Top Performances by At-Large Berths at the Last Five NCAA Tournaments

On Tuesday afternoon, at-large berths were released which finalized the field of 330 wrestlers for the 2025 NCAA Championships. Just because a wrestler was forced to rely on an at-large berth doesn’t mean they can’t be a key player in the action in Philly. That group of wrestlers that received good news yesterday includes five past All-Americans and likely a few in the future. 

Of course, relying on an at-large berth can happen for various reasons. Sometimes a wrestler simply had a bad day, there’s no horrific backstory, just an unforeseen loss or two. Other times, their respective conferences may be limited in allocations at their weight. Also, injuries play a key role in this. Some, like Carter Starocci or Mekhi Lewis, weighed in and injury defaulted - assuming they’d get an at-large. 

To illustrate that relying on an at-large berth isn’t a death knell for All-American, and even national championship hopes, take a look at the wrestlers below who have either earned All-American honors or advanced to the All-American round (bloodround) at the previous five tournaments. 

There is a disproportionate amount of wrestlers on the list from 2021. Remember, that was the first NCAA Tournament after Covid and the regular season started in January. There was little data to go on for allocations and fewer were given out through the conference tournaments. 
 

All-Americans

1st (2024) Carter Starocci (Penn State)

6th (2024) Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech)

8th (2023) Killian Cardinale (West Virginia)

2nd (2022) Kizhan Clarke (North Carolina)

8th (2021) Eric Barnett (Wisconsin)

6th (2021) Michael McGee (Arizona State)

3rd (2021) Yahya Thomas (Northwestern)

8th (2021) Wyatt Sheets (Oklahoma State)

8th (2021) Jackson Turley (Rutgers)
 

Bloodround

(2024) Stevo Poulin (Northern Colorado)

(2024) Tyler Wells (Minnesota)

(2024) Jared Simma (Northern Iowa)

(2024) Andy Smith (Virginia Tech)

(2023) Vince Zerban (Northern Colorado)

(2023) Caleb Fish (Michigan State)

(2022) Noah Surtin (Missouri)

(2022) Chad Red (Nebraska)

(2022) Yahya Thomas (Northwestern)

(2022) Max Lyon (Purdue)

(2021) Chance Rich (CSU Bakersfield)

(2021) Real Woods (Stanford)

(2021) Max Murin (Iowa)

(2021) Jacob Wright (Wyoming)

(2021) Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech)

(2021) Rocky Jordan (Ohio State)

(2021) Thomas Penola (Purdue)

(2021) Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State)

(2021) Austin Harris (Oklahoma State)

(2019) Matt Findlay (Utah Valley)

(2019) Justin Thomas (Oklahoma)

(2019) Devin Kane (North Carolina)

(2019) Sam Stoll (Iowa)