Seth Gross, a former Apple Valley High School star, won a wrestling title Saturday in the NCAA Championships in Cleveland, and another Eagles great, Mark Hall, the defending 174-pound champion, lost in the finals.
Gross, a junior at South Dakota State, defeated Stefan Micic of Michigan 13-8 at 133 pounds after taking an early 6-0 lead. He is the Jackrabbits' first Division I national champion.
"I'm not done yet," Gross said. "I've got one more year left. So gotta keep living it up and hopefully go for that Hodge Trophy [given to the nation's best wrestler] next year and just build off this. There's no slowing down. I want to be an Olympic champ one day, so just a stepping stone and I'll keep getting better."
Hall, a sophomore at Penn State, lost 7-2 to Zahid Valencia of Arizona State.
The Gophers did not get any wrestler to the finals, but junior wrestler Ethan Lizak finished fourth at 125.
Lizak defeated Lehigh's Darian Cruz, the 2017 national champion and top seed, 5-2 in his first match. Then, in the third-place match, he lost 8-6 to second-seeded Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State 8-6 in overtime.
Lizak was the runner-up a year ago, when he lost to Cruz in the final.
The Gophers finished with 27.5 points.