All-American. It's an honor that lasts a lifetime, and it's one that just 80 athletes earn in this tournament every year. These are the wrestlers who finished on the podium this year and achieved this prestigious honor.
This is the path these All-Americans took to the finals. Finals will happen on Saturday at 7 p.m. ET.
At 125 pounds, No. 3 Drake Ayala of Iowa was the highest-seeded athlete to advance to the semifinals and clinch his spot on the podium with his quarterfinal win over No. 20 Troy Spratley in sudden victory. He and fellow semifinalists No. 8 Richard Figueroa, No. 10 Eric Barnett, and No. 12 Anthony Noto all earned their All-American honors on Friday morning.
Ayala then beat Barnett in the semifinals, 3-2, to become a finalist, continuing the Hawkeye streak of putting an athlete in the championship round since 1990. Figueroa joined him in the finals after topping Noto, 4-3, in his semifinal.
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In the Blood Round, No. 2 Luke Stanich secured his spot on the podium with a gritty win over 2023 NCAA finalist No. 4 Matt Ramos of Purdue, 4-0. He then beat No. 5 Jore Volk of Wyoming in the next round of the consolation bracket 9-0. Volk, though, also became an All-American, as he topped No. 1 Braeden Davis of Penn State in the Blood Round by way of a 4-1 sudden victory decision.
The moment Jore Volk became an All-American. •
— Wyoming Cowboy Wrestling (@WyoWrestle)
Ayala, Stanich, Volk, and Figueroa earned All-American honors for the first time in their careers, as did Nebraska graduate student No. 15 Caleb Smith and No. 23 South Dakota State's Tanner Jordan. Smith beat 2023 Big 12 champion Stevo Poulin 5-0 in the Blood Round, while Jordan topped Spratley 9-3.
At 133, Oklahoma State's No. 1 Daton Fix earned the fifth All-American honor of his career with a narrow quarterfinal win over No. 8 Evan Frost in a rematch of their Big 12 championship bout. Fix then advanced to the finals after stopping Michigan's first-time All-American No. 5 Dylan Ragusin in the semifinals. Frost also earned All-American honors for the first time with a Blood Round win over Tyler Wells of Minnesota 2-1.
2023 NCAA champion No. 6 Vito Arujau and 2024 EIWA champion No. 2 Ryan Crookham earned the fourth and first All-American honors of their careers respectively. Arujau beat No. 3 Kai Orine of NC State in the quarterfinals 13-3, and Crookham beat No. 7 Nasir Bailey in his bout 4-2. Both Orine and Bailey would go on to win their Blood Round matches against 2023 All-American Aaron Nagao of Penn State and Kurt Phipps of Bucknell by scores of 11-4 and 3-0 respectively. Bailey's win made him the first All-American in Division I history for Little Rock.
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Big Ten champion No. 4 Dylan Shawver earned his first career All-American honor in the Blood Round with a win over Iowa's Brody Teske 6-3.
At 141 pounds, No. 1 Jesse Mendez and No. 2 Beau Bartlett both earned another All-American in their careers at Ohio State and Penn State respectively with quarterfinal wins. Mendez topped No. 9 Brock Hardy of Nebraska 6-2 while Bartlett beat No. 26 Vance Vombaur of Minnesota. Hardy and Vombaur would both go on to secure All-American honors with Blood Round wins. For Vombaur, the honor is the first of his career and came in dramatic fashion via a takedown in sudden victory for the 8-5 win over Josh Edmond of Missouri. Hardy won more convincingly, beating Josh Koderhandt of Navy 7-3.
No. 4 Ryan Jack of NC State and No. 3 Real Woods of Iowa joined these six athletes on the podium. Jack beat Cleveland Belton of Oregon State 9-0 in his Blood Round match for the first top-eight finish in his career while Woods secured more hardware for his trophy case following a 5-2 win over Northern Iowa's Cael Happel.
7th place finish and All-American honors for Ryan Jack ||
— NC State Wrestling 🤼♂️ (@PackWrestle)
North Carolina and Iowa State also secured All-American finishes at this weight with No. 6 Lachlan McNeil earning All-American honors for the second time in his career as a Tar Heel, and No. 5 Anthony Echemendia finishing top eight for the first time as a Cyclone. Both athletes earned their podium finishes by way of wins in the quarterfinals over No. 3 Woods and No. 4 Jack respectively.
The top half of the 149-pound bracket followed the seeds, with No. 1 Ridge Lovett, No. 4 Caleb Henson, No. 5 Ty Watters and No. 8 Casey Swiderski all advancing to the quarterfinals. Lovett and Henson then locked up their All-American honors with their wins over Swiderski and Watters, respectively, though Swiderski and Watters would both win Blood Round matches to earn the first top-eight finishes of their careers.
On the bottom half of the bracket, No. 2 Kyle Parco and No. 6 Austin Gomez locked up All-American honors again with quarterfinal wins over No. 3 Jackson Arrington and No. 10 Chance Lamer. In the Blood Round, No. 11 Quinn Kinner of Rider became an All-American for the first time in his career with a win over Lamer 10-5, while Arrington dropped to first-time All-American No. 7 Tyler Kasak of Penn State 5-4.
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At 157 pounds, No. 2 Jacori Teemer of Arizona State picked up his third All-American honor and big Sun Devil team points with a quarterfinal win over 2023 All-American No. 10 Jared Franek of Iowa. Down in the consolation bracket, Franek worked his way to the podium with a Blood Round win over No. 5 Ryder Downey, the Panther who had a strong season. Franek then faced Cornell true freshman No. 3 Meyer Shapiro, who became an All-American himself after a Blood Round win over No. 26 Johnny Lovett of Central Michigan 13-5. Shapiro beat Franek and would go on to finish third. No. 6 Daniel Cardenas of Stanford also earned All-American honors, as he beat Shapiro the quarters but lost to him in the consolation finals.
No. 8 Peyton Robb and No. 7 Peyten Kellar also picked up Blood Round wins over No. 19 Tommy Askey of App State and No. 4 Ed Scott of NC State, respectively. Peyton Kellar then beat Robb in the next consolation round 12-10, but both Robb and Kellar will be on the podium in fifth and seventh place, respectively.
FAMILY
— NCAA Wrestling (@NCAAWrestling)
What a great moment, (8) Peyton Robb is victorious in his 7th place battle. After the match he shared a moment with his sister (Hannah Robb), who was mat side shooting content for this account.
📺 ESPNU x
No. 1 Levi Haines and No. 4 Bryce Andonian also secured All-American honors for the second and third time in their careers, respectively with quarterfinal wins over Robb and Scott.
The biggest story out of 165 pounds this season was No. 4 David Carr's upset over No. 1 Keegan O'Toole in the national semifinals 8-6. Both Carr and O'Toole will be All-Americans for the fourth time in their respective careers though following quarterfinal wins over No. 5 Dean Hamiti of Wisconsin and No. 8 Antrell Taylor of Nebraska, respectively.
Taylor went on to earn the first All-American honor of his career with a Blood Round win over Gino Petrucelli of Air Force. Joining Taylor on the podium after Blood Round wins were No. 7 Izzak Olejnik of Oklahoma State, No. 20 Hunter Garvin of Stanford and No. 9 Peyton Hall of West Virginia. Oljenik and Hall are All-Americans for the second time in their careers now, while Garvin is a one-time All-American. Both Garvin and Oljenik had to beat multiple-time All-Americans to end up on the podium too with Garvin topping No. 10 Cameron Amine of Michigan 4-2 and Olejnik topping No. 5 Dean Hamiti 9-6 in sudden victory.
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Iowa's No. 6 Mikey Caliendo is also an All-American for the second time in his career, while Penn State's No. 2 Mitchell Mesenbrink picks up his first All-American honor following quarterfinal wins over No. 3 Julian Ramirez and No. 10 Amine respectively.
The 174-pound weight had more returning national champions than any other weight in this tournament, and all three former national champions — No. 1 Mekhi Lewis, No. 4 Shane Griffith and No. 9 Carter Starocci earned their fourth All-American honors. Starocci secured a spot on the podium with a quarterfinal win 4-0 over Lewis, but Lewis rebounded and picked up a win in the Blood Round over Patrick Kennedy to be an All-American again. Griffith earned his All-American honor with an 8-7 win over Jared Simma of Northern Iowa. Simma would go on to drop in the Blood Round to No. 18 Ben Pasiuk of Army 9-8 as Pasiuk became an All-American for the first time in his career.
;PENN STATE PERFECT IN NATIONAL SEMIFINALS!
— Penn State WRESTLING (@pennstateWREST)
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Columbia's No. 7 Lennox Wolak also earned his first All-American honor of his career with a quarterfinal win over No. 2 Cade DeVos of South Dakota State. DeVos, though, also earned his first All-American honor with a Blood Round win over Gaven Sax of North Dakota State 6-3. No. 3 Edmond Ruth of Missouri is also now an All-American for the first time after an 8-6 win over MJ Gaitan of Iowa State. Ohio State's No. 6 Rocco Welsh, another first-time All-American rounds out the podium finishers, and he locked up his top-eight finish with a quarterfinal win over Ruth. Welsh then beat Wolak to earn a spot in the finals.
At 184 pounds, three of the four national semifinalists including No. 1 Parker Keckeisen, No. 3 Dustin Plott and No. 4 Trey Munoz all add another All-American honor to their resume. No. 2 Isaiah Salazar of Minnesota earns the first All-American honor of his Gopher career, and he did so by way of a 6-4 win over No. 7 TJ Stewart of Virginia Tech. Stewart though also finished on the podium for the first time in his career following a Blood Round win over Chris Foca of Cornell 3-2. He is joined on the podium by fellow Blood Round winners: four-time All-American No. 6 Bernie Truax from Penn State, first-time All-American No. 25 David Key of Navy and first-time All-American No. 9 Bennett Berge from South Dakota State.
The 197-pound weight class is headlined by a pair of now four-time All-Americans in No. 1 Aaron Brooks and No. 2 Trent Hidlay, both of whom locked up their podium finishes with quarterfinal wins over No. 8 Stephen Buchanan of Oklahoma and No. 10 Silas Allred respectively by bonus points. Buchanan did earn a podium finish himself for the third time in his career as well though with a Blood Round win over All-American John Poznanski of Rutgers in tie-breakers. No. 4 Michael Beard of Lehigh also notched another All-American honor, his first as a Mountain Hawk, with an 8-0 win over Andy Smith of Virginia Tech. No. 5 Jacob Cardenas of Cornell and No. 9 Stephen Little of Little Rock became the last two All-Americans to make it out of the Blood Round with Cardenas beating Allred 5-2 and Little beating former All-American Lou Deprez 5-2 in sudden victory.
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No. 12 Rocky Elam of Missouri and No. 3 Tanner Sloan put themselves back on the podium again at this weight with quarterfinal wins over Beard and Deprez respectively.
The final eight All-Americans in this tournament come at heavyweight, led by No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet and No. 10 Lucas Davison advanced to the finals. Kerkvliet beat No. 9 Nick Feldman in the quarterfinals 1-0 to secure his fourth All-American honor, while Davison earned his third All-American honor with a quarterfinal win over No. 2 Yonger Bastida. Ohio State's Feldman also did became an All-American for the first time though with a Blood Round win over Josh Heindselman in sudden victory, and he's joined as a first-time placewinner by No. 13 Yaraslau Slavikouski of Rutgers who beat Bastida in the Blood Round.
Campbell's No. 7 Taye Ghadiali also earned his first career All-American honor in the Blood Round with a win over Lehigh's Nathan Taylor.
No. 4 Cohlton Schultz and No. 3 Wyatt Hendrickson also added more All-American honors to their illustrious careers with Arizona State and Air Force by way of quarterfinal wins over Taylor and No. 6 Zach Elam, respectively. Missouri's Elam battled back through the consolations and picked up a Blood Round win over Hunter Catka of Virginia Tech 1-0.
Those are your 80 All-Americans. They will be honored for their achievements in the All-American parade, but the pride of this accomplishment will last a lifetime.
