PHOTOS COURTESY ROANOKE COLLEGE
Roanoke College junior Mark Samuel won two matches Saturday at the 2025 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships to become the first National Champion in pro-gram history.
Samuel, also a 2024 All-American and a third-place finisher, won three matches Friday to advance to the semifinals Saturday morning. He defeated the defending national cham-pion and the number one seed in the bracket, Josh Wilson from Greensboro, 2-1 in a tiebreaker. Wilson had handed Samuel two of his four losses this season.
In the finals, the fifth-seeded Samuel matched up with Sean Conway from the University of Chicago. After a scoreless first period, Samuel start-ed period two on the bot-tom and drew first blood with a two-point reversal. He added four points on a near fall and sealed the championship with a take-down with 23 seconds left in the match.
“Winning the NCAA Championship is a dream come true for me,” said Samuel. “It is something I have wanted for a very long time and accom-plishing that goal feels amazing. I am proud to represent my school at the national level and take home gold.”
Samuel, from Wilmington, N.C, fin-ishes the season 33-4. The last Roanoke College National Champion in any sport was track & field stand-out Robin (Yerkes) St. Cyr, a 2022 RC Hall of Fame Inductee. She won the 400 meters at the 2010 Indoor NCAA Division III National Championship.
“So proud of Marky and his incredible tour-nament this weekend,” said Maroon head coach Nate Yetzer. “He made a lot of adjustments after regionals and completely locked in. Marky has set a new standard in our program. You can win NCAA titles at Roanoke College. It can be done here. The future is bright.”
The four-year-old Roanoke College wres-tling program now has a national champion, four All-Americans and three Old Dominion Athletic Conference team titles in that span.
