NCAA champs who weren't state champs

[CHROMEBIRD]

Rarest bird

[11986]

Chris Edmond NCAA champ for Tennessee in the mid 80s never won HS championship in NY. 
Mitch Clark 1998 champ for Ohio State is another NY guy that never won a state championship. 

[lightweight]

On 5/19/2024 at 3:24 PM, lu_alum said:

Here's the list. PA has had 90 wrestlers win 125 individual NCAA Division I titles.

Within the list of 90 PA NCAA titlists, 33 guys compiled 40 NCAA Division I titles - but never won a PIAA HS championship.  Some on the list were National Prep champs.  The National Prep list includes Prep titles by Ed Ruth (who transferred to Blair Academy for his SR year), but it does not include Pat Santoro (who won a National Prep title during a post-grad year at Blair prior to enrolling at Pitt).

Great list, thanks for compiling it.

And a little trivia, the 2023 winner was coached by the 2008 winner.  

 

[MNRodent]

On 5/19/2024 at 10:58 PM, Gus said:

Brock Lesnar never won a title in HS. Believe the highest he placed was 3rd in SD. 

Brock Lesnar and Marty Morgan are two Gopher national champs I can think of that weren't high school champs.

[jchapman]

Not a national champ, but John Peterson never qualified for state in high school, placed fifth at NAIA, then won an Olympic Gold and Silver, and World Silver and Bronze.

[Antitroll2828]

Nj currently has one active AA that never won a state title (CJ Composto) if he wins a title in the next 2 years you can add him to the list .probably never going to win a title but Ethan Fernandez of Cornell was the 8 seed this year at ncaa and he never placed higher then 4th in NJ states and was never a title contender at all