Michigan's Mason Parris wins Dan Hodge Trophy for best college wrestler in America
Michigan fifth-year wrestler Mason Parris captured the most prestigious honor in the college ranks on Monday afternoon, winning the Dan Hodge Award for best college wrestler in America. The honor is the first for a Wolverine performer.
Parris brought a 33-0 record en route to the NCAA heavyweight title, earning a 5-1 decision over Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet last weekend for his first-ever national title.
Last season, Kirkvliet had the edge on Parris, who was batting a herniated disk, beating him three times.
“I wasn’t really nervous at all,” Parris said. “I was very confident in myself and felt really good and believed in my abilities.”
Kerkvliet’s only score came on a stalling call against Parris near the end of the third period. The match had been all but decided at that point.
“That stalling call didn’t really faze him,” Michigan coach Sean Bormet said, via The Michigan Daily. “Mason has had great composure and great mat and match awareness all season, which I think really shined at the NCAA championships. He was one of the most dominant competitors of all weight classes.”
Parris had been through a long road to win college wrestling’s biggest prize. He was the runner-up in the 2021 NCAA championships during his junior seasonmi when he lost out to Minnesota’s Gable Steveson, a future Olympic gold medalist. Steveson beat Parris for Big Ten tiles in 2020 and 2021, so this year’s victory was a long time coming for the U-M heavyweight.
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Parris plans on staying in Ann Arbor to train in hopes of making the U.S. National Team that will compete at the World Championships in late August in Warsaw, Poland.
The individual national title for Michigan is its second in as many seasons after Nick Suriano’s win at 125 pounds in 2022.
Michigan placed sixth as a team with eight wrestlers competing at the NCAA Championships. Fifth-year senior Will Lewan (157 pounds) finished in seventh place, while junior Cameron Amine (165 pounds) grabbed fourth place. Parris, Lewan and Amine walked out of the event with All-America honors. The three All-Americans brought U-M’s all-time program total to 208 in 101 years. Michigan has had at least one All-American in 26 of the last 28 NCAA Tournaments, which includes at least three in the last eight tournaments.
“I’m super proud of our guys,” Bormet said. “I thought they put a tremendous effort on the mat. All eight guys that we had competing at the NCAA Championships scored points and were in the round of 16. They competed with a tremendous amount of heart and really represented Michigan wrestling well.”
Michigan took fifth place at the Big Ten Tournament with 84.5 points. Lewan (157 pounds) and Matt Finesilver (184) took third place, Amine (165) was fourth, Dylan Ragusin (133) placed fifth and Jack Medley (125) and Chance Lamer (149) placed seventh.
