Who Are the Most Surprising NCAA Wrestling Champions? 

That is crazy that there was 2 unseeded wrestlers in the final. Talk about upsets on both sides of the bracket that year.

Jim Bennett was an unseeded champion from Yale in 1975. This is arguably the most impressive of all since he hadn't even qualified his prior two years. All of his wins were close nail-bitters he won by just by 1-2 points. Doing this from Yale, which had no D1 wrestling clout whatsoever at the time and eventually dropped the program, is perhaps the most unlikely. He was also one of the earliest practitioners of leg riding. Also there have actually been 18 total unseeded national champions, idn why that isn't mentioned

You forgot to mention Andy Daniels of Ohio University who was unseeded back in 1978 who beat Gene Mills in the semifinals and Jon Azevedo the top seed in the finals…in 30 SECONDS!!!

Back in the summer of 1978 I went to a wrestling summer camp at Clarion with several HS teammates . Gary Barton was at that camp and we heard the story of his run up to being a NCAA champ first hand . It was very inspirational .

Two unseeded wrestlers in the final? Incredible. A 3rd placer in Division 2 winning the D1 national title? Unbelievable.

Cody brewer wasn't surprising. Just because he was a "13" seed. 4x state champ in the highest class in MO. Double Fargo national champ. Beat steiber in freestyle prior to title

Steve Marianetti of Illinois convincingly beating Lincoln Mcllravy in 95' is up there

I witnessed Branch's run through that tournament. After watching him use Renner as a takedown dummy in the first round, I thought who in the hell could have beaten him that year. He was an absolute animal. I don't even think Renner shook his hand before running off the mat to the locker rooms.

Rosholt majoring the guy who had just majored him at Big 12s in the finals is just plain awesome!!!! Rosholt i seemed to remember always wrestling his best at ncaas

Terrific video. Well put together - many thanks.

Awesome video. Subscribed. Keep content like this coming.

Bruh beat the number 2 seed 12-2 in the first round 😂😂

Drew foster never won a state title in highschool he’s my pick

Mark Branch’s team points contribution to the team race make his story even cooler!!! What awesome content!!!

Mekhi Lewis...number 8 or 9 seed and won with Iowa stud marinelli in it... probably spelled it wrong...and Vincenzo Joseph...in it and beat Joseph in the final...maybe I'm biased because we went to the same highschool

I appreciate the objective usage of seeds for such a subjective topic. Good picks. For me personally.... Kirk White in '99 is most certainly one. He didn't place as a freshman & sort of came out of nowhere to win the title as a sophomore. A lot of upsets that tournament for him to finish on top. As a junior he would place 5th & as a senior he would place 6th. Another huge surprise for me was in '02 with Iowa State's Aaron Holker. He had such a good draw that tournament. That season I believe he had eight losses, and most of the guys that gave him trouble were on the other side of the bracket. He had been 7th is true freshman year at Brigham Young. After not placing as a sophomore, Brigham Young dropped their wrestling program and he redshirted at Iowa State. He came back that season and for some reason just had Eric Larkin's #. Mark Conly of Navy made a cardinal mistake in the semi-finals, & Holker won a huge upset 4-3. Holker would again place 7th the next year as a senior. Those two stick out in memory.

Great detail

Great list. How does Shorty Hitchcock from Bloomberg rank ?

Jarrod King beat Jon Reader AND Andrew Howe in the same tournament!?! 😳😳... 🥶

Cool video! 👏

Wow the NC State kid winning as an unseeded true freshmen!!!! Soooooo cool!!!!! I had heard of Mark Branch but not him!

Wright seems weird as a pick, although maybe there's just not that many surprising champs. I say weird b/c he had placed his freshman year then redshirted, AND he's a PSU guy. At that time maybe they and Cael didn't have the expectation of overachieving/placing higher than expected that they do now, but still, kind of an odd one!

Quentin Wright I get was a 9 seed but he was already an All-American the year prior, was hurt for a fairly decent time that season and wrestled for Penn St. for chrissake. He wasn’t really a true underdog in my opinion.

Shane Webster(184 lbs) Oregon 2006

I don't care how much of the season he missed, a big 10 champ being only the 9 seed is wild lol

What about Jesse Witmer of Iowa?

Greg Daniels,ohio u. Unseeded champ

What about Dwight Gardner from Ohio University

Sneed

You need to get better voice over on these man, it all sounds like the narrator is on quaaludes and the vocal fry is unbearable

look up gary barton from clarion - you're so far off.