UNC’s Austin O’Connor Wins 2nd Career Wrestling National Championship

UNC wrestler Austin O’Connor capped off a brilliant college career Saturday night, winning his second career national title at the NCAA Championships in Tulsa.

Austin O’Connor: 𝑵𝑨𝑻𝑰𝑶𝑵𝑨𝑳 𝑪𝑯𝑨𝑴𝑷𝑰𝑶𝑵.#GoHeels | #TogetherWeWin pic.twitter.com/Q2ghRZXYhC

— UNC Wrestling (@UNCWrestling) March 18, 2023

O’Connor won the 157-pound title by defeating Penn State’s Levi Haines 6-2 in the championship round. He also defeated opponents from Northern Colorado, Missouri, Michigan and Lehigh on his way to claiming the crown. With the win, O’Connor also finished the season undefeated.

The 2022-23 season was O’Connor’s sixth in Chapel Hill, having redshirted his true freshman year and earned another year of eligibility thanks to the NCAA’s COVID exemptions for student-athletes. This is the second season he’s finished undefeated, along with his redshirt junior season on 2020-21. That also happens to be the season O’Connor won his first NCAA championship at 149 pounds. He’s only the second man in the history of the UNC wrestling program to win multiple NCAA titles. T.J. Jaworsky won three in a row from 1993 through 1995. O’Connor is also the only UNC wrestler to ever earn five All-America nods.

Featured image via UNC Athletic Communications/Dave Crenshaw

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