LA CROSSE, Wis. (blugolds.com) — For the first time since 2006, the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire has a wrestling national champion.
Jared Stricker (Jr. – Ashland, Wis.) became the second wrestler in program history to win a national title when he defeated Wartburg's Zane Mulder by 10-3 decision in the 174-pound finals on Saturday night during the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships at the La Crosse Center. It capped arguably the most dominant season any Blugold wrestler has ever put together.
Stricker is UW-Eau Claire's first national champion since Derek Sikora won the program's only other title in 2006. To clinch the crown, he had to defeat the wrestler that got the better of him in the 2023 national championship match. Mulder defeated Stricker to win the national title last season, and the two were ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation all season long. Their yearlong collision course came to fruition on Saturday night.
This time, it was Stricker's night.
"It's been on my mind ever since last year," Stricker said. "This is what I've been working for."
The junior was in control from start to finish in the national championship match. He took an early three-point lead with a takedown and led 3-1 after the first period. Mulder mustered a second escape early in the second period to make it 3-2, but Stricker came up with another takedown to lead 6-2 after two periods. Stricker cemented the title with an escape and a takedown in the final seconds of the match to avenge last year's defeat.
"This is probably (the) No. 1 (most memorable moment of my career), for sure," Stricker said.
Stricker had reached the finals by pinning fifth-seeded Jason Geyer of NYU in Saturday morning's semifinals.
He finished the season with a 42-2 record. Stricker never lost to a Division III wrestler all season. His only two losses were to ranked Division I opponents.
Stricker's win capped off a fifth-place finish for the Blugolds in the team standings, where they tallied 69 points. It ranks as their best-ever finish at the NCAA Championships. UW-Eau Claire had never finished better than 11th before.
In addition to Stricker's title, UW-Eau Claire also had a third-place finisher in Niall Schoenfelder (Jr. – Antioch, Ill.), a fourth-place finisher in Tristan Massie (Sr. – Hillsdale, Wis./Barron) and a fifth-place finisher in Zach Sato (Jr. – Oswego, Ill.).
Schoenfelder wrestled in the 184-pound semifinals for his first match of the day. He took on Johnson & Wales' Ryan DeVivo, who built a 4-0 lead entering the third period. Schoenfelder got a pair of points back in the final period, but it wasn't enough in a 4-2 defeat. That moved him to the consolation semifinals, where he upended fifth-seeded Sean Malenfant of Alfred State by 7-2 decision. The win got him into the third-place match to battle fourth-seeded Sampson Wilkins of Castleton. Schoenfelder had little trouble dispatching another seeded foe, riding a huge near fall in the second period en route to an 11-2 major decision to lock up third place. Schoenfelder finished in the top three in the country in his first career trip to nationals.
Massie opened his day with a 4-1 sudden victory over Johnson & Wales' eighth-seeded Patrick Wisniewski in the consolation quarterfinals. He punched his ticket to the third-place match with a 4-2 decision over the No. 6 seed, Will Esmoil of Coe, in the consolation semis. He battled No. 1 seed Matt Lackman of Alvernia in the third-place match and took his foe to the wire, but lost by 4-2 decision. It wrapped up a fourth-place finish for the first-time All-American. Massie finishes his Blugold career with 123 victories, which beat the previous school record of 122 set by Nathaniel Behnke from 2012-16. Massie is only outranked on the career leaderboard by Stricker, who first broke Behnke's record on Friday.
Sato begin his day in the 149-pound semifinals, where he faced top-seeded, defending national champion Michael Petrella of Baldwin Wallace. Sato was within two points of the reigning champ at 6-4 entering the final period, but Petrella pulled away to win by 11-4 decision. It sent Sato to the consolation semis, where he fell to Loras' Eric Kinkaid by 11-6 decision. The defeat sent him to the fifth-place match, where he wrestled Colby Frost of Southern Maine. Sato made quick work of his final opponent of the season, winning by 15-0 technical fall to clinch fifth place. It was the first career placement at nationals for the first-time All-American.
The Blugolds broke several records in an impressive 2023-24 campaign, including single-season dual wins (19), career wins by an individual (both Stricker and Massie), single-season pins (Stricker) and most All-Americans in a single season (four).
"It's amazing," Stricker said. "We've broken a lot of goals this year with this team. We were so close to being a trophy team. We really wanted that one, but still, this team's one of the best teams Eau Claire has ever had. It's amazing being a part of it."
