Four Wildcats Punch Tickets to NCAA Wrestling Championships
While Northwestern did not place well as a team at the Big Ten Wrestling Championships, four Wildcats still managed to book their trips to the national competition. Two 'Cats placed on the podium and two were given at-large bids.
At 165 lbs, redshirt-senior Maxx Mayfield earned an automatic qualifier spot at the NCAA Wrestling Championships by placing sixth. After dropping his first match as the No. 8 seed, Mayfield managed to win two consecutive and upset Nebraska's No. 3-seeded Christophe Minto in an 8-1 decision.
Mayfield's sixth-place finish gets him back to the NCAA Championships for the third consecutive year.
Competing at 197 lbs, redshirt-junior Evan Bates also earned a podium finish. Starting as the sixth seed, Bates won his first match in a 10-0 major decision before losing an 8-1 decision to Michigan's No. 3-ranked Jacob Cardenas. Bates won his next match, 15-0 by technical fall, and eventually placed seventh. Bates also reached the NCAA Championships in 2024 as an at-large selection.
On Tuesday, Northwestern announced that graduate student Trevor Chumbley (157 lbs) and redshirt-freshman Sam Cartella (149 lbs) had been selected as at-large bids to compete at the NCAA Championships. Both Chumbley and Cartella reached the second round of the consolation bracket at the Big Ten Championships.
Like Mayfield, Chumbley will make his third consecutive appearance at the national competition.
Northwestern's Mayfield, Bates, Chumbley and Cartella are set to compete in the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia from March 20 to 22.
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Gavin Dorsey is the Lead Writer for Northwestern Wildcats On SI and covers a handful of other teams in the On SI network. Before joining On SI in February 2025, he wrote for the Star Tribune and Inside NU while broadcasting college sports for both radio and television. Dorsey is a graduate of Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism, where he also studied psychology. In his free time, he enjoys running and being outdoors. Dorsey is currently a freelance writer for the Associated Press, covering Chicago area sports teams.