RevWrestling.com
Ben Askren of the University of Missouri concluded his college career with an 87-match winning streak, a perfect 42-0 senior season, and his second straight NCAA title at 174 pounds.
For all these reasons, Askren was named Rev Wrestler of the Year by RevWrestling.com for the second year in a row on Wednesday. The award is given annually to the nation’s top collegiate wrestler across all divisions of wrestling as voted on by the writers and executives of RevWrestling.com.
Askren entered the 2006-07 collegiate wrestling as an overwhelming favorite to repeat as NCAA champion at 174 pounds. After all, he was fresh off putting together one of the greatest junior seasons in the modern era of collegiate wrestling.
The Missouri Tiger followed up his remarkable junior season with an even more impressive senior campaign, with a blemish-free 42-0 record, with 29 of those wins by pin “¦ 23 within the first period. Askren concluded his career with a 153-8 record, which places him alone at the top of the Missouri record book. By winning the 174-pound championship, he led Missouri to a third-place finish at the NCAA Division I Championships, giving the school its first NCAA team trophy since 1965.
Askren, a native of Hartland, Wisconsin, won the Rev Wrestler of the Year award by eight votes (50-42) over Northwestern’s Jake Herbert, who won the 184-pound title at the 2007 Division I NCAA’s held at the Palace of Auburn Hills outside Detroit.
“With his trademark Afro and his outsized, outgoing personality, it’s impossible to overlook Ben Askren, “said Mark Palmer, staff writer for RevWrestling. “But he’s backed it up with his total domination of the 174-pound weight class. None of his competitors seemed to be able to decipher his mastery of the funk; in fact, two-thirds of them fell victim to his considerable pinning prowess.”
Cole Konrad of Minnesota, who won his second straight NCAA title at heavyweight and finished his collegiate career with 76 consecutive wins, came in third in the Rev Wrestler of the Year voting with 39 votes. Derek Moore of UC Davis and Marcus LeVesseur of Augsburg (Division III) tied for fourth in the balloting with 29 votes. Moore, who finished his senior season as an undefeated NCAA champion at 141 pounds, became the first UC Davis wrestler ever to earn All-American status. LeVesseur overcame considerable personal challenges in his life to finish his college wrestling career with his fourth straight NCAA title — only the third wrestler in history to achieve that milestone, and the first in Division III — and with a perfect 155-0 record.
Two other wrestlers received votes: Mark Perry of Iowa (10) and Matt Valenti of Penn (1).
2007 Rev Wrestler of the Year Voting
1st-5th-Place Votes: 9-7-5-3-1
1. Ben Askren, Missouri: 50 (3)
2. Jake Herbert, Northwestern: 42 (2)
3. Cole Konrad, Minnesota: 39
4. Derek Moore, UC Davis: 29
4. Marcus LeVesseur, Aug: 29 (2)
6. Mark Perry, Iowa: 10 (1)
7. Matt Valenti, Penn: 1
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