Rutgers Wrestling Finishes Without All-American During NCAA Tournament

The Scarlet Knights had a bleak ending to the 2025 NCAA Tournament.

125: 19/15 Dean Peterson (R) d. 6/6 Luke Lilledahl 4-1. Rutgers Wrestling falls to #1 Penn State in Piscataway on January 24, 2025. | Peter Ackerman / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Rutgers Wrestling had a difficult finish to the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships on Friday night.

The Scarlet Knights had three wrestlers lose in the fourth round wrestlebacks, one win shy of All-American honors, during the night session at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. This marks the second time in three years that Rutgers ended the year with no All-Americans.

Dean Peterson advanced to the quarterfinals at 125 after taking down defending champion Richard Figueroa of Arizona State on Thursday night. Peterson was leading Stevo Poulin of Northern Colorado before being taken down in the final minute. Peterson fell one win shy for the second time in three years.

“It was a tough night, but that’s the national tournament,” Rutgers head coach Scott Goodale said following the action. “We’ve been through this a bunch. It’s been 18 years now and these nights come and go. There were some really high, high nights, and there’s been some low nights. Tonight was a tough one.”

Dylan Shawver (133) and Joey Olivieri (141) also went down in thefourth round wrestlebacks. The Scarlet Knights end the tournament with five consecutive losses.

Shawver finished seventh last year. His run this year included a win over Wisconsin's Zan Fugitt and Penn State's Braeden Davis.

“You’ve got to be laser-beam focused and just keep grinding. You’ve got to keep going forward. You’ve got to keep wrestling every single position,” Goodale said. “We just didn’t do that."

Rutgers will return five national tournament qualifiers next season and seven of 10 overall.