KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Lennox Wolak continued a historical season by earning All American recognition Friday at the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Wolak becomes the sixth individual in program history to earn All American status and is the first Columbia wrestler to be honored since Steve Santos in 2013. Wolak is the first All American during Andrew F. Barth Head Coach of Wrestling
Zach Tanelli's tenure at Columbia.
"I think this "C" represents the institution and represents the balance of an Ivy League student-athlete," Wolak said. "We are out here doing some of the hardest education in the country while training simultaneously with world caliber athletes."
Wolak faced South Dakota State's No. 2 Cade DeVos in the quarterfinals Friday. A Wolak takedown in the second period proved to be the difference as Wolak used a 4-2 decision victory to advance to the 174 semifinals. The win secured All American status for Wolak.
"You look at these brackets, just up and down the weight classes, how many world medalists are there? There's a lot," Wolak said. "This is a world caliber athletic event, so to be able to do that and balance it, that's what I'm proud of. Being able to wear the singlet and being able to represent the Ivy League is being able to excel on the mat and off the mat."
Looking to advance to the championship match, Wolak faced No. 6 Rocco Welsch in the semifinals Friday night. The two exchanged escape points and then went to overtime tied, 1-1. Welsch secured a takedown to earn the sudden victory.
Wolak remains in contention for third place at 174 after the loss. He will face top-seeded Mekhi Lewis (Virginia Tech) in consolation on Saturday. The winner will advance to the third-place match and the loser will compete for fifth place.
Kai Owen (141) and
Aaron Ayzerov (184) were eliminated Friday after losing in consolation matches. Owen dropped a 7-3 decision to Virginia Tech's Tom Crook. Ayzerov was defeated by Cornell's Chris Foca via tech fall.
DAY 2 RESULTS
141 – Kai Owen
Cons. Round 2 - Tom Crook (Virginia Tech) won by decision over
Kai Owen (Columbia), Dec 7-3
174 – Lennox Wolak
Quarterfinal -
Lennox Wolak (Columbia) won by decision over Cade DeVos (South Dakota State), Dec 4-2
Semifinal - Rocco Welsh (Ohio State) won in sudden victory - 1 over
Lennox Wolak (Columbia), SV-1 4-1
184 – Aaron Ayzerov
Cons. Round 2 - Chris Foca (Cornell) won by tech fall over
Aaron Ayzerov (Columbia), TF-1.5 1:43 (16-1)
FOLLOWING THE ACTION
Each session of the 2024 NCAA DI Wrestling Championships will air nationally through ESPN networks. The morning sessions (1, 3, 5) can be seen entirely on ESPNU. The evening sessions (2, 4, 6) will be televised on ESPN each night. ESPN+ will also have coverage throughout the tournament with streams of individual mats to follow along with the Lions.
Updates will also be provided through the Columbia Wrestling Twitter account (@CULionsWR). Fans can follow the action online through live results at
www.TrackWrestling.com.
FOLLOWING THE LIONS
Stay up to date on all things Columbia Wrestling by following the Lions on X (@CULionsWR), Instagram (@culionswr) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).
