Shane Griffith announces transfer to Michigan wrestling
Former Stanford wrestling national champion Shane Griffith announced his transfer commitment to Michigan.
The 2021 national champion and four-time All-American has one year of eligibility left as a graduate student. He’ll likely wrestle once again at 165 pounds, with an option to bump up to 174 pounds, and be on the shortlist to win another national title, repping the Wolverines.
Griffith made it official on social media.
“I felt Michigan was the best place for me career-wise for me with the field and sector that I want to get into,” Griffith told Pat Lanni of NJ.com. “On top of it, I think Michigan is in the best place right now for me to give it one last run. They have a great room. They’ve had a few transfers the last few weeks so (the coaching staff) says they’re in title contention, definitely in team title contention so I think that will be a cool environment to go out in and have great guys push me to be the best I can be in my last year.”
Prior to his commitment, Griffith evaluated his options in all facets. He narrowed his choices down to Michigan, Iowa and Rutgers.
“Rutgers was definitely close,” Griffith said. “A big part of it for me was giving it one last run at home and having that home crowd. Obviously, last year wasn’t the year I wanted to have so one of the things I was thinking about was whether it was because of the atmosphere and being surrounded by my family every weekend. Is that something that’s going to make me flourish?
“Or did I need a whole new start. Going to Michigan would obviously be something brand new, and that’s what the decision came down to. I think I prevail when I start at square one. I like being at base zero and having to prove myself. I think Michigan gives me that and will help me get to the top when NCAAs roll around.”
Michigan added Northwestern wrestlers Lucas Davison (285 pounds), Michael DeAugustino (125 pounds) and Chris Cannon (133 pounds) in the portal, giving the Wolverines fire power to contend in the top four at NCAAs, if not a team national title.
Griffith went 87-11 in four varsity seasons for Stanford. He went 28-0 in 2020 before the NCAA Tournament was canceled at the start of the pandemic.
While he went 12-1 in 2021, Griffith wrestled as the No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament and won his first national title. In the process, he saved the Stanford wrestling program, along with other athletic teams, from being cut from the school.
Griffith wrestled in an all black singlet, refusing to display the Stanford logo unless the program stayed put. Eventually, the university did not cut the many programs as initially intended.
In 2022, Griffith returned to the mat and went 19-5, making it back to the finals. Only this time, he fell to Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole, who just won his second straight title in 2023.
This past season, Griffith went 28-5 and finished in fifth place after a quarterfinals loss to Iowa State’s David Carr, the 2021 national champion at 157 pounds.
“I was planning on this being the last match of my career, but obviously not the way I wanted to go out so I’m probably going to take a couple of weeks off…get my head right,” Griffith said after his fifth place victory back in March.
In an Instagram post shortly thereafter the tournament, Griffith confirmed his intent to wrestle one more season.
“Did someone say one more?,” he wrote.