Rhode Island College’s Lackman Wins Wrestling National Championship in OT
Monday, March 14, 2022
Rhode Island College junior Nathan Lackman is the best D-III wrestler at 157 lbs in America.
He scored a takedown 37 seconds into sudden victory overtime to win the Individual National Championship at 157 lbs. at the NCAA Div. III Wrestling National Championship on Saturday evening.
To win the championship, he beat the #1 and #2 seeds.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTLackman was trailing. #1 seeded Kaidon Winters from the Rochester Institute of Technology, 2-0 with 25 seconds left in the third period. He picked up an escape and then scored a takedown with 11 seconds remaining to go up by one, 3-2.
Winters was able to even the bout up, 3-3, due to his 1:02 of riding time to send the match into a sudden victory extra session. Lackman quickly notched the takedown to cap a perfect, 4-0, run to the national title.
He becomes the third wrestler in Rhode Island College history to capture an individual national championship, joining Billy Cotter ’96 who won in 1994 and Michael Bonora ’07 who won in 2008.
Lackman was undefeated in 2020-21, posting a 35-0 overall record and, remarkably, was not taken down the entire season.
Earlier in the day, Lackman defeated #2-seeded David Hollingsworth, 4-2, in the semifinals to reach the finals.
