Parris finishes perfect season and wins national heavyweight title
03/18/2023 22:04:00
// Lea Howard
Mason Parris defeated Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet, 5-1, to win the NCAA heavyweight title, earning Michigan its 24th NCAA individual title in program history and its second in as many of seasons.
Parris finished the season with a perfect 33-0 record with 21 bonus wins and 17 wins over ranked opponents.
UM took sixth place (58.5 points); Cameron Amine also placed fourth and Will Lewan took eighth place.
Location: Tulsa, Okla. (BOK Center)
Event: NCAA Championships (Day 3 of 3)
UM team ranking: 6th place (58.5 points)
Next UM event: Season over
• Photo gallery
TULSA, Okla. – Mason Parris, a fifth-year senior at the University of Michigan, scored a first-period strikeout and never trailed en route to a 5-1 decision over Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet and the heavyweight title at 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships Saturday (March 18) in front of 16,855 fans at the BOK Center. The Wolverines earned sixth place (58.5 points) in the final team standings with three All-Americans overall.
Parris’ victory over Kerkvliet was his third this season – having already fallen three times to the Nittany Lion last term. He kicked a first leg up in the air and, after recovering his leg, immediately fired and finished on a firefighting dump and finished the period, building up nearly 2:30 hours ahead of the driving time. He got away quickly in the second, and when Kerkvliet took added time in the third, he came back down and collected another late breakout. Kerkvliet’s only point came on a third-period stall, while Parris added a postgame point for his 1:45 driving time.
Parris is the Wolverines’ 24th NCAA champion in program history and the second in as many seasons, after Nick Suriano, who won the 125-pound title in Detroit last year. Parris also won Michigan’s fourth NCAA heavyweight crown, joining Dave Porter (1966, 1968) and Kirk Trost (1986).
He finished the season with a perfect 33–0 record and had 21 bonus wins, including three during his NCAA Tournament run, and 17 wins against nationally ranked opponents; he was 10-0 combined on the eight heavyweight All-Americans this season.
Senior/Junior Cameron Amine, seeded 11th at 165 pounds, split his consolation bouts in the morning medal round to take fourth place for the second straight year. He beat Stanford’s ninth seed Shane Griffth – the 2021 NCAA champion – by a score of 2-1 in the tiebreaker. He mounted wrestler Cardinal in the first tiebreaker, then escaped with 10 seconds left in the second to seal the victory. Amine lost a close 3-2 decision to fifth-seeded Princeton Quincy on Monday in a late takedown in the third-place fight. A three-time All-American, Amine defeated the third and sixth seeds in addition to the former NCAA champion during the three-day tournament.
Fifth-year senior Will Lewan, seeded ninth at 157 pounds, moved up to seventh after falling to Virginia Tech’s seventh-seeded Bryce Andonian in his medal match. Lewan gave up a four-pointer early in the third period but responded with a knockdown and a strikeout – the only one of the game – but ran out of time on his rally. He’s a three-time All-American after placing fifth last season and earning NWCA second-team honors in 2020 after COVID-19 vacated the NCAA championships.
With the three All-Americans this season, Michigan now has 208 in its 101-year history. The Wolverines have had at least one All-American in 26 of the last 28 NCAA tournaments, including three or more in each of the last eight.
10 best teams (final)
1. Penn State 137.5 2. Iowa 82.5 3. Cornell 76.5 4. Ohio State 70.5 5. Missouri 64.5 6. MICHIGAN 58.5 7. Arizona State 55.0 8. Nebraska 54, 0 9. Virginia Tech 49.0 10. NC State 48.0
Michigan Results (Day 3)
The numbers listed are the tournament seeds
157 pounds — #9 Will Lewan
Seventh place – Dec. by #7 Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech), 6-4
Finished in eighth place with a 3-3 record
165 pounds — #11 Cameron Amine
Consolations – Dec. #9 Shane Griffith (Stanford), 2-1TB
Third place – Dec. by #5 Quincy Monday (Princeton), 3-2
Finished in fourth place with a 4-2 record
Heavyweight – #1 Mason Parris
Final – Dec. #2 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State), 5-1
Finished as heavyweight champion with a 5-0 record
