2023 Hodge trophy finalists announced for college wrestling season
The 2023 Dan Hodge Trophy finalists were announced after the conclusion of the latest college wrestling season. The Hodge Trophy is wrestling’s version of the Heisman.
The 10 finalists this season were all national champions. Out of the 10 finalists, five wrestlers finished their respective seasons undefeated.
The fan voting is open until March 24 and the winner of that receives five first place votes on the official ballot. Below are the 10 finalists for this year’s Hodge:
Pat Glory, 125, Princeton
Vito Arujau, 133, Cornell
Andrew Alirez, 141, Northern Colorado
Yianni Diakomihalis, 149, Cornell
Austin O’Connor, 157, North Carolina
Keegan O’Toole, 165, Missouri
Carter Starocci, 174, Penn State
Aaron Brooks, 184, Penn State
Nino Bonaccorsi, 197, Pittsburgh
Mason Parris, 285, Michigan
Glory, Alirez, O’Connor, Starocci and Parris all finished their seasons undefeated, capped off with national titles.
If you go by bonus percentage (winning by major decision or greater), Alirez leads the way of the five undefeated wrestlers with 71%.
He had seven pins, which is very good at the college level, but Parris had 11 pins in 33 victories this year. A 33% pin rate? Outstanding.
The Hodge Trophy criteria is as follows: record, bonus point percentage, quality of competition and sportsmanship. The latter two could be considered subjective, especially sportsmanship.
But based on the criteria, and if you single out the undefeated wrestlers, the best arguments go towards Starocci and Parris.
O’Connor had a 70% bonus point percentage but the ACC is considered, maybe, the second best conference in the country behind the Big Ten. The Big 12 and ACC are the other premier conferences aside from the Big Ten, but the latter is by far the most dominant.
Going by simple numbers, Parris should get the Hodge Trophy for 2022-23. In full disclosure, this writer voted for Parris to win the award, via the fan vote.
Parris broke through and won his first national title when he defeated Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet.
“It’s a mix of a lot of emotions right now,” Parris said. “I’m still trying to process it all. My adrenaline is still really high. There’s just so much going through my mind right now. And grateful is the main thing that comes to my mind. And just blessed that I have the coaches and the partners and the school — everything, the support system that’s behind me. And I couldn’t have done it without them.”