Division III NCAA Wrestling champion Massoma Endene commits to Wisconsin

Division III wrestling national champion Massoma Endene committed to Wisconsin, according to a post on his Instagram page.

Over the last two years, Endene won two NCAA titles at the Division III level with Wartburg College. The school is located in Waverly (Iowa).

While at 197 pounds, he was the dominant force in the weight class, going 28-0 last season. 

Prior to Wartburg College, Endene was a two-time Junior College All-American, including being the 2022 runner-up while with Iowa Lakes Community College.

Now, he’ll wrestle in the Big Ten with the Badgers under Chris Bono. The Badgers went 9-7 in duals last season and had 125 pounder Eric Barnett finish 4th at NCAAs.

The 197 pound weight class was manned by Joshua Otto last season, who struggled. Braxon Amos, who was injured at the end of the 2023 season, took an Olympic Redshirt this past year.

However, wrestling in Greco Roman, he had to injury default out of the 2024 Olympic Trials in April.

According to WrestleStat, both Amos and Endene are listed as 197 pounders for the 2024-25 campaign.

Massoma Endene commits to Wisconsin wrestling

Endene comes to Wisconsin at a good time as Bono was just locked up through the 2029 season as the team’s head coach. With that type of stability and coaching, he could be highly successful.

Should Endene have senior level aspirations, assistant coach Seth Gross, a former NCAA champion, was just named the head coach of Wisconsin’s Regional Training Center.

“This is something that is greatly needed in today’s competitive landscape as we have athletes competing and training across the world,” Bono said. “Seth will be training talented wrestlers for the highest levels of national and international competition, in addition to being able to focus on his own training on the path to his dream of becoming an Olympian.”

The WRTC coaching staff works directly with both UW wrestlers and athletes within a 250-mile radius of Madison. The WRTC is a USA wrestling sanctioned training center where high school, college and post-collegiate wrestlers who meet established criteria can all train together on a consistent basis to reach their potential of being state, national and world champions.

“Being able to focus on training high-performance wrestlers right here in Madison and keep building the WRTC into a national and international powerhouse is an honor,” Gross said. “My own journey to becoming an Olympian is one of my highest priorities alongside my family and my faith, so I am looking forward to starting my next training cycle and working with talented wrestlers here on the path to the next summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028.”