InterMat's All-Quarter Century Team: Michigan

Our All-Quarter Century team takes us out big into the Big Ten to highlight the program at the University of Michigan. Michigan started this quarter century with eight straight top ten finishes and ended with eight-in-a-row between 2016-24, before missing out in 2025.

Michigan is a program consistently in the hunt - individually and as a team. They regularly bring in highly ranked recruiting classes. Their wrestlers are annually in the mix for high Big Ten finishes and All-American honors.

The most recent Olympic Games featured Michigan grads wrestling heavyweight in both the freestyle and Greco-Roman tournaments. Additionally, two other former Wolverines represented other nations in Paris.

In constructing our first, second, and third teams for Wolverine wrestling this quarter century, we had to get creative from 149-157 lbs. Since Eric Tannenbaum spent the first half of his career at 149 lbs, he was inserted there and it provided the flexibility to include both Ryan Bertin and Ryan Churella on the first team.

One wrinkle that impacted Michigan more than any other program we’ve highlighted thus far is the transfer portal. They’ve had some great wrestlers join the program - two that won NCAA titles elsewhere. Generally, I’ve tried to give the benefit of the doubt to someone who spent more time in the Michigan singlet; however, in a case like 125 lbs, resumes weren’t equal.

You have to marvel at the depth at a few weights for the Wolverines. Heavyweight with the two Olympians and a three-time AA from a loaded weight. 149, 157, and 174 are also excellent and three-deep with multi-time AA’s.

As always, if you have thoughts or your version of the team, leave them in the comments or InterMat’s forums.

Wrestlers considered for the three teams had to compete from 2001 to 2025. For the wrestlers early in this timeframe, their entire collegiate body of work was considered. Only collegiate results were taken into consideration. Even if a wrestler was successful at multiple weights, they were only selected for one weight - typically, it was based on the strongest possible first team.

After the three All-Century teams, there are some fun facts about Iowa State’s results over the past 25 years.

Here are the programs we’ve already covered

Arizona State

Cornell

Illinois

Iowa State

Lehigh

Minnesota

Missouri

NC State

First Team

125 lbs - Nick Suriano: Paramus, New Jersey - 3x AA (1,1,2), 2x NCAA champion, 3x NCAA finalist, 2x Big Ten champion

To see the full article purchase an InterMat Premium membership for $10 per month or $50 per year. This gives you access to the top coverage of wrestling throughout the season.
Click here to purchase your Premium membership today!