Most NCAA Titles (41) in a US Open bracket - 68kg 1996?

[fishbane]

Last week Cary Kolat was on the Full Tilt podcast and one topic they discussed was the depth of the Senior Freestyle team with Kolat having the opinion that there was greater depth in the 1990s because guys stuck around longer.  To back up his claim he said the wrestlers in his bracket at the Open in 1996 had won a combined 41 NCAA titles.  That number sounds absurdly high.  Does anyone have a copy of this bracket?  Is this the most ever?  Is it even possible? 

I have some doubts.  Even if all the wrestlers that won every NCAA title from the past 10 NCAA championships at 4 different weights entered that wouldn’t be enough to get 41 in a bracket.  

In the podcast Kolat said that after winning NCAAs at 134lbs in 1996 he was burnt out making weight and went up to 68kg (149lbs) for the open instead of wrestling his usual 62kg (136lbs).  The only names he mentioned in his bracket of 41 NCAA champs were Townsend Saunders (0 NCAA titles) who won the open, Nate Carr (3 NCAA titles), Pat Santoro (2 NCAA titles) and Kolat (1 NCAA title at that point) which totals 6 NCAA titles.  I haven't been able to find a bracket, but some of the participants in the bracket are in the wrestlingrecords.com database.  Using that I have been able to find and additional 7 NCAA titles : Lincoln McIlravy (lost to Saunders in the final, 2 NCAA titles), Matt DeMaray (2 NCAA titles), Brian Dolph (1 NCAA title),  Terry Steiner (1 NCAA title), and Alan Fried (1 NCAA title). That makes 13 and even if you count the titles Kolat and McIlravy would win in the future that's only 15. Could there really be another 16-18 titles in the rest of the field?

Even if there aren't that doesn't take away from his point as 13 is already a lot. Here are the number of NCAA titles in each weight at the 2026 US Open.

57KG (4), 61kg (3), 65kg (5), 70kg (2), 74kg (2), 79kg (2), 86kg (5), 92kg (2), 97kg (1), 125kg (3)

86 and 65 kg had the most with 5 in each weight though it was spread across more wrestlers at 65kg. But the format is a little different than in 1996.  I don't think returning world medalists had the option of a bye to the best of three so all open champs got byes making it more likely that people would enter it than wait for the WTTs and no one would have been waiting at Final X.   It was also an Olympic year prompting some wrestlers to unretire and give it one more try, like Nate Carr.

Here are the total NCAA titles won by wrestlers that entered either the Open, the WTTs, or Final X in 2026.  86kg had the most with Kyle Dake (4), Zahid Valencia (2), and Parker Keckeisen (1).  70kg only had 6 titles but they were spread across 4 wrestlers Retherford (3), Robideau (1), Lovett (1), and Henson (1).  Totaling up all the NCAA titles across all ten weights from all three events Open, WTTs, and Final X only yields 41 NCAA titles what Kolat said his weight had in 1996.

57KG (4), 61kg (3), 65kg (5), 70kg (6), 74kg (2), 79kg (4), 86kg (7), 92kg (2), 97kg (4), 125kg (4).

Link to the Kolat interview starting at this section.

[MPhillips]

19 minutes ago, fishbane said:

To back up his claim he said the wrestlers in his bracket at the Open in 1996 had won a combined 41 NCAA titles.

Perhaps he meant guys in the Open total, that have/had been in his brackets previously...

[fishbane]

2 hours ago, MPhillips said:

Perhaps he meant guys in the Open total, that have/had been in his brackets previously...

Here is the quote 

"I didn't make weight for the US Open after my... '96 I missed weight at the US Open.  I just didn't.  I made 34.  34 was killing me and then two weeks later I had to make the US Open and I'm like I got out there and I'm like I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it.  It's the only time I ever missed weight in my life, but I was so burnt. And um I went to 49 and I remember adding up and I think I counted 41 individual NCAA titles in the weight class.  Santoro, me, Nate Carr.  I mean just and not counting Townsend Saunders who didn't have an NCAA title.  It was like 40.  It was so ridiculous."

I took it to mean 41 at 68kg (149lbs) in the 1996 Open.  I don't know that it's possible.  I confirmed 13 titles, but maybe he looked back at the bracket later and counted two for him and three for McIlravy which would be 15.  That's still 26 short. I think there were more than 13, but even counting future titles and lower divisions it's hard to imagine 41.  I'd be interested to see the bracket.

[MPhillips]

@fishbaneJumble of thoughts rushing out maybe...