PHILADELPHIA — Wyoming’s Joey Novak capped off an impressive run at the 2025 NCAA Championships with a fifth-place finish inside Wells Fargo Center, marking a significant leap in his development over the past year.
Novak secured his third upset victory of the tournament by defeating No. 12 Stephen Little of Little Rock in an 8-0 major decision. The win avenged a loss from the 2024 NCAA Championships, where Little beat Novak 13-5 by major decision. The 16-point turnaround was one of four bonus-point victories for Novak during the tournament, three of which came consecutively to earn All-America honors.
“What a jump in levels for him. It was his maturity, competitiveness, and belief in himself,” Wyoming head coach Mark Branch said. “He had a bad Big 12 Tournament to his standards and to our standards. So, for him to believe in himself and come here and wrestle guys he was not favored to be in the match with is a huge testament to what he’s doing right now.”
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Wyoming finished 22nd as a team, its highest finish since 2018, tallying 19.5 points. Novak contributed the majority of the team’s points with his performance.
“He fought all weekend for the team,” Branch said. “He came out today not satisfied, and that’s a hard thing to do when you accomplish the main goal (being an All-American) you’ve had all season. When you go to bed at night, it’s easy to turn that switch off and not stay focused on what you have in front of you. But he didn’t do that, and ending your season with a win is how you want to go.”
Novak finished the tournament with a 6-2 record, earning wins over Little, No. 5 Michael Beard (Lehigh), No. 9 Zac Braunagel (Illinois), and No. 17 Nik Stemmet (Stanford), all by either major decision or fall. He also secured decisions over No. 18 Dillon Bechtold (Bucknell) and No. 20 Camden McDanel (Nebraska). His two losses came against No. 2 Stephen Buchanan (Iowa) and No. 3 AJ Ferrari (CSU-Bakersfield).
Other Wyoming wrestlers contributing to the team’s score included No. 19 Eddie Neitenbach (184) and No. 30 Sam Mitchell (HWT). Neitenbach, a freshman in his first NCAA Championship appearance, earned two wins, while Mitchell secured one. No. 30 Gabe Willochell (149) and No. 13 Jared Hill (157) each went 0-2.
Penn State won the team title with 177 points.
