The graduate student will finish his career as an All-American.
Trevor Chumbley pulled off upset after upset in a tenacious run to the semi-finals this weekend at the NCAA Wrestling National Championships, ultimately finishing in fourth to secure All-American honors for the first time in his career.
Chumbley, the No. 20 seed at 157 pounds, bested the No. 13, No. 12 and No. 4 ranked wrestlers in the country during his cinderella run in Philadelphia. He is the first Northwestern wrestler to earn All-American honors since Lucas Davison in 2023, and the highest Northwestern finisher since Ryan Deakin won the 157 lbs national championship in purple in 2022.
The graduate student opened his meet on Friday with a gritty win over No. 13 Jared Hill of Wyoming. Chumbley was clinical, holding Hill scoreless on the way to a 2-0 decision victory.
His biggest upset win came one match latter in a thriller against No 4 Rafeal Hipolito Jr. from Virginia Tech. Chumbley kept this one low scoring as well and finished three rounds locked at 1-1 with the fourth-ranked 157 pounder in the country. He made his move early in overtime, scoring the decisive point in the first one-minute tiebreaker period to secure the 2-1 victory.
Next up was No. 12 Caleb Fish of Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals. Fish was able to score more than Hipolito Jr. and Hill, but Chumbley proved his versatility against the former Michigan State Spartan. After falling behind early, Chumbley climbed back even of Fish with 30 seconds left in the bout. Trailing 4-3 with his tournament life — and potentially his All-American hopes — on the line, Chumbley scored a takedown in the final moments to eke out a 6-4 victory.
His run ended one match later in the semi-finals against No. 8 Joey Blaze of Purdue. Chumbley, who was out with an injury when Northwestern faced the Boilermakers back in January, kept it close with Blaze for all seven minutes but ultimately fell in a 4-2 decision.
Chumbley’s tournament; however, was far from over. The newly christened All-American gritted out a 5-3 decision over No. 7 Vincent Zerban (Northern Colorado) to secure a spot in the third-place match. Chumbley ran into a buzzsaw there in No. 1 Tyler Kasak of Penn State, falling 8-0 to the top-seeded 157 lbs wrestler in the country to close a dream run in Philadelphia.
Maxx Mayfield, Evan Bates and Sam Cartella all impressed as well.
Cartella, a redshirt first-year wrestling in his first career NCAA Championship, nearly pulled off the upset of the tournament in his first match against No. 2 Ridge Lovett (Nebraska), falling to his Big Ten foe in a hotly contested 10-8 decision. He was unable to secure a win in Philadelphia, losing 3-2 to No. 18 Ethan Fernandez in his consolation match, but Cartella undoubtedly proved he could hang in the big leagues.
Evan Bates was a few points away from being a giant killer himself. Bates, the No. 16 ranked wrestler at 197 lbs, opened his tournament with a 13-10 win over No. 17 Nick Stemmet (Stanford) to set up a bout with No. 1 Jacob Cardenas (Michigan). Bates lost to Cardenas 16-6 in Northwestern’s 26-10 loss to the Wolverines on Jan. 17, but he was able to give the Big Ten champion a scare in a 4-1 decision loss.
Maxx Mayfield pulled off the upset in his first round match, besting No. 15 Nicco Ruiz (Arizona State) in a thrilling come from behind victory. Wrestling at 165 lbs, Mayfield trailed Ruiz 6-4 with 19 seconds left before scoring a single-leg takedown to secure a 7-6 victory. Mayfield lost in a tech fall to No. 2 Peyton Hall to end his championship run but bounced back admirably in consolation brackets, taking down No. 33 Chandler Amaker (Central Michigan) in overtime.