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NCAA Championships Live Blog: Dean Hamiti, Wyatt Hendrickson Win National Titles

Updates on the Cowboys at NCAAs.

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[Devin Wilber/PFB]

BRACKETS
SESSION I RECAP
FIVE THOUGHTS ON DAY 1
SESSION III RECAP
FIVE THOUGHTS ON DAY 2

The NCAA Wrestling Championships are here.

David Taylor’s Big 12 champion Oklahoma State squad takes to the mat Thursday in Philadelphia for the opening round of the national tournament. There are nine Cowboys wrestling. We’ll have live updates here throughout the weekend on how the Cowboys are performing.

NCAA Championships Schedule (Times Are CT)

Thursday
Session 1: Preliminary & First Rounds – 11 a.m. on ESPNU (Eight Mats)
Session 2: Second Round, Consolation First Round – 6 p.m. on ESPN (Eight Mats)
Friday
Session 3: Quarterfinals, Consolation Second & Third Rounds – 11 a.m. on ESPNU (Eight Mats)
Session 4: Semifinals, Consolation Fourth & Fifth Rounds – 7 p.m. on ESPN2 (Six Mats)
Saturday
Session 5: Consolation Semifinals, Placement Matches – 10 a.m. on ESPNU (Four Mats)
Session 6: Championship Matches – 6 p.m. on ESPN (One Mat)

NCAA Finals

184: Carter Starocci (Penn State) dec. Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa), 4-3
125: Vincent Robinson (NC State) dec. Troy Spratley (Oklahoma State), TB-1 2-1
133: Lucas Byrd (Illinois) dec. Drake Ayala (Iowa), TB-2 3-2
141: Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) dec. Brock Hardy (Nebraska), 12-9
149: Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) dec. Caleb Henson (Virginia Tech), 1-0
157: Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) dec. Joey Blaze (Purdue), 4-2
165: Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) dec. Michael Caliendo (Iowa), 8-2
174: Dean Hamiti (Oklahoma State) dec. Keegan O’Toole (Missouri), SV-1 4-1
197: Stephen Buchanan (Iowa) dec. Josh Barr (Penn State), 5-2
HWT: Wyatt Hendrickson (Oklahoma State) dec. Gable Steveson (Minnesota), 5-4

Team Standings (FINAL)

Team Points
1 Penn State 177
2 Nebraska 117
3 Oklahoma State 102.5
4 Iowa 81
5 Minnesota 51.5
5 Ohio State 51.5
7 Cornell 50
8 NC State 46.5
9 Northern Iowa 45.5
10 Illinois 44.5

How team scoring works.

125: Troy Spratley, 2nd

Seed: 7
Season Record: 20-4
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Luke Lilledahl (Penn State), 2 Matt Ramos (Purdue), 3 Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech), 4 Vincent Robinson (NC State)

Round 1: Spratley dominates Virginia’s Keyveon Roller to start his tournament, beating the ACC third-placer via a 15-0 tech fall in the second period. He advances to wrestle Northern Colorado’s Stevo Poulin in the next round.

Round 2: Spratley guts out a 2-1 win against Poulin to move onto the quarterfinals. After a scoreless first period, Spratley scored on a reversal late in the second, but Poulin accumulated quite a bit of riding time. Spratley proceeded to ride Poulin the entire third period — only interrupted by a technical violation for Spratley pulling Poulin’s singlet. That lone point is all Spratley has given up through his first two matches.

Spratley will get Purdue’s Matt Ramos in the quarterfinals. The two wrestled at the Cliff Keen back in December, where Ramos beat Spratley 5-2. Ramos has been the weight’s top-ranked guy for much of the season, but he lost to Penn State’s Luke Lilledahl in the Big Ten tournament and dropped to the 2 seed.

Quarterfinals: Troy Spratley is an All-American and a national semifinalist. He beats Ramos 5-2. They spent much of the first period finding their range before Ramos went in for a late shot, and Spratley nearly flipped the Boilermaker to his back. He got a takedown and took a 3-0 lead into the second period. Ramos reversed Spratley in the second, and Spratley escaped and escaped again to start the third to earn the 5-2 win.

Spratley will get 3 seed Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech) in Friday night’s semis. They wrestled in December, where Spratley beat Ventresca via a 10-1 major decision.

On the other side of the bracket, 8 seed Sheldon Seymour (Lehigh) knocked off top-seeded Luke Lilledahl (Penn State). Seymour with get 4 seed Vincent Robinson (NC State) in the other semifinal.

Semifinals: Troy Spratley is a national finalist. He beats Ventresca in a a tight, tight match that goes to tiebreakers. Tied at 1 at the end of sudden-victory, Ventresca immediately escaped to start tiebreakers, but Spratley responded by going all out and getting a takedown before the period ended. Ventresca let him up to start the next frame, but Spratley was able to run out the clock and get himself into the final.

Ventresca was in on a leg multiple times in regulation, but Spratley fought each takedown attempt off.

Spratley will get Robinson in the final. Robinson beat Spratley 7-3 on Jan. 13.

Finals: Spratley and Robinson go to tiebreakers, and Robinson gets the 2-1 win.

It was a slow match. The only points in regulation were escapes from each guy in the second and third period. After a scoreless sudden-victory, Robinson escaped in just three seconds to start tiebreakers. Spratley then chose neutral, needing a takedown, but he was unable to get one.

Spratley finishes second in his redshirt sophomore season.

141: Tagen Jamison, DNP

Seed: 7
Season Record: 20-4
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Brock Hardy (Nebraska), 2 Beau Beartlett (Penn State), Jesse Mendez (Ohio State), Josh Koderhandt (Navy)

Round 1: Jamison handles Princeton’s Eligh Rivera to start his tournament, beating the 26 seed 5-1. He’ll wrestle Penn’s CJ Composto, the 10 seed, in the second round.

Round 2: Jamison drops his bout with Composto 6-4. Jamison dominated the opening two periods, scoring a takedown in the first and riding out the rest of the period. He then escaped in the second to take a 4-0 lead into the third. Composto chose neutral entering the third after Jamison’s long first-period ride, and the choice worked out for him. He pulled off a six-point move with a takedown and three nearfall points. Jamison tried for some late reversals but was unsuccessful.

He falls to the consolation side of the bracket and will wrestle 24 seed Jason Miranda (Stanford) on Friday morning.

Consolation Round 2: Jamison pins Miranda in the third period in a match he dominated throughout. Jamison had a cradle locked in the first but couldn’t get Miranda flipped over. Still, Jamison was up 6-1 after the first period and scored another takedown in the second, taking a 10-2 lead with a lot of riding time into the third. Miranda got an escape to start the third, but Jamison countered one of Miranda’s shots by throwing him onto his back and sticking him.

Jamison will get 18 seed Julian Tagg (South Dakota State) in the next round. The two haven’t met this season, but Jamison finished second at Big 12s while Tagg finished fifth.

Consolation Round 3: Jamison showed no mercy against his Big 12 compatriot, as he teched Tagg 17-2, piling on some more team points. Jamison scored on four takedowns and got Tagg to his back in the second period.

Jamison advances to wrestle 4 seed Josh Koderhandt (Navy) in the next round with the winner becoming an All-American. That match will happen Friday night.

Consolation Round 4: Jamison’s consolation run comes to an end just shy of the podium. He falls to Koderhandt 4-1 in sudden-victory. Jamison got in on a shot in the overtime period that he didn’t want to give up, but Koderhandt showed some good defense and got past Jamison for a takedown of his own.

149: Teague Travis, DNP

Seed: 33
Season Record: 4-3
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Caleb Henson (Virginia Tech), 2 Ridge Lovett (Nebraska), 3 Shayne Van Ness (Penn State), Paniro Johnson (Iowa State)

Pigtails: The first NCAA Championships match of the David Taylor era ends in a bonus-point win for the Pokes. Teague Travis beats Campbell’s Wynton Denkins via an 11-1 major decision. Travis advances to wrestle top-seeded Caleb Henson.

Round 1: Travis battled hard against the unbeaten Henson but ultimately fell 4-0. Travis was in on a leg in the second and third periods on the edge of the mat, but the clock ran out both times. He goes to the consolations, where he’ll look to make a run to All-American status. Travis’ consolation run starts against Army’s Trae McDaniel, the 16 seed.

Elsewhere in the Bracket: Big 12 champion Paniro Johnson, the 4 seed, drops his opening-round match against 29 seed Jack Gioffre (Virginia) in tiebreakers.

Consolation Round 1: Travis dominates McDaniel, winning via a 17-4 major decision. Ankle pick after ankle pick, Travis took McDaniel down five times. He was pushing for a sixth and a technical fall but just ran out of time. It was an awesome performance. He gets 15 seed Ty Whalen (Princeton) in the next round. Whalen lost via tech fall to Nebraska’s Ridge Lovett to fall to consolations.

Consolation Round 2: Supporting an awesome shiner on his right eye, Travis storms past Whalen with a 12-2 major decision. Travis got a takedown in every period.

He moves onto face 25 seed Malyke Hines (Lehigh) in the next round. Hines has also been on a consolation run, defeating Northern Iowa’s Colin Realbuto to get to this match with Travis.

Consolation Round 3: Teague Travis is one tough cookie, but his tournament ends in a 12-6 loss toe Hines. Travis suffered an apparent leg injury (on the opposite leg that was already injured) in the second period with the match tied at 6. From that point on, he was compromised, as Hines powered to a takedown in the third, and Travis was unable to get up with the bum leg.

157: Caleb Fish, 8th

Seed: 12
Season Record: 18-9
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Tyler Kasak (Penn State), 2 Meyer Shapiro (Cornell), 3 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska), 4 Rafael Hipolito (Virginia Tech)

Round 1: Fish beats Lehigh’s Logan Rozynski 2-0 in the opening round with an escape and a third-period ride. Fish will wrestling Ohio State’s Brandon Cannon in the second round.

Round 2: A boring Caleb Fish match does not exist. He upsets 5 seed Brandon Cannon (Ohio State) to advance to the quarterfinals with big body-lock throw to score a takedown in sudden victory. The match ended 10-7 in Fish’s favor and it was even wilder than that score entails.

The two exchanged takedowns and escapes in the first period to go into the second tied at 4. The only score in the second was a Cannon escape that gave him a 5-4 lead, but the fireworks came in the third. Fish got a reversal, but Cannon reversed his reversal and momentarily got two back points to boot. The Ohio State coach threw a challenge brick wanting more back points, but after a lengthy … lengthy review, it was determined no back points should be rewarded. Ohio State technically won the challenge but lost points in the process. Fish escaped to tie it at 7 going into his sudden-victory suplex. As you can imagine, the Ohio State coach was not happy.

The 20 seed awaits Fish in the quarterfinals, as Northwestern’s Trevor Chumbley upset 13 seed Jared Hill (Wyoming) and 5 seed Rafael Hipolito (Virginia Tech).

Quarterfinals: Fish drops his match against Chumbley despite leading for much of the bout. After a scoreless first, Fish scored on a reversal early in the second and rode Chumbley the rest of the period. Chumbley got a stall point in the third and then reversed Fish on the edge of the mat. A Fish escape made it 3-3 with riding time in the Cowboys’ favor, but credit to Chumbley, he got in on a shot and finished, taking the bout 6-4.

Fish falls to the consolations. He’ll wrestle 23 seed Chase Saldate (Michigan) on Friday night for a spot on the podium.

Consolation Round 4: Caleb Fish is an All-American for the first time in his career. He takes down Saldate (a former teammate of Fish’s at Michigan State) in sudden-victory to get the job done.

Fish scored a first period takedown and had a 3-1 lead going into the third period. As Fish matches tend to do, things got a little hairy. In trying to escape in the third, Saldate managed to get Fish on his back for three nearfall points. Fish ended up escaping, but that tied the match at 4, forcing sudden-victory.

Fish will get top-seeded Tyler Kasak in the next round. Kasak lost to 8 seed Joey Blaze (Purdue) in the quarters.

Consolation Round 5: Kasak pins Fish in the second period. Fish had a 4-3 lead going into that period before Kasak caught him.

Fish will wrestle 11 seed Matty Bianchi (Little Rock) for seventh on Saturday. Bianchi pinned Fish in a dual on Feb. 8.

Seventh-Place Match: Bianchi beats Fish 4-2, as Fish finishes his lone year in Stillwater in eighth. It’s his first time as an All-American, and it comes after he burned his redshirt early in the season and jumped down a weight. Great season for the Michigan State transfer.

165: Cameron Amine, 8th

Seed: 8
Season Record: 16-7
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State), 2 Peyton Hall (West Virginia), 3 Mike Caliendo (Iowa), 4 Terrell Barraclough (Utah Valley)

Round 1: Amine opens his tournament with a 2-0 win against Virginia’s Nick Hamilton, the second-place finisher at ACCs. Amine escaped in the second and rode the entire third. Amine will wrestle Missouri’s Cam Steed in the second round. Amine beat Steed 2-1 in a February dual.

Round 2: Amine wins the battle of the Cams and does so with dominant mat position. The match was wrestled almost entirely on their feet, but Amine had Steed on the edge of the mat constantly. Steed got a stalling warning in the first period for going off the mat, and then after an Amine escape to start the second, he forced two more stall calls to take a 3-0 lead into the third. Steed escaped to start the third but couldn’t find anywhere for a shot against Amine’s defense.

The first David Taylor era OSU-Penn State matchup is set for Amine’s quarterfinal, as he’ll wrestle top-seeded Mitchell Mesenbrink. The two wrestled twice last season while Amine was at Michigan. Mesenbrink beat Amine at NCAAs 6-1 and in a dual 12-1.

Quarterfinals: Mesenbrink powers past Amine 5-0. The first period was scoreless before Mesenbrink escaped to start the second and got a takedown. Mesenbrink rode the rest of the second and the entire third.

Amine falls to the consolations. He’ll wrestle 11 seed Braeden Scoles (Illinois) on Friday night for a spot on the podium.

Consolation Round 4: Cam Amine is an All-American and accomplished the feat in a grity, sudden-victory match. He beat Scoles 8-1.

Regulation’s only points came in the third period, where Amine scored an escape and Scoles forced a stalling point. Amine had ridden Scoles the entire second period, but Scoles got the riding time under a minute before Amine’s third-period escape. So it went to sudden-victory, where Scoles was trying to up the pressure and force a stall call. But the tough Amine used some of that aggression to flip Scoles to his back and get back on the podium.

Consolation Round 5: Amine will wrestle for seventh on Saturday after dropping this bout to 4 seed Terrell Barraclough. Barraclough scored a takedown and four nearfall points in the first period. He led 8-0 in the third period before Amine pulled off a seven-point move of his own to make it 9-7 after a Barraclough escape. But Amine couldn’t get in and score on another takedown and fell 9-7.

Amine will get a rematch with 9 seed Cam Steed in the seventh-place match. Amine beat Steed 3-1 on the front side of the bracket. Amine also beat Steed 2-1 in a dual earlier this season.

Seventh-Place Match: Steed catches Amine on his back and pins him in the first period. Amine finishes eighth in this lone season with the Cowboys. It’s his fourth time on the podium after getting there three times with Michigan.

174: Dean Hamiti Jr., 1st

Seed: 3
Season Record: 22-1
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Keegan O’Toole (Missouri), Levi Haines (Penn State), 3 Dean Hamiti Jr. (Oklahoma State), 4 Garrett Thompson (Ohio)

Round 1: Hamiti’s journey starts with an 18-1 technical fall victory Lock Haven’s Avery Bassett, the 30 seed. Hamiti will get NC State’s Matthew Singleton in the second round. Hamiti beat Singleton 8-4 in a January dual.

Elsewhere in the Bracket: Army’s Dalton Harkins, the 25 seed, knocks off 8 seed Lenny Pinto (Nebraska) in the opening round. The 24 seed Lennox Wolak (Virginia Tech) also upset 9 seed Carson Kharchla (Ohio State). Both of those results are on the opposite side of the bracket from Hamiti.

Round 2: Singleton was no match for Hamiti, as the Cowboy rolled to a 15-3 major decision. He scored four takedowns in the match and Singleton’s only points came off escapes.

Hamiti is onto the quarterfinals, where he’ll get 11 seed Patrick Kennedy (Iowa). Hamiti and Kennedy didn’t wrestle when their teams mete in a February dual, as Hamiti instead took on Nelson Brands, beating Brands 8-1.Kennedy beat 6 seed Brevin Cassella (Binghamton) to get into the quarters.

Quarterfinals: Patrick Kennedy was one tough costumer, but Hamiti battles to an 8-6 win to move onto the semifinals and cement himself as a three-time All-American. Hamiti got a takedown in the first period and was up 4-1 after escaping to start the second, but Kennedy got in on a takedown and scored, tying the bout until Hamiti escaped to take a 5-4 lead into the third. Kennedy escaped to tie it up, but Hamiti got a crucial takedown and was able to keep Kennedy at bay the rest of the match.

It sets up what should be an awesome semifinal between Hamiti and 2 seed Levi Haines (Penn State). Haines was a national champion in 2024. They enter this match at a combined 52-2 this season with both losses coming to 1 seed Keegan O’Toole (Missouri).

The Big 12 has three wrestlers in the 174-pound semis, as O’Toole and South Dakota State’s Cade DeVos are meeting in the other semifinal.

Semifinals: Dean Hamiti will wrestle for a national tile, as he beats 2 seed Levi Haines (Penn State) 4-2 in a match that lived up to its billing.

Hamiti scored on the slickest ankle pick you might ever see, given the circumstances.

Haines picked up a pair of escape points but was unable to finish on a takedown, with both guys getting close to scoring at various points. It was an awesome match.

Hamiti gets a rematch with top-seeded Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) in Saturday night’s final. The two went into sudden-victory in the Big 12 final, where O’Toole won 7-4. It was also an awesome match.

Finals: Dean Hamiti beat a national champ in the semis and a two-time national champ in the finals. He beats Keegan O’Toole 4-1 with a takedown in sudden-victory to become the Cowboys first national champ since 2021.

Hamiti nearly had a takedown in the third period. In fact, it was called, but Missouri challenged and won, whipping the points off the board. He had the mental fortitude to reset and score on a wild scramble in the overtime period. Hamiti was in on a leg, but after a roll or two, it looked like O’Toole might come out on top. The ever-smoot Hamiti just kept rolling, though, and got to O’Toole’s back, winning the match. Missouri challenged again, but after a quick review, Hamiti was declared the national champ.

184: Dustin Plott, 4th

Seed: 4
Season Record: 18-4
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Carter Starocci (Penn State), 2 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa), 3 Max McEnelly (Minnesota), 4 Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State)

Round 1: Plott techs Princeton’s Kole Mulhauser 18-1 to start his tournament with a win. Plott will get Columbia’s Nick Fine in the second round.

Round 2: Plott thumped Fine 12-2, a major decision. He scored a takedown in the first and almost instantly had a reversal in the second, taking a 5-0 lead into the third after a long ride. Not wanting Plott driving him into the ground to continue, Fine chose neutral in the third, but Plott scored two more takedowns.

Plott will wrestle 12 seed Silas Allred (Nebraska) in the quarters. Allred has come from behind and pinned his first two opponents.

Quarterfinals: Dustin Plott is a four-time All-American, as he bests Allred 12-5 in the quarters. Plott was in control throughout, taking down Allred twice in the first period. Allred answered with a takedown in the second, but Plott had an 8-4 lead and a ton of riding time going into the third. Allred chose neutral to start the third, and Plott scored another takedown.

Plott is the 16h four-time All-American in OSU’s history.

The top four seeds of the 184-pound bracket all made it to the semifinals. Plott will get 1 seed Carter Starocci (Penn State), a four-time national champ looking for his fifth title.

Semifinals: Plott drops his match with the four-time national champ, as Starocci won 9-3.

Starocci scored a pair of takedowns in the first and a reversal in the second. All of Plott’s points came via escape. Starocci will look to become the sport’s first five-time national champion Saturday. Plott will drop to the consolations but still has a shot at third.

Consolations Semis: Plott beats Foca 2-1 thanks to a reversal late in the second period. Foca was putting a pretty good ride on Plott and was close to getting back points before Plott flipped his hips and popped out from under Foca to secure the two. Plott was close to scoring a takedown in the third.

Plott will get McEnelly in the third-place match after McEnelly won his consolation semifinal in sudden-victory.

Third-Place Match: McEnelly beats Plott 6-5 after the Golden Gopher got a pair of takedowns in the third period. Plott rode McEnelly the entire second period and led the match 2-0 after an escape point to start the third. It was essentially a 3-0 Plott lead because of riding time, but credit to McEnelly who scored a takedown and stood Plott back up. Plott went for a shot, and McEnelly got him on a go-behind to win the match.

Plott finishes fourth in his final national tournament. In his OSU career, the four-time All-American finished sixth, sixth, second and now third.

197: Luke Surber, DNP

Seed: 8
Season Record: 22-3
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Jacob Cardenas (Michigan), 2 Stephen Buchanan (Iowa), 3 AJ Ferrari (Cal State-Bakersfield), 4 Josh Barr (Penn State)

Round 1: Surber gets upset in the first round against The Citadel’s Patrick Burphy. Surber was cruising but ended up on his back in the second period for what ended up being a seven-point move for Brophy. Pushing for third-period points, Surber was taken down and gave up more back points in the third. Unfortunately for Surber, 9 seed Zac Braunagel was also upset in the first round, and those two will now wrestle in the consolations. Winner moves on, loser’s tournament is over.

Consolations: Braunagel beats Surber 14-3, and Surber’s otherwise solid season comes to a bummer of an end.

HWT: Wyatt Hendrickson, 1st

Seed: 2
Season Record: 22-0
Bracket’s Top 4 Seeds: 1 Gable Steveson (Minnesota), 2 Wyatt Hendrickson (Oklahoma State), 3 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State), 4 Owen Trephan (Lehigh)

Round 1: Hendrickson = Pindrickson. Hendrickson starts his NCAA tournament by sticking Michigan State’s Max Vanadia in the first period.

Round 2: Hendrickson = Pindrickson. Cal Poly’s Trevor Tinker survives to the second period, and Hendrickson still sticks him in the end to advance to the quarterfinals.

He’ll get 7 seed Isaac Trumble (NC State) in the quarters. They ‘s wrestled twice this season. Hendrickson pinned Trumble at the Cliff Keen in December. Hendrickson earned a 10-4 win against Trumble in a January dual.

Quarterfinals: Hendrickson = Pindrickson. Hendrickson has pinned his way into the semifinals, as he sticks Trumble in the first period. He is an All-American and a national semifinalist despite spending just 7:25 on the mat through his first three matches.

Hendrickson will get 3 seed Greg Kerkvliet in the semis. The two last wrestled at NCAAs in 2023, where Kerkvliet won 4-2.

Semifinals: Wyatt Hendrickson will get his shot at an Olympic champion. He beats Kerkvliet 8-2, taking the Nittany Lion down in the first and third periods.

Hendrickson looked the better wrestler from start to finish. This match avenges a 2023 NCAA tournament loss for Hendrickson.

He will wrestle Steveson in the final. Steveson is unbeaten this season and got to the final with a 13-5 win against Owen Trephan.

Finals: WYATT HENDRICKSON JUST BEAT AN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST.

Hendrickson scored a third-period takedown to beat Gable Steveson 5-4 in an outstanding NCAA final.

Steveson was the first out of the tunnel. When Hendrickson emerged, the Air Force’s Second Lieutenant was draped in an American flag. Steveson started chirping at Hendrickson as the Cowboy went to his corner. It was one.

The match started with a scramble that doesn’t usually happen with heavyweights. It resulted in no points scored, but not long after, Steveson scored the match’s first takedown. Hendrickson escaped, making it 3-1 Steveson after one. Hendrickson escaped in the second, going into the third down 3-2. Steveson escaped in the third before Hendrickson scored a takedown heard round the world.

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