Big Red Wrestling Recap: History Made in 2024-25

The Huskers spent every week of the regular season as a top-10 ranked program. NU started the 2024-25 campaign at home against Utah Valley, grabbing four bonus-point bout wins to begin the year with a 32-7 win. In its doubleheader roadtrip in North Carolina, Nebraska bested Campbell 40-6, before notching a ranked 34-3 victory against No. 25 North Carolina. Staying on the road, the Big Red battled at the Navy Classic to claim its third-straight team title, while four Huskers also took home outright titles. Antrell Taylor (157) went 5-0 at the Cliff Keen Invitational to win individually, while NU finished in second with 115 points. Back at Devaney, the Huskers hosted D-II programs Augustana and UN-Kearney, winning 37-7 and 28-17 respectively. In its final non-conference challenge, Nebraska headed to No. 10 Northern Iowa, where the team suffered its first loss, 24-9. Opening Big Ten competition, the Huskers hosted No. 6 Minnesota and completed a 21-13 upset with six ranked wins. The victory over the Gophers notched head coach Mark Manning’s 300th dual win at Nebraska. Undefeated Penn State came to Lincoln next, and despite a record crowd of 6,736 and two Husker upsets, the Big Red fell 31-7. The Huskers bounced back, winning their next three duals, 38-6 at No. 18 Michigan, 38-3 at Michigan State and 35-7 hosting Wisconsin. Back on the road, NU headed to No. 3 Iowa, where it fell 19-16. The loss in Iowa City, by a margin of three, was the closest loss since 1987-88. In their final home dual, the Huskers used a 37-point difference to post the biggest dual win of the season for NU, while also handing Indiana its worst loss. Closing out the regular season, the Big Red downed Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind., 35-6.

Nebraska headed into its postseason with an 11-3 (6-2 Big Ten) mark. The Huskers took on the Big Ten Tournament in Evanston, Ill., and earned the most team points ever in a conference tournament (137) in their runner-up finish. With four finalists and two champions, NU tied its program-best Big Ten Tournament result of second place (2019-20). Conference champs Brock Hardy (141) and Ridge Lovett (149) had perfect tournament runs to earn their titles, the first duo in 11 years to bring home multiple champions for the Big Red (2014 James Green and Robert Kokesh). Lovett’s second-consecutive conference championships made him the first to do so since Robert Kokesh in the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Four Huskers outperformed their seeds, finishing higher than their designated pre-seeds. No. 7 Camden McDanel took fifth, No. 3 Lenny Pinto in second and No. 3 seeds Hardy and Lovett taking home titles.

NU continued its March success in Philadelphia for the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships. With nine qualifiers, seven Huskers out-performed their tournament seeds. No. 9 Caleb Smith, No. 12 Silas Allred and No. 17 Jacob Van Dee in seventh, No. 2 Lovett and No. 3 Taylor champions, No. 12 Christopher Minto in fourth, and No. 20 McDanel in eighth. Nebraska garnered a record eight All-American honorees (tying only the eight NWCA honorees in the 2020 season) with four semi finalists. Each All-American hailed from a different state for NU, including claiming the only All-Americans of the year from Idaho, Florida and North Carolina.

It was Nebraska’s first time since 1984 having three finalists, as well as bringing home two individual championships (1984 Jim and Bill Scherr). Lovett and Taylor wrestled back-to-back finals bouts in the Wells Fargo Center, defeating No. 1 Caleb Henson and No. 8 Joey Blaze respectively to become NU’s first champions since Jordan Burroughs in 2011. The championships pushed the Huskers to claim a program-best finish, taking runner-up with the most-ever points at an NCAA Championship by NU, with 117. It was also the fifth-highest point total by a runner-up in NCAA history. Prior to the 2024-25 finish, Nebraska’s best NCAA performance was in 1993, taking third place with 79.5 points. The historic tournament run earned coach Manning the NCAA Tournament Coach of the Year.

To wrap up the year, Lovett and Minto earned athlete of the year awards at Nebraska Athletics’ “Night at the Lied.” Lovett’s conference and NCAA championships, and reaching the 100-win club, helped the senior take home his second Male Athlete of the Year honor. Lovett had 15 bonus-point wins among his 25 victories on the year and went 15-2 against nationally ranked opponents. Lovett, who was NU’s Male Athlete of the Year in 2022, finished his career as a four-time All-American and posted a 102-21 record. Minto was tabbed as the Male Freshman Athlete of the Year after earning All-America honors in his first season of competition. Minto went 24-6 at 165 pounds, posting 15 bonus-point wins for a Husker team that went 11-3 and garnered runner-up finishes at the NCAA and Big Ten Championships. At the NCAA Championships, he defeated four ranked wrestlers, including a pair of top-five opponents, on his way to All-America honors.