2024 d3wrestle.com Wrestler of the Year
The 2024 d3wrestle.com Wrestler of the Year is Joziah Fry of Johnson & Wales University. Fry repeated as NCAA champion at 125 lbs. and was clearly the class of the field at that weight. He stormed to the finals with three consecutive tech falls, spending less time on the mat in each match than the one before. In the finals, he prevailed with an 18-8 major decision, leading the Wildcats to a 4th place team finish. He ended the season with a 36-1 record, 5 falls, 17 tech falls, and 4 major decisions. His only loss of the season came in the opening weekend to Lehigh’s Luke Stanich, the eventual 5th place finisher in the Division I championships.
Fry opened the season with a runner-up finish at the Princeton Open, after which he reeled off 33 consecutive wins. Along the way, he won the York New Standard Corporation Invitational championship and helped the team finish 6th at the NWCA National Duals. He spent the middle portion of the season at 133 lbs., picking up 17 of his wins at that weight. Among his victories at 133 was a 12-8 decision over Chase Randall of Coast Guard, the eventual NCAA champion at 133 lbs. Only one Division III wrestler was able to avoid surrendering bonus points to Fry this year at 125 lbs. Throughout the regular season and postseason, Fry defeated 10 different wrestlers who appeared in the NCAA tournament at 125 or 133, six of whom ended up on the podium in March.
In Fry’s two seasons at JWU, he has compiled a 79-1 record, two NCAA titles, and two Northeast Regional titles. The Rhode Island native begin his college career at Campbell University where he redshirted in 2020-2021 and competed in 2021-2022 before returning to his home state to join Johnson & Wales. Next season, he will be aiming for his third NCAA title in front of a home crowd, as Johnson & Wales will be hosting the 2025 NCAA Championships in Providence. Fry is the first wrestler from JWU to win this award and the first from the Northeast Region.
Previous Winners
2023 – Jaritt Shinhoster, Whitewater
2022 – Bradan Birt, Millikin
2020 – Troy Stanich, Stevens
2019 – Darden Schurg, Wabash
2018 – Jordan Newman, Whitewater
2017 – Riley Lefever, Wabash
2016 – Riley Lefever, Wabash
2015 – Mike Fuenffinger, Augsburg
2014 – Nazar Kulchytskyy, Oshkosh
2013 – Nazar Kulchytskyy, Oshkosh
2012 – Byron Tate, Wartburg
2011 – Minga Batsukh, St. John’s
2010 – Clayton Rush, Coe