2021 NCAA Runner-Up Mason Parris (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com; Graphic/Anna-Lee Marie)
Welcome to a new recurring feature from InterMat as we lead into the 2021-22 collegiate season. We are about 50 days away from the start of the new season, so what better way to ring in the new year than to use that time to count down the top-50 current collegiate wrestlers. Each day a new wrestler will be released.
These rankings have been compiled by members of the InterMat staff and used a combination of collegiate achievements, with 2021 accomplishments carrying more weight than past years, along with win-loss records and notable wins. While we are counting down the top-50 wrestlers based primarily on collegiate accomplishments, it is impossible to totally ignore achievements in the international settings, so they did factor in slightly, too.
Before getting to the next wrestler on the list, look at the wrestlers previously profiled:
#50 - Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State)
#49 - Ben Darmstadt (Cornell)
#48 - Dakota Geer (Oklahoma State)
#47 - Kaleb Young (Iowa)
#46 - Rocky Elam (Missouri)
#45 - Chad Red Jr. (Nebraska)
#44 - Brandon Courtney (Arizona State)
#43 - Brock Mauller (Missouri)
#42 - Cohlton Schultz (Arizona State)
#41 - John Poznanski (Rutgers)
#40 - Brayton Lee (Minnesota)
#39 - Travis Wittlake (Oklahoma State)
#38 - Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa)
#37 - Tariq Wilson (NC State)
#36 - Jacob Warner (Iowa)
#35 - Jacori Teemer (Arizona State)
#34 - Tony Cassioppi (Iowa)
#33 - Vito Arujau (Cornell)
#32 - Patrick Glory (Princeton)
#31 - Max Dean (Penn State)
#30 - Keegan O'Toole (Missouri)
#29 - Mike Labriola (Nebraska)
#28 - Nino Bonaccorsi (Pittsburgh)
#27 - Austin DeSanto (Iowa)
#26 - Jake Wentzel (Pittsburgh)
#25 - Evan Wick (Cal Poly)
#24 - Alex Marinelli (Iowa)
#23 - Ryan Deakin (Northwestern)
#22 - Sebastian Rivera (Rutgers)
#21 - Sammy Sasso (Ohio State)
#20 - Trent Hidlay (NC State)
#19 - Stevan Micic (Michigan)
#18 - Hayden Hidlay (NC State)
#17 - Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech)
#16 - Michael Kemerer (Iowa)
Next up is…
#15 Mason Parris (Michigan)
Weight: 285 lbs
Year: Junior
Career Record: 73-12
Hometown: Lawrenceburg, Indiana
College Accomplishments: 2021 NCAA Runner-Up, 2x Big Ten Runner-Up, 2020 NWCA First-Team All-American
2021-22 Preseason Ranking: #2 at 285 lbs
As a three-sport star (football and track) in high school, Mason Parris was one of the most intriguing prospects in the high school Class of 2018. Parris had offers from a few Big Ten schools for football, but chose to pursue a wrestling career. Since Parris rarely did any wrestling outside of the high school season, his potential upside was huge.
Being such a raw prospect, the Michigan staff did not initially intend on wrestling Parris as a true freshman. In his first outing, Parris won the Michigan State Open and pinned Central Michigan's star Matt Stencel in only :14 seconds. A week later, Parris showed some areas of improvement in a 15-9 loss to Chase Singletary (Ohio State) at the Ohio Intercollegiate Open.
The next time Parris was in action, at the Edinboro Open, he claimed a title and racked up bonus points in all six of his bouts.
Still unattached, Parris then went to the Midlands and came away with fifth-place. There he suffered a loss to the massive Conan Jennings (Northwestern) and was pinned in :30 by Stencel. Along the way, Parris notched a solid win over redshirt freshman Trent Hillger (Wisconsin), who was in the midst of a nice rookie season, himself.
The Midlands must have been the final straw for the Michigan staff as they unleashed Parris in the next dual against Oregon State. It wasn't easing him into the role either, since the Beavers big man was two-time All-American Amar Dhesi. Unphased, Parris struck early and often to shock the veteran 11-4. He would finish off January unbeaten in dual competition.
Once February hit, Parris was faced with the prospect of taking on Anthony Cassar (Penn State), an undersized heavyweight that was almost as athletic as him. Cassar put it on the freshman with a 19-8 major decision. In his next outing, Parris' offense was stifled by Jennings again and he fell 7-5. He'd get back on track with a win over Maryland's All-American Youssif Hemida.
At the Big Ten Championships, after another win over Hemida, Jennings proved to be a thorn in the side of Parris, beating the third seed 9-7. Parris would gain automatic qualification to the NCAA Championships after finishing seventh.
Even with a seventh-place showing at the Big Ten Championships, Parris was still rewarded with the fifth seed at the 2019 National Tournament. Normally, a fifth-seed would be heavily favored in the opening round, but that wasn't the case as the young Wolverine was paired with Iowa All-American Sam Stoll. In one of the oddest matches of the tournament, Stoll was an 8-5 winner over Parris.
After the Stoll loss, Parris came back with a vengeance and pinned two of his next three opponents to earn a place in the bloodround. In the Round of 12, Parris met a familiar foe in Stencel. Like their previous two matchups, this one ended in a first round fall; however, it went in favor of the Chippewa.
Once the collegiate season came to an end, Parris turned his focus towards freestyle. After falling in the first match of a best-of-three Junior World Team series against Hillger, Parris rebounded to win the next two bouts to claim a spot on the World Team.
At the 2019 Junior World Championships, Parris crushed the field. He was met with little resistance from the field as he rolled to the world finals. There he ended things with a first period fall over Iran's Amir Zare. This year, Zare brought home a bronze medal from the Olympic Games and won the 2021 World Championships.
With his first full offseason dedicated to wrestling, it was assumed that Parris would return bigger and better in 2019-20. That was evident right from the get-go as Parris met up with Stencel three times within the first month of the season. The Wolverine was victorious in all three and outscored the 2019 All-American by the combined score of 17-3.
A short time later, Parris would collect a title at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. He capped off his title run with a 6-3 win over returning All-American Tanner Hall (Arizona State).
After the new year, Parris continued his dominance on the dual slate, by finishing the regular season unbeaten. One of the highlights was handing Tony Cassioppi (Iowa) his first collegiate loss via second period fall. That stretch saw Parris win all 11 duals and he notched bonus points in nine of those contests.
At the 2020 Big Ten Championships, Parris shutout Hillger in the semifinals to set up one of the most highly-anticipated bouts of the tournament. He would clash with the returning NCAA third-place finisher, Gable Steveson (Minnesota), who was also perfect. Though the score may not indicate it, Steveson was never seriously threatened in an 8-6 win.
The runner-up finish at the Big Ten Championships netted Parris the second seed at the 2020 NCAA Tournament. He and the other 329 national qualifiers were unable to compete as the tournament was canceled. Some notables on Parris' half of the bracket included #3 Cassioppi, #6 Hillger, #7 Demetrius Thomas (Pittsburgh), #10 Yaraslau Slavikouski (Harvard), and #11 Gannon Gremmel (Iowa State).
Once again, Parris appeared to jump levels between his sophomore season and the 2021 campaign. During his six-match regular season dual schedule, Parris notched bonus points in all of his matches. His “closest†win was a 11-2 major decision over Christian Colucci (Rutgers) in his debut.
The 2021 Big Ten Tournament saw a rematch with Steveson on the docket after Parris pinned Cassioppi in the semis. This time the Gopher great was really able to open things up and logged a 12-4 major decision.
For the second consecutive year, a runner-up finish in the conference was good enough for Parris to garner the #2 seed. Parris continued his dominance of everyone not named Gable and earned bonus-point wins in all four of his bouts leading up to the NCAA finals.
In the NCAA finals, it Parris' nemesis, Steveson, who continued his mastery over the Michigan star. The future Olympic champion notched an 8-4 win over Parris to win a national title.
The runner-up finish marked the first NCAA All-American accolade for Parris, who was named an NWCA first-team All-American in 2020. Over his last two years of collegiate competition, Parris is 40-3, with all three defeats coming against Steveson. During that time he's been able to amass bonus points in 30 of those wins, a remarkable feat for a 285 lber.
Strengths: Even as Parris has put on size and muscle during his time in Ann Arbor, he's been able to maintain the athleticism and explosiveness that he's been known for. Offensively, Parris is best known for his fireman's/dump series. It's one of those moves that the opposite expects, yet generally can't stop. Parris' quickness allows him to work from space more than most heavyweights, allowing him to hit doubles and low singles. Most know him for his offensive repertoire, but Parris is about as good of scrambler for a big man as you'll find. He also is more active than most 285 lbers from the top and tries to work armbars.
2021-22 Outlook: Parris is in a bit of an odd place. He appears to be in a class of his own. Steveson has comfortably defeated him in both of their 2021 bouts. For the most part, Parris can tally bonus points against anyone else at the weight. It would be a longshot if Parris were to unseat Steveson, but he might be the only collegiate wrestler capable of knocking off the Olympic gold medalist.
2021 NCAA Runner-Up Mason Parris (Photo/Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com)
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