The Rash of Season-Ending Injuries to All-Americans in 2024-25

It’s deja vu all over again! The last month and a half of the college wrestling season has been filled with major injuries to star wrestlers. It seemed like every couple of days we learned about another wrestler being lost for the season. Last week alone, we learned that Taye Ghadiali and Yonger Bastida were injured and unable to compete for the rest of the year. 

Below are the All-Americans who have been injured and will miss the remainder of the 2024-25 campaign. 

• Jore Volk (Wyoming)
• Aaron Nagao (Penn State)
• Dylan Ragusin (Michigan)
• Casey Swiderski (Iowa State)
• Ty Watters (West Virginia)
• Rocky Elam (Missouri)
• Yonger Bastida (Iowa State)
• Taye Ghadiali (Campbell)

Along with Jore Volk missing most of the season, we have three other prominent 125 lbers who have had their seasons cut short. Missouri’s Noah Surtin was a senior who had to retire early due to a recurring injury. Earlier this week, we heard that Cornell’s Brett Ungar will be moving back down to 125 because of an injury to unbeaten Greg Diakomihalis. Additionally, 2023 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational champion Nico Provo has yet to wrestle in 2024-25. Provo was listed on Stanford’s potential lineup last week, but did not wrestle. He does have a redshirt available so the Cardinal staff could choose to use one in this instance and focus on getting him healthy for 2025-26. 

With all the talk of 125 being an unpredictable weight class, if you were to add healthy wrestlers like Surtin/Provo/Diakomihalis to the mix, you might get some more stability. Or more potential for upsets!

In addition to season-ending injuries, we’ve also seen some of the biggest stars in the sport sidelined for a significant chunk of the season. In fact, four preseason #1 ranked wrestlers. 

125 lb NCAA champion Richie Figueroa had to injury default out of a mid-November match at the Daktronics Open. He returned almost two full months later.

Lehigh’s Ryan Crookham could join the list of wrestlers out for the year. He is reportedly dealing with an elbow injury. Initially, word out of Bethlehem was that he was out for the season. Since then, InterMat has been able to confirm those reports were premature. While Crookham could miss the postseason, it hasn’t been finalized yet. 

Crookham is the top-ranked 133 lber in the nation and was third as a freshman in 2024.

The preseason #1 at 157 lbs, Jacori Teemer, was seriously injured in only his third match in an Iowa Hawkeyes singlet. Teemer appeared to suffer a hamstring injury during November’s Cy-Hawk Dual. He finally made his return over the weekend (and looked pretty good) against Sammy Sasso in Iowa’s win over Ohio State. 

Finally, two-time NCAA champion Keegan O’Toole won one of the most anticipated matches of the season, when he solidified his top-billing at 174 lbs with a win over fellow national champion Levi Haines (Penn State). Shortly after the Collegiate Duals, Missouri head coach Brian Smith advised the media that O’Toole was dealing with an injury and would likely miss the entire month of January. In that same statement, Smith also announced that four-time All-American Rocky Elam would be out for the year. Elam did not compete at all this season. 

In addition to the wrestlers already mentioned, All-Americans Anthony Echemendia and Trey Munoz haven’t competed since the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in early December. 

So why all the injuries? Is it more than in past seasons? 

First and foremost, the simplest answer is that college wrestling - particularly at the DI level - is extremely difficult and unforgiving. With a season that goes from November through March, it’s grueling. Add to that “offseason” training that includes competing at the US Open in April and U20/U23’s in late May/early June, it’s rough. In other sports, you can train to keep in shape without actually competing. Wrestling you just have to wrestle. Of course, you can raise or lower the intensity during a practice session (sparring, drilling, play wrestling), but it's a difficult lifestyle. Especially, when you may be losing weight to cut down to a weight class that isn’t close to your ideal weight. 

I do believe that the amount of wrestling that kids do before college plays into this scenario. With the proliferation of “national” tournaments, nearly every weekend from the day the state tournament ends until next year kicks off, kids might wrestle around 40 matches during the high school season and double (or triple) that during the “offseason.” So many matches against good competition wears on the body. I’ve had college coaches tell me that sometimes they’re getting damaged goods as incoming freshmen. It’s hard to hide a major surgery, but kids might come into college nursing ailments that only get worse in such highly competitive rooms.

Another factor is the way wrestlers compete today. 20 years ago there were only a few wrestlers that were funky and put themselves through crazy scrambles to avoid giving up points. Now, you’re the odd one out if you’re not a good scrambler at the DI level. Everyone put themselves in awkward positions to fight tooth and nail to potentially avoid surrendering a three-point takedown. Of course, there’s no real data to back this up, but it seems logical to assume that these positions give way to more serious injuries (knees, shoulders, elbows). 

Also, you can’t ignore the times we live in. More information about concussions and potential head injuries has led coaches and trainers to take better care of their athletes. In the past, a concussion was just “getting your bell rung.” Maybe you’d need a few seconds to shake it off and keep wrestling. For the most part, they weren’t seen as a long-term injury. Again, there’s no data on such injuries from the 90’s and early 2000’s, but the sentiment at the time was that you’d probably be fine for the next match. Today, it seems rare that a wrestler goes through concussion protocol and continues competing the same day. Now, they can put you on the shelf for a month or perhaps the entire year - or even a career with a severe one or reoccurring head injuries. 

One factor that I think gets overlooked is the widespread use of NCAA waivers or “medical redshirts.” In the past, they were extremely difficult to come by and you weren’t guaranteed to get one. It was typically given out if someone missed multiple years due to injury and that wasn’t even set in stone. Basically, it was a hail mary after a season-ending injury. In today’s NCAA, they are much more common. I’d imagine in some cases, a star wrestler gets injured in the early season and misses some time. With the knowledge that they’ll get an extra year, coaches and wrestlers are taking that route rather than trying to rush and get ready for March - probably at significantly less than 100%. Again, it’s probably doing right by the athlete, but it has contributed to more season-ending injuries. 

As fans, myself included, it’s easy to look at potentially good matchups that don’t happen and roll your eyes about a team or a wrestler “ducking.” I know that does happen. At the same time, as we approach the end of January, everyone is probably dealing with some sort of ailment (or two or three). As you watch these athletes compete and think about what they put themselves through to get on the mat, you’re almost surprised that there aren’t more injuries. 

No matter who you root for, I’m hoping that your team finished out the regular season in the best possible situation - health-wise. The postseason, particularly the NCAA Tournament, is at its best when its biggest stars are available and semi-healthy.