Gable Steveson defeated Arizona State’s Cohlton Schultz by a score of 6-2 in Detroit, Mich. on Saturday, the final day of the 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships. He would stay undefeated and keep his perfect record during his final year as a Gopher to win the 2022 NCAA Heavyweight Title.
Steveson started off strong, taking down Schultz to take an early 2-0 lead. Schultz rallied back, earning a point, but not before Steveson took him down again. 4-1 Steveson led at the end of the first period.
Besides taking down Schultz, Steveson pulled a quick escape to go up 5-1. That would be the only points scored in this period of the championship match.
Schultz escaped Steveson to cut the lead down to 3 to begin the third. With two minutes remaining Gable held on steady to win 6-2. Ending his collegiate career at 85-2. Steveson’s overall record from Apple Valley, Minn. where he won 4 heavyweight state championships is 295-5, with a high school record of 210-3.
Such a successful career has lent Steveson plenty of experience in performing under big spotlights, and he said he feels confident in that type of environment.
“Today, shooting the best shots I possibly could on a bigger body like Cohlton Schultz, who’s a greco-specialist and who knows how to roll people up into 30 seconds to a minute, so just having the confidence to do that on the big stage is a lot,” said Steveson. “But I feel like I’m built for this and I’m built for the big stage.”
Steveson recorded 13 falls, 21 technical falls, and 24 major decisions during his time at Minnesota while winning 2 NCAA Championships and 3 Big Ten Titles. He finished his collegiate career on a 52-match win streak and holds the highest win percentage in the history of the program.
To put the cherry on top of his performance, Steveson delivered another rendition of his signature backflip celebration. After leaving everything on the mat in his match, he also quite literally left his shoes on the mat in homage before giving a final wave to the crowd. Now finished with his collegiate career, Steveson will move on to the WWE, a league fitting for his “showman” persona.
“My end goal is to be a star in the WWE and be a person that kids can look up to, seeing the energy I bring into all different spots”, said the 2020 Olympic Gold Medalist and 2021 Hodge Trophy winner.
