Takedown Report

An Ode to First-Time Senior NCAA Champions

The 2023 NCAA Championships are officially in the rearview mirror. As we get further and further away from the Covid year in 2021 that gave student-athletes an additional year of eligibility, a sense of normalcy approaches. One of the typical happenings at the end of a collegiate season is to bid the seniors a fond farewell as they’ve concluded their respective careers.

Drilling down further into the seniors, personally, one of my favorite sites to see at an NCAA tournament is a senior that finishes their career on top for the first time. This scenario isn’t exactly a given, especially in the current era of DI wrestling. Wrestlers are coming into college more prepared than ever and are winning younger than in previous generations. As a result, there are fewer and fewer seniors winning their first national titles.

In 2022, only Ryan Deakin fit this mold of first-time champion as a senior. The previous year, there were none. 2019 had Anthony Ashnault and Drew Foster. 2018 Michael Macchiavello. Just typing their names brings me a sense of positivity.

Why, you ask? I like watching wrestlers accomplish their dreams. Freshman, senior, whatever. But for me, there’s an added sense of significance when it’s a student-athlete with their back against the wall in their final opportunity to win. Someone who’s battle-tested, has been through the rigors of four (or five, or six) years in a collegiate wrestling room. An athlete that has come close to tasting victory yet, for whatever reason, has come up just short of that ultimate goal. They shake off years of frustration, self-doubt, and injuries to give it one last try.

Seeing one of those wrestlers get over the hump and get sent off in style, during the final collegiate bout is poetic. This time they cry tears of joy instead of tears of despair.

In 2023, we had the pleasure of watching three of these seniors go out in style with their first national title. 125 lber Patrick Glory, 197 lber Nino Bonaccorsi, and 285 lber Mason Parris. The three have this in common; however, they have very different paths to the top of the podium.

One similarity between the trio is that each had their respective careers interrupted by the Covid year of 2019-20 … rest of story at Intermatwrestle.com/articles/Wrestling+News

March 25, 2023 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized