasons why someone's career does or does not turn out as great as it could have.  A fact of life, and something to keep in mind when looking over the career of the Nittany Lion. 

Josh Heindselman
Michigan
HWT

I wrote my first article for collegiate wrestling in 2002.  Over the last 23 years, I can honestly say that 99% of the time, I've been positive towards wrestlers. I do not like to be negative, but the one exception I will make is when a wrestler shows poor sportsmanship. I'm not a fan of it, I don't turn a blind eye to it, and I don't condone it.  I will speak out against it. Now the other thing I can say concerning my writing is that in 23 years, not many have confronted me on things I have said, good or bad.  I get about 10 messages a year from fans, wrestlers and coaches, but that's about it.   One of my favorites was from Bryan Heindselman, Josh's favorite. 

I had written about Josh showing poor sportsmanship in a match I had watched, I believe on FLO.  What was funny about Bryan's message to me, was that he was not denying that Josh had shown bad sportsmanship, but he wanted to clarify that I had the wrong match.  I had watched a ton of wrestling (as I always do) that week & I thought that the match was against West Virginia's Michael Wolfgram.  It turns out it was against someone else.  Bryan said that Josh normally doesn't act that way and explained the situation to me.  I told him that I understood. We've all lost our cool when provoked, and I said, and meant that I hoped Josh made All American before his career was said & over. 

And he did, and I was happy to see that happen.  A five-time NCAA DI qualifier, four seasons at Oklahoma & one at Michigan, Heindselman seemed to have the most fun in his last go round on the collegiate mats.  Seemed to wrestle loose and relaxed, like he had nothing to lose.  Wasn't afraid to try things and leave it all on the mat.  A Midlands champ, 4th in the BIG 10's & 7th in the DI nation, Heindselman finished out with 108 career wins. 

Gavin Hoffman
Lock Haven
HWT

My all time favorite film is Back To The Future  and I have to say being a huge fan of time paradox theories, I believe in another universe in another dimension, Gavin Hoffman won an NCAA DI title.  6th in the DI nation years back, I thought Hoffman's career was a said and done thing, but he came back for one more season & damn near made All American status again.  An MAC champ, one match shy of being top 8, ended with 93 career victories. 

Angelo Rini
Indiana
133 lbs

One of the many collegiate wrestlers that St. Edward has produced over the years, Angelo Rini is a wrestler that I can say significantly got better season to season.  Competing for both Columbia & Indiana, Rini took 3rd in the EIWA's two seasons ago & finished one match shy of NCAA DI All American honors this year. 

Danny Braunagel
Illinois
174 lbs

Danny Braunagel is the type of guy I think of when I preach that there is so much more to collegiate wrestling than the last two/three days of it.  He never did put it together at the NCAA DI championships, but there were many other times at other tournaments & duals where he did.  This year, not sure if it was injury or something else, but it was a rough time for him.  Saw a glimpse of him at his best at the BIG 10's where in the minds of many, he should have been a finalist, coming back for a strong 3rd.  82 career victories. 

Zac Braunagel
Illinois
197 lbs

An identical twin, call it irony that Zac Braunagel's career mirrored that of Danny's in many ways.  Although he did come close a couple of times, Zac wasn't able to capture All American honors during his career either.  Still a great career full of many highlights, that again ironically speaking, including a 3rd place showing at this year's BIG 10's.   A five time NCAA DI qualifier, with 88 career wins. 

Kyle Burwick
North Dakota State

Never give up.  That's the story of Kyle Burwick.  Nebraska, Wisconsin, the North Dakota native went out into the world looking for riches, only to find that what he needed was right at home competing for the Bison of North Dakota State. The three-time NCAA qualifier earned 25 wins this season, placing 4th at the Southern Scuffle & making the BIG 12 finals. 

Cleveland Belton
Oklahoma
133

A two-time NCAA DI qualifier who finished one match shy of All American honors in '24, things unfortunately didn't end as well for Cleveland Belton who came up short of NCAA DI qualification in his final season of wrestling.  On the plus side, the Arizona State to Oregon State to Oklahoma wrestler did place 7th at the Southern Scuffle. 

Andrew Alirez
Northern Colorado
149 lbs

Andrew Alirez came up a little short of All American honor #2, but what a phenomenal career for the Colorado native.  A four-time qualifier, he became both Northern Colorado's first BIG 12 champion & their first NCAA DI champion.  Going 4th-WC-1st-1st-3rd in the BIG 12, he also had 4th & 3rd place showings at the Southern Scuffle & was a Cliff Keen runner-up   17-3 in his final season. 

Mosha Schwartz
Oklahoma 
141 lbs

Another Colorado native, Mosha Schwartz competed for both Northern Colorado & Oklahoma during his collegiate career.  A four-time NCAA DI qualifier he went 2nd-4th-6th-7th in BIG 12 competition, also earning both 5th & 7th place finishes at CKLV & the Southern Scuffle respectively. 

Cobe Siebrecht 
South Dakota State
157 lbs

The Lisbon, Iowa native spent some time at Iowa where he was an NCAA DI qualifier & then transferred to South Dakota State for his final season of competition.  Once again qualified for the DI championships, with the highlight of both his career & season making the BIG 12 finals. 

Evan Bockman
Iowa State
184 lbs

From California Baptist to Utah Valley to Iowa State, Evan Bockman enjoyed a successful collegiate career that saw NCAA DI qualification on four occasions.  Knee injuries kept him from enjoying further success, but he did often shine at CKLV going 8th-4th-R12-6th at the DI's most prolific in-season tournament. 

Luke Surber
Oklahoma State
197 lbs 

A four-time NCAA DI qualifier, Luke Surber finished out his career with 3rd-3rd-2nd place showings at the BIG 12 & a 3rd place showing at CKLV. 21-5 on the year. 

Zach Glazier
South Dakota State
197 lbs

Every couple of years my girlfriend and I like to take small little vacations.  Minneapolis is a fun place to spend a three or four day weekend.  On the way up, we always go through Albert Lea.  Curious as to the wrestling in Albert Lea, I looked up the high school the last time we went up there and came across the name Zach Glazier, a two-time Minnesota High School state champ.  Reading up more on him, I saw that he was going to Iowa, although I'm sure St. Cloud State was hoping they might get him.  Was happy to see him earn BIG 10 runner-up status last year & was hoping that he might earn All American honors this year.  197 lbs was absolutely stacked.  Had a great showing in his first & only BIG 12 tournament, taking 3rd. 

Lance Runyon
Northern Iowa
HWT

Talk about a team player.  The Southeast Polk native, qualified for the NCAA DI championships twice competing at 174 lbs.  In his final season, he was needed elsewhere & competed in the HWT division for the Panthers.  20-9 on the year, took 7th place finishes at both the BIG 12 & CKLV. 

Sam Mitchell
Wyoming
HWT

Spending the bulk of his career at Buffalo, Sam Mitchell spent his final season at Wyoming.  89 career victories, was a two-time NCAA DI qualifier. 

Connor McGonagle
Virginia Tech
133 lbs

I've spoken earlier about wrestlers who make some vast improvements during their collegiate careers, and I don't know if that is more exemplified than what it is when you take a look at Connor McGonagle. Here's a guy that had a couple of losing seasons & a .500 season, who capped it all off by winning an ACC title & finishing 6th in the DI nation.  

Sam Latona
Virginia Tech
141 lbs

Was hoping to see Sam Latona finish out better than what he did, but remind myself of the fact, that he had an outstanding career nonetheless.  A five-time NCAA DI qualifier, he was 6th-R12-7th-Q-Q in national competition & 1st-2nd-3rd-2nd-2nd in the ACC.  114 career wins, I'd call him one of the best to come out of the state of Alabama. 

Jason Miranda
Stanford
141 lbs

Three seasons ago, Jason Miranda finished 4th in the PAC-12 and they took the top 3.  The next year, he finished in 3rd place, and they took the top two.  It was like, sheesh, this guy has finished probably 34th or 35th in the DI nation two years in a row.  Will he finally make it to the NCAA DI championships & be one of the top 33 in his final season? Happy to report that yes, he was.  Finished a very strong & impressive 3rd at the ACC.  Was also 4th at the Midlands this year & a runner-up at the Southern Scuffle last year. 

Nick Stemmet
Stanford
197 lbs

A four-time NCAA DI qualifier, Nick Stemmet was 3rd-4th-2nd-3rd in PAC-12 competition & 2nd in the ACC.  85 career wins, placed at all of DI's major in-season tournaments including 7th at CKLV & 5th at the Southern Scuffle last year and 4th at the Midlands this year. 

Andy Smith
Virginia Tech
197 lbs 

A three-time NCAA DI qualifier for the Hokies. Finished 5th-3rd in the ACC & was one match shy of DI All American honors in '24. 

Peter Ming
Stanford 
HWT

Interestingly enough, Peter Ming never did have a winning season during his time at Stanford.  Doesn't matter. No one is going to remember that.  What everyone will remember, is that he was an NCAA DI qualifier, with a 3rd place showing at the ACC & that he also captured a 6th place showing at the Midlands. 

Ryan Miller
Pennsylvania
133 lbs

It's often said, and often true that you have to "find a way" in this sport.  Ryan Miller, a two-time NCAA DI qualifier, had to do just that, when he moved up to 133 lbs.  I don't think it was easy at first, adjusting to his new weight, but he soon found himself competing at a high level.  This included in his final season placing 4th at the Midlands & winning the first every 133 lbs Ivy League title. 

Luke Stout
Princeton
197 lbs

From the same high school as Olympic Gold medalist Kurt Angle, Luke Stout, a four-time NCAA DI qualifier will go down in history as the first ever Ivy League champion at 197 lbs. 

Colton Camacho
Edinboro
133 lbs

Like Jason Miranda, Colton Camacho found himself a nosehair outside of the top 33 multiple times throughout his career.  When he transferred to Edinboro from Pittsburgh, I said at the beginning of the season that I thought he would be one of the highlights for the Fighting Scots this year.  I was right, he was.  30 wins on the season, he shined at both the Midlands and in the MAC.  6th in Chicago, 3rd in the Mid-American.  

Johnny Lovett
Central Michigan
157 lbs

I thought somewhere along the line, the Miami, Florida native would earn DI All American honors, but that is the one thing that the Chippewa didn't earn among the many accomplishments and credentials that he did.  A five-time NCAA DI qualifier, he was 3rd-2nd-1st-3rd-2nd in the MAC, winning a Midlands title this year & earning 120 victories overall. 

Alex Cramer
Central Michigan
174 lbs

Another Chippewa who put together a strong career was Alex Cramer.  3rd-1st-1st-2nd in the MAC, he was 5th-7th-4th in the Midlands.  101 career wins, he did start off his collegiate competing for Old Dominion, before they ended their wrestling program. 

Avery Bassett
Lock Haven
165 lbs

Originally competing for George Mason, Avery Bassett finished off his collegiate career at Lock Haven where he was 3rd at MAC championships. 

Mike Wilson
Rider
174 lbs

Son of Minnesota Twin scout John Wilson, Mike Wilson has one of the most interesting stories I think an NCAA DI wrestler will ever have.   5th-2nd-4th in MAC action, it looked like Wilson was going to end his career as a one time NCAA DI qualifier.  However, shenanigans within PAC-12 competition, and suddenly Wilson was a two-time qualifier.  I highly doubt under these particular circumstances, if we ever seen anything like this in collegiate wrestling again. 

Anthony Molton
Campbell
125 lbs

This sport can be unforgiving and rather cruel.  Gawd only knows how many times I've said that over the last 23 years.  Truth is, if you're asking me,  Anthony Molton is easily one of the absolute best who never made the NCAA DI tournament during his career.  The future law enforcement officer still had many highlights though, including placing 3rd in the Southern Conference on two occasions.  Was also a two-time Franklin & Marshall Open champ & took 3rd at the Southern Scuffle.  Competed for Old Dominion before we lost that program due to discontinuation. 

Todd Carter
Gardner Webb
133 lbs

The Georgia native capped off his career for the Runnin' Bulldogs with 90 career wins earning 2nd & 1st place finishes at the SOCON championships. 

Devan Hendricks
Bellarmine
184 lbs

It was a season of firsts in '24-'25 & we saw the Knights of Bellarmine crown their first SOCON champion in Devan Hendricks.  Hendricks has been a staple for the Knights ever since their move to NCAA Division I.  Awesome to see him earn this achievement and forever be cemented in history as their first conference champ. 

Levi Hopkins
Campbell
197 lbs

89 career wins, Levi Hopkins capped off his career as a three-time SOCON champion.  He also placed 5th at this year's Southern Scuffle. 

Daulton Mayer
Bellarmine
HWT

After a storied career in the NAIA competing for the Saints of Thomas More, Daulton Mayer decided to compete his final season in NCAA DI competing for Bellarmine.  Although this did not translate into qualification, he still had some highlights throughout the season including placing 8th at the Southern Scuffle & 3rd at the Southern Conference.  23 wins, including one over Dan Herrera of Iowa State. 

Legend Lamer
Cal Poly 
157 lbs

Things didn't quite end the way they should have for Legend Lamer.  Injuries and other factors, the three-time NCAA DI qualifier missed out on his fourth qualification this year.  Thrice 3rd in the PAC-12's, he did have a 4-3 win over D.J. McGee on the season. 

Brevin Cassella
Binghamton
174 lbs 

A four-time NCAA DI qualifier, Brevin Casella has EIWA finishes of 5th-4th-3rd-1st during his career.  96 career wins, also had CKLV finishes of 8th & 5th. 

Dalton Harkins
Army
174 lbs

The Black Knight had a strong final season of collegiate wrestling placing 5th at the Southern Scuffle & 3rd in the EIWA.  

Mickey O'Malley
Drexel
197 lbs

The Dragon enjoyed a successful career that saw NCAA DI qualification five times.  EIWA finishes of 4th-2nd-1st-3rd.  88 career wins. 

Cory Day
Binghamton
HWT

Cory Day ended his career as a Bearcat with three NCAA DI qualifications, going 5th-5th-2nd in the EIWA championships. 

Bubba Wilson
Nebraska
165 lbs

Unfortunate circumstances followed this young man around like a flea on a dog.  Nevertheless, despite everything he went through, we still go to see glimpses of how talented he truly was.  A two-time NCAA DI qualifier, Wilson shined through best at CKLV where he was 8th-4th-4th during his career. 

Sammy Sasso
Ohio State
157 lbs

The most heartbreaking of the '24-'25 stories I believe would be Sammy Sasso.  Missed out on what should have been a national championship season, because of the poor choices of another individual.  Perspective kept, Sasso had a stellar career for the Buckeyes, even if it didn't end as it should have.  2nd-5th-2nd in the DI nation & 114 career wins. 

Daniel Bucknavich
Cleveland State
HWT

Imagine being told that this will be the last season ever for your wrestling team.  Imagine the amount of pressure you have in realizing that it is up to you to become the last NCAA DI qualifier that your team will ever produce.  That's the type of pressure Daniel Bucknavich had upon him this season, and he handled it very well.  A two-time NCAA DI qualifier overall, he was 2nd & 3rd in the MAC. 

Blake Saito
Brown
157 lbs

Blake Saito really stuck out as a star in a season where the Bears were in need of one.  21-7 on the year, Saito qualified for the NCAA DI championships & he won a Southern Scuffle title. 

Dylan Cedeno
Virginia
141 lbs

Last year did not end well for the Cavalier as it came up short due to injury.  He more than made up for it this season going 15-3 on the year, winning both a Southern Scuffle title and an ACC title. 

Diego Sotelo
Harvard
125 lbs

Although Diego Sotelo came up short of his third NCAA DI qualification this season, I still think overall he's been the leader and standout for the Crimson wrestling program these last few seasons.  Highlights were most seen at the Midlands where he was 3rd-5th-3rd. 

Beau Bartlett
Penn State
141 lbs

Every season we say goodbye to someone that fits the description of, "One of the best to never win an NCAA DI title."  Not only does Beau Bartlett resemble that remark, but he's also one of the best ever to never win a BIG 10 title.  Ironically enough, at both tournaments, Bartlett went 3rd-2nd-3rd in his last three years of competition.  100 career wins for the Nittany Lion. 

Jackson Turley
Rutgers 
174 lbs

An 8th place All American in 2021, Jackson Turley was unable to recapture All American honors during his career.  Mainly due to health and injuries.  Nevertheless, the Scarlet Knight did make the NCAA DI championships on four occasions.  He was also 5th at the Midlands this season. 

Reece Heller
Pittsburgh
184 lbs

Starting his career off at Hofstra, Reece Heller transferred to Pittsburgh, where he was a three-time NCAA DI qualifier for the Panthers.  Going 4th-3rd-1sts at the ACC championships, he also won a Midlands title in his final season. 

Reece Witcraft
Oklahoma State
133 lbs

I heard another fan say, "He was a guy you could never count out, but always count on" and I thought that was a perfect description of the type of wrestler, person & teammate Reece Witcraft was during his time as an Oklahoma State Cowboy.  I've never coached, but I know enough about coaching that if I were a coach, Reece Witcraft is the type of guy I'd want on my team.  An NCAA DI qualifier in '20 & '23, I'd easily call Witcraft one of the best to DNQ this season.  Had a great CKLV where he finished in 4th place & on the season wins over Jacob Van Dee, Derek Cardinale & Kade Moore. 

Michael Wolfgram
West Virginia
HWT

Michael Wolfgram's final season unfortunately came to a premature end due to injury.  To be quite frank, I always felt that he was holding something back.  That we never saw him at 100%, and that could be due to injuries.  Every season he had a handful of impressive wins, this season no different.  A two-time NCAA DI qualifier over all. 


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