Redshirt junior Matt Gentry earned his place in the record books on March 20, when he became the first national wrestling champion in Stanford’s history.
After handily tackling the Pac-10 championships on March 1, the second-seeded Gentry won the NCAA crown at 157 pounds, defeating Ohio’s Jake Percival in a 4-2 decision in St. Louis. Both wrestlers were undefeated going into the match. Reaching the NCAA finals, Gentry said, had been “a goal of our program for a long time, especially a goal of mine [ever] since I can remember wanting to be in college wrestling.”
Gentry had defeated Percival in an exhibition match in February and predicted that the NCAA showdown would be “a brawl from whistle start to whistle end.” Cardinal coach Steve Buddie says the seven-minute contest was, in fact, “a smart match, in which Matt didn’t make any mistakes.” Gentry was patient, he adds, “and fought hard out of scrambles when his opponent almost scored.”
As co-captain of the Stanford squad for the second consecutive year, Gentry led the Cardinal to a 10-4 dual-meet record this season, its second-highest win total ever. He won 41 matches, topping tournaments at the Central Missouri Open, the California Open and the Aggie Open.
Buddie, ’91, says Gentry’s NCAA win “will change our program more than we can measure now.” It makes sense, he adds, that Gentry is Stanford’s first national champion: “He’s the best to ever come through the door.”
