The NCAA has chosen it’s Hodge Trophy winner for 2023 and the winner is Mason Parris out of Michigan. The heavyweight went an ideal 33-0 with an NCAA championship this 12 months to propel his Michigan Wolverines to a seventh-place end.
Hodge Trophy Historical past and Mason Parris
For the uninitiated, the Hodge trophy in wrestling is identical because the Heisman trophy in collegiate soccer. It’s the very best honor given to standouts within the sport. Previous Hodge winners embrace Gable Steveson, Bo Nickal, Jordan Burroughs, Ben Askren, and Cael Sanderson.
As talked about, Mason Parris had an ideal season going 33-0. The heavyweight notch wins over Lucas Davison of Northwestern, Owen Trephan of NC State, Greg Kerkvliet of Penn State, and Anthony Cassioppi of Iowa through the 12 months.
Parris received the Large Ten Championships by profitable matches over Jacob Bullock of Indiana, Trent Hillger of Wisconsion, and the aforementioned Kerkvliet.
Going into the NCAA Championships, it was full steam forward for Mason Parris. Within the first spherical he took on Garrett Joles of Minnesota profitable a significant resolution 12-2. He then beat Taye Ghadiali of Campbell 6-1 and Davison from Northwestern 10-1. He took on the fourth ranked Anthony Cassioppi within the semis and teched him 16-1. The final match was towards Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet. There, Parris took a 5-1 resolution and avenged his loss to Greg Kerkvliet in 2022. That 12 months he completed fifth.
As a senior, Mason Parris will look to go to freestyle now and compete for a spot-on Crew USA for the 2024 Olympics subsequent 12 months. However making the crew goes to be a very totally different animal. With Gable Steveson leaving the Olympic crew after profitable gold final 12 months for skilled wrestling, Parris can have names like Nick Gwiazdowski to compete with. Parris got here in third on the 2020 US Olympic Crew Trials behind Gwiazdowski and Steveson.
At 125, he misplaced to his perpetual rival Greg Kerkvliet earlier than Kerkvliet was blasted by Steveson. Solely time will inform how the Olympic Trials go down. With 2024 quickly approaching, we’ll discover out sooner relatively than later.
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