Andrew Dunn of Kutztown is widely regarded as the best and most accomplished Division 2 wrestler currently and will be looking for his second NCAA Title this season as he is in most likely his final year of collegiate wresting.
In 2019 Dunn as he came into Kutztown immediately made waves as a redshirt sophomore. He was ranked 10th in the country coming into the season but that did not hold for very long. He won PSAC athlete of the week, and went on to win the Super Region 1 title to get his big to the National Tournament. There he defeated UNK’s Jarrod Hinrichs 2-1 to become a National Champion.
That is just from his career at Kutztown.. Let us rewind a bit and see what lead him to where he ended up. In high school Dunn wrestled for Bethlehem Catholic under Jeff Karam where in his senior campaign went 46-0 and capped it off with a State Championship. He would finish his career as a State Champion, 3x State Place winner, and with a career record of 146-33 before he would continue his wrestling career at Virginia Tech.
In his first season at Virginia Tech Dunn ended up redshirting as most incoming freshman do and he ended up compiling a 16-4 record in his first season with the Hokies. This included an 8th place finish at University Nationals, and a 5th place finish at the Cleveland State Open. Some of his biggest wins this season were over now Oregon State’s Gary Traub who is doing fantastic right now on the D1 wrestling scene and where he pinned Zach Schrader in just 1:10 who is competing in his last season for the University of Maryland.
In his Freshman season also at Virginia Tech Dunn was able to earn a big to the NCAA Tournament following an impressive 20-11 record and a 5th place finish at the ACC Championships to earn the automatic bid. Some of his big wins in his freshman season include Brandon Ngati of West Virginia, Austin Myers of Mizzou, and by far the biggest win Michael Boykin of NC State. After his Freshman season came to a close he decided that he wanted to leave Virginia Tech and continue his academic and athletic career at Kutztown for the Golden Bears.
After his freshman campaign he decided to transfer to Kutztown where he would wrestling his sophomore season. he was ranked number 10 in the polls coming into the season but quickly proved that he would dominate in Division 2 wrestling. He was able to cruise through the season with his only loss coming to a Division 1 opponent and ended up beating Jacob Robb of Mercyhurst to win the Super Region 1 and claim his automatic bid to the National Tournament. He would end up making the National Finals where he would defeat the University of Nebraska-Kearney’s Jarrod Hinrichs to become a Sophomore National Champion. That year he was also names Kutztown’s Male Athlete of the Year with his incredible performance.
2020 was a rough year for all of us wrestling fans with the National Tournament getting cancelled and Dunn not having the opportunity to carry his momentum on for the repeat, and what is worse is that in 2021 when they did have the National Tournament they were not allowed to have a wrestling season due to Covid-19 again which caused many top wrestlers to just cut their losses and call it a career which is rough. In that season St. Cloud State’s Kameron Teacher who is a 4x All American became the National Champion.
Going into 2021 and what by the looks of it is Dunn’s final season with the Golden Bears he will be looking to make up for lost time and complete his quest to become a 2x National Champion. It will be a very fun season with the possibility of Kameron Teacher coming back which would most likely lead to a big super matchup in the NCAA Finals this season. So far Dunn is 46-0 at Kutztown against Division 2 wrestlers and 46-2 overall. He is ranked number 1 at the moment by Intermat and they have Teacher at number 2, so it is going to be a very interesting season to see if Dunn can get it done.
