Wyatt Hendrickson’s beautiful upset to beat Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson within the finals of the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Nationwide Championships has now earned him one other coveted title.
On Monday, Hendrickson gained the Hodge Trophy, which is awarded to the highest faculty wrestler every year, with the Oklahoma State heavyweight capturing the coveted title for 2025. Named after famed wrestler Dan Hodge, the Hodge Trophy is wrestling’s equal to the Heisman Trophy in soccer with previous winners together with Ben Askren and Bo Nickal.
Hendrickson beat out one other excellent wrestler in Penn State’s Carter Starocci, who turned the primary and probably solely ever five-time Nationwide Champion wrestler after he gained his ultimate match at 184 kilos. Starocci was in a position to win 5 championships due to an additional 12 months of eligibility granted to wrestlers because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed him to remain in faculty for his fifth season.
Whereas Starocci’s uncommon achievement could by no means be topped, Hendrickson pulling off one of many greatest upsets in faculty sports activities historical past helped catapult him to changing into the nation’s high wrestler.
As an lively member of the Air Drive, Hendrickson really wasn’t eligible for that fifth 12 months of eligibility as a result of it wasn’t made obtainable for service academy members. So Hendrickson transferred to Oklahoma State the place he was coached by 2020 Olympic gold medalist David Taylor.
Following a robust senior marketing campaign, Hendrickson marched into the finals at 285 kilos with Steveson standing in entrance of him after the College of Minnesota standout — and two-time Nationwide Champion in addition to two-time Hodge Trophy winner himself — hadn’t given up a takedown throughout the complete season.
That every one modified with lower than one minute remaining within the ultimate interval when Hendrickson snatched a leg and introduced Steveson to the bottom for a three-point takedown that gained him the match in dramatic style with a 5-4 ultimate rating.
“I bear in mind as quickly as I bought him taken down, I made up in my thoughts he isn’t getting up,” Hendrickson informed MMA Preventing about that ultimate sequence. “I mentioned I’m profitable this match. It’s over however I nonetheless needed to comply with by way of with that. I can all that stuff however I’ve to behave on it. It was simply an thrilling 10 to fifteen seconds however I made up my thoughts. This man shouldn’t be getting up. I’m ending this proper right here, proper now.”
The win topped Hendrickson as Nationwide Champion and now a Hodge Trophy winner earlier than he strikes onto the subsequent stage of his profession — making a run on the 2028 Olympic crew and a possible rematch in opposition to Steveson.
“Now there’s a new huge objective,” Hendrickson mentioned. “Clearly this 12 months was be a Nationwide Champion — effectively now the overarching objective for the subsequent couple of years goes to be changing into an Olympic champion.”
