This year’s D1 wrestling championships were something not to miss! There were a lot of big upsets. Some dreams were made, and some dreams were crushed. On, March 17 this happened.

In the semifinal the biggest upset in the 125 lb weight class happened. Darian Cruz beat Thomas Gilman, who was undefeated. There were a bunch of upsets, like Vincenzo Joseph pinning the two time champion Isiah Martinez in the finals, as a freshman. Although there had to be a winner, all of these guys had something in common, they all were crazy competitive and committed their lives to the sport.

The wrestlers stepped up in a big moment and some stepped down in a big moment. All of the champions wanted to dominate, like Zain Retherford from Penn State, tech-falling his opponent in the finals. Retherford won the most prestigious trophy in collegiate wrestling, which is the Hodge Trophy and is given to him because he is the most dominant wrestler in D1.

Penn State won the team championship with five champions of their own. That was the most in Penn State history. Their five champions were Zain Retherford, Jason Nolf, Vincenzo Joseph, Mark Hall, and Bo Nickal. They all won in a dominant fashion too. According to pennlive.com Retherford said “It’s what we do every day in our room, have fun with it, compete hard, and learn.”

This sport is almost the same as life because sometimes people fail in life but you have to know how to get back up and finish strong. It shows a lot of character. It was definitely shown in the NCAA’s. Bo Nickal beat the legendary Gabe Dean with outstanding technique and strategy. According to pennlive.com Nickal said “Yeah, it’s definitely something that we stress to the team, just going out there and using all seven minutes that we have and just score as many points as you possibly can.”  

Congratulations to this year’s NCAA champions:

125 pound champion: Darian cruz, 133 pound champion: Clory Clark, 141 pound champion: Dean Heil, 149 pound champion: Zain Retherford, 157 pound champion: Jason Nolf, 165 pound champion: Vincenzo Joseph, 174 pound champion: Mark Hall, 184 pound champion: Bo Nickal, 197 pound champion: J’den Cox, 285 pound champion: Kyle Snyder