Gaethje won a 12-7 decision over Brown to knock off the No. 8, 9, 10 and 12 seeds at the championship en route to earning the first Division I All-American honors in 40 years at Northern Colorado. He went 5-2 at the NCAA Championship to end his season with a 29-15 record.
“Justin had a great tournament,” said Head Coach Ben Cherrington. “He was aggressive all three days and finished strong this morning with a dominating third period.”
Brown tallied two takedowns in the first period for the 4-1 lead after the first period, but like he has done the entire tournament, Gaethje battled back scoring all three points in the second stanza for a 4-4 tie heading into the final two minutes. Brown chose bottom and escaped three seconds in, but Gaethje got another takedown on the edge of the mat. The pair repeated with two more escapes and two more takedowns before Gaethje got Brown to his back for a two-point nearfall and the 12-7 victory.
Gaethje was one of 50 wrestlers to earn an at-large berth to the NCAA Championship and one of three to earn All-American honors along with Germane Lindsey from Ohio (133 pounds) and Kyle Borshoff from American (149 pounds).
He is also one of three All-American wrestlers in the Western Wrestling Conference as Jarion Beets (174 pounds) from Northern Iowa finished eighth and Joe LeBlanc (184 pounds) from Wyoming placed fourth.
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