2 Cowboys win national championships

PHILADELPHIA — Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson and Dean Hamiti Jr. claimed individual titles at the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships on Saturday night.

Hendrickson delivered a one of the most shocking upsets in the history of the NCAA Tournament with a win over Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson of Minnesota to win the heavyweight title, and Hamiti delivered an upset of his own by defeating two-time national champion Keegan O’Toole of Missouri to take home the crown at 174 pounds.

The Cowboys finished in third place in the team standings with 102.5 points to mark its best finish since 2021 and highest point total since 2017. OSU’s two individual champions mark its most since 2016.

As the most heavily favored wrestler in the finals, Steveson entered the title bout already holding an Olympic gold medal, two Hodge Trophies, multiple NCAA titles, needing one more win complete a fourth consecutive undefeated collegiate season and with a cemented record as one of the best collegiate wrestlers ever.

Hendrickson entered with an undefeated record of his own this season, but it was his first time reaching an NCAA final.

In a thrilling match that came down to wire, Steveson scored a takedown in the first and Hendrickson followed with a quick escape and another to start the second to make it 3-2 in Stevesona favor, entering the final period. Steveson escaped to start the third and held a 4-2 lead for a majority of the last frame. With time expiring, however, Hendrickson got to Steveson’s leg and finished a takedown with less than 20 seconds remaining to the most thunderous roar from the crowd in recent memory of the NCAA Championships. Hendrickson held on in the final second to prevent a match-tying escape and came away with a 5-4 win and the most memorable moment of the 2025 wrestling season.

Hamiti also produced some fireworks, upsetting Mizzou’s top-seeded, undefeated, fivetime All-American and twotime NCAA champion in sudden victory. The wrestlers traded escapes in the final two periods to take a 1-all tie into overtime. Hamiti then finished on top of a scramble midway through extra time to claim the 4-1 win and the first NCAA championship of his career.

Troy Spratley also wrestled in the 125-pound final against the higher-seeded Vincent Robinson of North Carolina State and nearly completed a perfect tournament run from the seventh seed, but fell 2-1 in a tiebreaker for a runner-up finish.

With the result, Spratley closes out his sophomore year with a 24-5 overall record that includes 13 bonus-point wins, a 15-5 record against ranked opponents, five wins against top five wrestlers and two wins against wrestlers ranked in the top two. He was also a Big 12 finalist for a second straight year and the first Cowboy underclassmen to reach an NCAA final since 2021.

OSU wrestling now has 145 NCAA champions and 492 All-Americans in its history and both mark the most of any program.

In 93 appearances at the national tournament, the Cowboys have finished among the top three in the final standings 63 times and have won 34 team national titles — more than any other team in any other sport.