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 received the Hodge Trophy, which is awarded to the highest school 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 received his last match at 184 kilos. Starocci was capable of win 5 championships due to an additional yr of eligibility granted to wrestlers because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed him to remain in school for his fifth season.
Whereas Starocci’s uncommon achievement could by no means be topped, Hendrickson pulling off one of the biggest upsets in college sports history helped catapult him to changing into the nation’s prime wrestler.
As an lively member of the Air Power, Hendrickson really wasn’t eligible for that fifth yr of eligibility as a result of it wasn’t made out there 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 whole season.
That each one modified with lower than one minute remaining within the last interval when Hendrickson snatched a leg and introduced Steveson to the bottom for a three-point takedown that received him the match in dramatic vogue with a 5-4 last rating.
“I bear in mind as quickly as I obtained him taken down, I made up in my thoughts he isn’t getting up,” Hendrickson told MMA Fighting about that final sequence. “I stated I’m profitable this match. It’s over however I nonetheless needed to comply with by means 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 will not 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 towards Steveson.
“Now there’s a new massive purpose,” Hendrickson stated. “Clearly this yr was be a Nationwide Champion — nicely now the overarching purpose for the subsequent couple of years goes to be changing into an Olympic champion.”
