Takedown Report

Mason Parris wins 2023 Hodge; Starocci, Diakomihalis finish second, third

NEWTON, Iowa — After injuring his neck in the 2021 World Team Trials, Michigan’s Mason Parris wrestled the entire 2021-22 college season battling through pain and loss of feeling in his left side.

Entering the 2022-23 season, the Wolverine senior — who finished second nationally in 2021 and fifth in 2022 — was finally healthy and recuperated from a long road of recovery. But Michigan head coach Sean Bormet still considered redshirting his star heavyweight.

Parris, meanwhile, felt confidently that this would be the year all his hard work would culminate in a national title.

Parris made Bormet make one promise, though: he would wrestle every single match without sitting out, even the season-opening Michigan State Open that some of the other Wolverine starters often would not attend.

Now, six months later after capturing an NCAA title in dominant fashion and compiling an unblemished 33-0 season record, Parris has officially been named the recipient of the 2023 WIN Magazine/Culture House Dan Hodge Trophy awarded to the nation’s top college wrestler.

Parris will be presented with the Hodge Trophy at the University of Michigan wrestling banquet on Sunday, April 2 in Ann Arbor. For more information on the Dan Hodge Trophy, including a list of all past winners along with the release story and stats from the year they won the Hodge, visit http://www.WIN-magazine.com.

The third straight heavyweight to win the Hodge — after Minnesota’s Gable Steveson won in 2021 and 2022 — Parris comfortably won the vote as he acquired 38 out of 64 first-place votes. The Hodge Trophy Voting Committee is a retired college coach from each region of the country, a representative from each of the national wrestling organizations, select national media members and past Hodge … rest of story at WIN-magazine.com/2023/03/27/michigans-mason-parris-wins-2023-win-magazine-culture-house-dan-hodge-trophy

April 6, 2023 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized