Men’s wrestling has grown over the years, especially at the collegiate level. The last tournament of the season for college wrestlers was on Thursday, March 19 and went to Saturday, March 21, which is the NCAA Championship. This tournament was held at the Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio.
Not all D1 wrestlers compete at this tournament, as there are limited spots in the bracket. There are 33 spots for each weight class in a bracket. The NCAA committee uses many areas of criteria to select athletes. Examples of the criteria they use are, head to head competition, quality wins, coaches rank, conference tournament placement, results vs common opponents, and win percentage.
Some of the wrestling coaches for the Eagles were watching the tournament and were very surprised by the results. Coach Leach has a draft with his old teammates for the wrestlers before the tournament starts. They draft someone from every weight class and see whoever wins at the end. Leach was not happy about the results of the 141 weight class.
“I thought Jesse Mendez was going to win for sure,” Leach said.
This year Penn State won the tournament once again, making this the 5th year in a row. Penn State has a total of 14 national championship titles, with their coach Cael Sanderson, winning 13 of those titles for the team. Penn State won with 181.5 points and the runner up, Oklahoma State, only having 131.
Oklahoma State had three true freshman win the tournament at 133, 141, and 157. This is the first time in NCAA history that three true freshmen have won the national title.
