Wyatt Hendrickson’s stunning upset to beat Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson in the finals of the 2025 NCAA Wrestling National Championships has now earned him another coveted title.
On Monday, Hendrickson won the Hodge Trophy, which is awarded to the top college wrestler each year, with the Oklahoma State heavyweight capturing the coveted title for 2025. Named after famed wrestler Dan Hodge, the Hodge Trophy is wrestling’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy in football with past winners including Ben Askren and Bo Nickal.
Hendrickson beat out another outstanding wrestler in Penn State’s Carter Starocci, who became the first and possibly only ever five-time National Champion wrestler after he won his final match at 184 pounds. Starocci was able to win five championships thanks to an extra year of eligibility granted to wrestlers due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which allowed him to stay in college for his fifth season.
While Starocci’s rare achievement may never be topped, Hendrickson pulling off one of the biggest upsets in college sports history helped catapult him to becoming the nation’s top wrestler.
As an active member of the Air Force, Hendrickson actually wasn’t eligible for that fifth year of eligibility because it wasn’t made available for service academy members. So Hendrickson transferred to Oklahoma State where he was coached by 2020 Olympic gold medalist David Taylor.
Following a strong senior campaign, Hendrickson marched into the finals at 285 pounds with Steveson standing in front of him after the University of Minnesota standout — and two-time National Champion as well as two-time Hodge Trophy winner himself — hadn’t given up a takedown during the entire season.
That all changed with less than one minute remaining in the final period when Hendrickson snatched a leg and brought Steveson to the ground for a three-point takedown that won him the match in dramatic fashion with a 5-4 final score.
“I remember as soon as I got him taken down, I made up in my mind he is not getting up,” Hendrickson told MMA Fighting about that final sequence. “I said I am winning this match. It’s over but I still had to follow through with that. I can all that stuff but I have to act on it. It was just an exciting 10 to 15 seconds but I made up my mind. This guy is not getting up. I’m finishing this right here, right now.”
The win crowned Hendrickson as National Champion and now a Hodge Trophy winner before he moves onto the next stage of his career — making a run at the 2028 Olympic team and a potential rematch against Steveson.
“Now there is a new big goal,” Hendrickson said. “Obviously this year was be a National Champion — well now the overarching goal for the next couple of years is going to be becoming an Olympic champion.”
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