Max McEnelly is having himself a year. After winning the 2025 U20 World Championship last summer he returned for his redshirt sophomore season with the Gophers looking to prove he was one of the best. Well, now he can take out the one of the. McEnelly defeated previously undefeated Rocco Welsh of Penn State 4-3 on Saturday night to win the 184 pound NCAA Wrestling Championship and be on top of the grappling world.
McEnelly and Welsh had met once before in the Big Ten Championships where Welsh defeated
Max in tiebreakers 2-1. Neither wrestler could pick up a takedown in that match, but Max made sure that would not be the case Saturday night. With 1:05 left in the first period, McEnelly attacked and used his left hand to grab Welsh’s right ankle, rose to a high-c attack and took him down, the first takedown Welsh surrendered at the championships. Welsh quickly escaped, but McEnelly had the 3-1 lead through the opening period.
Max would start on the bottom in the second period and quickly escaped to extend his lead to 4-1. Neither wrestler could gain any advantage the rest of the period and they would head to the third. Welsh started on the bottom and quickly escaped making the score 4-2 in Max’s favor. Having the lead, McEnelly played great defense shutting down any potential attacks from Welsh. Welsh turned on the pressure late in the period but Max continued to avoid any attacks and with a two point lead ran away from Welsh and took a pair of stall calls penalizing him a point, but running out the clock to gave him a 4-3 victory and his first NCAA Championship!
McEnelly is the 19th different Gopher to win a national title and it’s the 25th individual championship overall in program history. He’s the first Gopher to win a title at 184 pounds and it’s the first for the program since Gable Steveson went back-to-back at heavyweight in 2021-22. The Waconia native finished his season 24-2 record, including a 15-1 record in duals, a perfect mark 8-0 during the Big Ten regular season and a 15-2 record versus ranked competition.
Minnesota also got career best finishes from two more wrestlers earning All-American Honors. 6th year senior Andrew Sparks took 5th place at 165 pounds after losing in the Round of 16 put together four straight consolation round victories before falling in the consolation semifinals to Cesar Alvan from Columbia. He won a medial forfeit in his final match for the 5th place crown.
Wyoming transfer Jore Volk would take home 7th place at 125 pounds. He picked up a major decision over Ryder’s Tyler Klinsky who he had defeated allready once in the Round of 16 for 7th place.
In the team standings, Minnesota finished in ninth place with 48.5 points.
