The NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships have been underway in the Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, and the Minnesota wrestler is just cruising to it. Getting his 69th consecutive win, Gable Steveson went full beast mode on Arizona State’s Cohlton Schultz. He won the meet with a freaking score of 20-5, and that is not the only historic thing he did on March 21, 2025.

Minnesota wrestling took to X, saying, “”… not done by many heavyweights.” if that doesn’t just sum up Gable Steveson’s entire career.” The first words came from the NCAA commentator over the Gophers’ final takedown move before the win. But what did the commentators mean by “not done by many heavyweights?” Well, let’s hear from what the commentator himself said, “And let’s look at the end of this match. Watch this explosion here by your man Gable Steveson. Going against and watch this run through.  Dropped his level, drove through with the angle on the hips.”  A move so rare in the heavyweight category was performed by the wrestler to pull up the win!

With this win, Gable Steveson is headed to the semi-finals of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships as an All-American, meaning he is in the top eight of his weight class, which is 285 pounds. Steveson becomes the first in Gophers’ history to become a five-time All-American.

“I want to finish off the tournament in dominating fashion.” This statement came from the Minnesota wrestler a day before the NCAA championships began, and oh boy, has he not been dominating!!! In his opening match, he pinned Purdue Boilermakers’ Hayden Filipovich in just 1:25. With this win, the former WWE wrestler hit a century of career wins and added another one to his streak. In the round of 16, the Gopher didn’t have to do much as Yaraslau Slavikouski of Rutgers was disqualified. Then came the quarter-finals.

In NCAA collegiate wrestling, a regular match lasts 7 minutes in regulation. Steveson won the quarterfinals against Cohlton in 6 minutes and 23 seconds. In this almost 6 and a half minutes of Steveson’s domination, Cohlton was put through two takedowns in each period en route. The 24-year-old is now undefeated for his last 17 NCAA matches, 69 in total, and has a career streak of 102-2, and he heads to the semifinals of the championship to face No. 4 Owen Trephan of Lehigh.

An interesting story of the semifinals is that wrestling in the other is an archrival of the former footballer, and if the two of them win, the finals are going to be fun.

Gable Steveson’s rival advances as his Gophers teammates fall behind

The Penn State wrestling team, dominating the competition, has extended its lead in the 2025 NCAA DI National Championships, now standing with 90.5 at number 1. On the 21st, seven wrestlers of the Nittany Lions went into the semifinals, including No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink at 165 pounds, No. 1 Carter Starocci at 184 pounds, and  Gable Steveson’s arch-rival No. 4 Greg Kerkvliet at 285 pounds. The defending NCAA champion went up against the University of Michigan’s Josh Heindselman. His win was a dominating one, the man won without giving away a single point to his opponent with a 5-0 decision. Things weren’t so bright for the number 7 ranking Minnesota. 

Minnesota currently has 35.5 in its bank after four of its wrestlers were eliminated on March 21st. A consolation match win did come for Cooper Flynn (125) and Tyler Wells (133) before both of them lost in the consolation third round. Andrew Sparks (165) and Clayton Whiting (174) each lost in the consolation second round. Max McEnelly shined for the Gopher, earning his first All-American title after taking down the No. 6 seed from Cornell, Chris Foca. He is the only wrestler to make it to the semifinals of the 2025 NCAA DI National Championships after Gable Steveson.

The last time the Minnesota wrestler was in the NCAA championship, which was in 2022, he had won it. Interestingly, in the same year, in that same championship, Gable had eliminated the current NCAA champion, Greg Kerkvliet. Now with chances that the two might meet up once again and this time in the finals, who do you think is taking home the belt?