Iowa's Spencer Lee won the award for most dominant wrestler (Photo/Mark Lundy, Lutte-Lens.com)INDIANAPOLIS -- The NCAA has released the winners and final standings for the 2020 NCAA wrestling awards in Divisions I, II and III.
The three awards, given in each division, honor the Most Dominant Wrestler as well as the student-athletes who have accumulated the most falls and the most technical falls throughout the course of the regular season, conference tournaments and NCAA super regionals.
Leading the way as the Most Dominant Wrestler in each division are Spencer Lee of Iowa in Division I, Jared Campbell of Notre Dame (Ohio) in Division II and Troy Stanich of Stevens in Division III.
The award for most falls went to Jacob Schwarm of the University of Northern Iowa with 16 in Division I, Hayden Bronne of Tiffin in Division II with 20 and Marvin Cunningham of Johnson & Wales University (Providence) with 24.
The most tech falls award was earned by Alex Madrigal of George Mason with 14 in Division I, Ryan Vasbinder of McKendree with 10 in Division II and Stephen Maloney of Messiah with 16 in Division III.
Iowa's Lee went 18-0 in Division I matches at 125 pounds for an average of 5.00 team points per match to edge out Mark Hall of Penn State (4.70) and Pat Glory of Princeton (4.54) for most dominant in Division I. The two-time NCAA champion had nine tech falls and four falls, while only having one match all season where he did not accumulate bonus points for the Hawkeyes.
MOST DOMINANT WRESTLER! Spencer Lee of @Hawks_Wrestling wins the 2020 honor: https://t.co/kMkW7mcvm9#NCAAWrestling pic.twitter.com/udo0w7IQ0T
— NCAA Wrestling (@ncaawrestling) March 24, 2020
Heavyweight Campbell compiled Mountain East Conference and NCAA super regional III championships on his way to a 19-0 Division II record and most dominant wrestler award joining Joey Davis (2014) as the second Falcon to win the award. Campbell's season was highlighted by 10 falls among his 14 bonus-point wins to finish with an average of 4.95 team points per match. Chris Eddins Jr., of Pittsburgh-Johnstown (4.64) and McKendree's Vasbinder (4.54) rounded out the top three in the division.
A close race in Division III saw Stanich edge out Bradan Birt of Millikin by 0.15 points (5.35 to 5.20) to join AJ Kowal (2016-most falls) as the second Duck to earn an NCAA wrestling award. Stanich went 23-0 in Division III matches with 20 bonus point victories, including 13 falls, as he claimed Middle Atlantic Conferences and NCAA southeast regional championships at 141 pounds.
The Most Dominant Wrestler standings are calculated by dividing the total number of team points awarded through match results by the total number of matches wrestled. Wrestlers need a minimum of 17 matches to be ranked and must have qualified for and been eligible to compete in the national championships in their division. Points per match are awarded as follows:
Fall, forfeit, injury default or DQ = 6 points (-6 points for a loss)
Tech falls = 5 points (-5 points for a loss)
Major decision = 4 points (-4 points for a loss)
Decision = 3 points (-3 points for a loss)
A competitive race for most falls in Division I ended with University of Northern Iowa's Schwarm's 16 falls putting him two ahead of 2019 winner Matt Stencel of Central Michigan as well as Ben Darmstadt of Cornell. The Big 12 Championships proved critical for 125-pounder Schwarm as his falls over Jace Koelzer of Northern Colorado and Joey Thomas of West Virginia proved to be the difference as Schwarm becomes the lightest-weight wrestler to win the award in Division I.
Division II featured a repeat winner as Tiffin 174-pounder Bronne becomes the first winner in non-consecutive years after winning in 2018. In fact, this year is the fourth consecutive year that the Dragons have taken home the award for most falls (Garrett Gray-2017, Bronne-2018, Nicholas Mason-2019). Bronne also set a record as his 20 falls are the most in Division II history as he finished six ahead of AJ Cooper of Fort Hays State in second with 14.
Like Tiffin, Johnson & Wales has started a streak of its own in Division III as Cunningham keeps the most falls award in house after Da'mani Burns took the crown in 2019. Cunningham's 24 falls at 149 pounds was just enough to edge out New England College 149-pounder Evan Fidelibus and Cunningham's teammate Michael DiNardo with 23.
George Mason's Madrigal compiled 14 tech falls to win in Division I with a cushion of five over the 125-pound trio of Lee, Glory and Nicholas Piccininni of Oklahoma State.
A 2019 All-American, McKendree's Vasbinder takes home his first NCAA wrestling award with 10 tech falls at 197 pounds in Division II. The Bearcat also had a comfortable lead with three more tech falls than Nebraska-Kearney 184-pounder Anthony Mancini, UIndy 157-pounder Dawson Combest, Lindenwood (Missouri) 125-pounder Carlos Jacquez and East Stroudsburg 174-pounder Michael Raccioppi.
The closest race for any award came in Division III tech falls as the aggregate time tiebreaker was necessary to separate 157-pounder Maloney and 141-pounder Ahken Chu of SUNY Oneonta with 16 tech falls apiece. A margin of 53 seconds (62:23 to 63:16) was enough for Maloney to repeat as the award winner in Division III. Roger Williams 149-pound Tyler Gazaway was also in the running falling one short with 15.
For falls and tech falls to be counted for the awards they must come against opponents in the same division (i.e., Division II vs. Division II). Ties in the two categories are broken based on the aggregate time.
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