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Senior Patrick Glory becomes first Princeton NCAA wrestling champion in 72 years

patrick glory ncaa champion
Senior Pat Glory became the first NCAA wrestling champion for Princeton in 72 years with a 4–1 victory over Purdue’s Matt Ramos. 
Courtesy of @tigerwrestling

On Saturday, Mar. 18, senior wrestler Patrick Glory won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) 125-pound men’s wrestling championship, becoming the first NCAA wrestling champion for Princeton in 72 years with a 4–1 victory over Purdue’s Matt Ramos. 

Throughout his Princeton career, the four-time All-American compiled a number of awards, beginning by placing sixth as a first-year in his NCAA Championship debut. With the event being cancelled in 2020 and 2021, Glory arrived at the 2022 NCAA Championship ready to perform. However, in Detroit, Mi. that year, Glory just missed earning the national champion title, placing second after losing to Michigan’s Nick Suriano 5–3.

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“Walking off this stage taking second is the worst feeling in the world,” Glory said in his post-win interview with ESPN. “I just wanted to come out here and prove to everybody I could do it and that Pat Glory is a national champion.”

This year, in Tulsa, Okla., the second-seeded Glory proved himself as a national champion against fourth-seeded Ramos, joining Bradley Glass ’53 as a Princeton wrestling national champion. In 1951, Glass won the unlimited-weight NCAA championship, but no other Tiger, until Glory, had earned a national title in any weight class.

“I’ve seen that picture (of Glass) since before I was a freshman going to ROTC practices,” Glory said. “I always wanted to move him over a little bit and make some room for me. I’m just so glad we could do it.”

In the NCAA finals, Glory demonstrated his dominance over Ramos, scoring off an escape in the second period and a takedown early in the third. Ramos’s only score came from a penalty point occurring with just a second left in the third period. 

Among those congratulating Glory after his victory was former President Donald Trump, who shook hands with him, as well as with Glory’s mother, father, and brother.

Heading into NCAA Championships, Glory had recorded a 20–0 record in his senior year and contributed 23 points to the Tigers’ overall 13th-place team finish.

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“To win a national championship for Princeton and be the first one to do it since 1951 is something everyone that’s associated with our program has dreamed of,“ Glory told The Daily Princetonian. 

“It’s still surreal, and I am so grateful to have been a part of a class and a program that supports wrestling in the way Princeton does.”

Nishka Bahl is a head editor for the Sports section at the Prince.

Please direct any corrections requests to corrections[at]dailyprincetonian.com.

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