Enough so that the Wildcats earned two of USA Wrestling’s most prestigious awards — the 2024 Greco-Roman Wrestler of the Year and the 2024 Greco-Roman Coach of the Year.

The top wrestler award went to NMU senior Payton Jacobson while the best coach was named as Northern sixth-year head man Andy Bisek.

During the U.S. Open and companion Senior World Team Trials, the Wildcats claimed three champions, with 10 NMU wrestlers named All-Americans, two getting a spot on the Senior World Team and three made it onto the National Team/Under-23 World Team.

Here are details on each achievement:

Payton Jacobson of the Northern Michigan University Greco-Roman wrestling team tries to hold back tears while celebrating a victory on Saturday, April 20, 2024, that earned him a spot on the U.S. team at the Paris Olympics this summer. (Photo courtesy NMU/Allie Grant Photography)

Jacobson, Bisek honors

This was Jacobson’s first award of this type after he exploded on the scene in the run-up to the 2024 Paris Olympics. The history-making road to his U.S. Olympic team berth was quite improbable, as he started as the No. 7 seed at the U.S. team trials in April 2024 for one berth in his weight class, 87 kilograms (191.8 pounds).

Jacobson defeated No. 2 seed Richard Carlson, No. 3 Zachary Braunagel and No. 4 and 2020 Olympian John Stefanowicz. That still wasn’t enough, as that only set him up to face past World Team member Spencer Woods, who is also a past NMU National Training Site wrestler.

Jacobson defeated Woods in a best-of-three series to claim the American team’s Olympic spot at 87 kg.

In the Olympics, Jacobson defeated 2024 European champion Alexander Komarov of Serbia in the round of 16.

Though he didn’t medal as he finished in 16th place, he went to the U-23 World Championships in Tirana, Albania, in October, opening with two wins before losing in the quarterfinals. He qualified for repechage and won another match to place fifth.

Between the time of the Olympics and World Championships, he won a bronze medal at the Valmaar Cup in Croatia during September.

At Senior World Team Trials about 10 days ago, he won a national title to earn a spot on the Senior World Team, National Team and U23 World Team.

Remarkably, he’s the first NMU athlete to earn the Greco-Roman Wrestler of the Year award since Bisek turned the trick in 2016.

Now eight years later — since these are 2024 awards — Bisek has been named top Greco-Roman coach in the nation.

“We have a group of guys here who are very driven and hungry for success,” Bisek said in an NMU Sports Information news release about the awards. “Winning this award alongside Payton was special for me, as I have seen tremendous growth from him every year that he has been at NMU. He has a great attitude and desire to learn, and I am honored to be a part of that.”

Since 2019, Bisek has headed up NMU’s team, the nation’s premier college program in Greco-Roman wrestling. He was also Jacobson’s personal coach for his run to the Olympics.

In 2024 under Bisek’s guidance, a half-dozen Northern athletes qualified for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials, with Jacobson and senior Max Black at 60 kg (132.3 lbs.) qualifying for the Senior National Team.

Jonathan Gurule won a 2024 U-23 nationals title at 63 kg (138.9 lbs.), while Kaden Ercanbrack was third at the U-20 World Team Trials to also qualify for the national team and U23 World Team.

Bisek is a 2016 NMU graduate, having won Senior World bronze medals for the U.S. in 2014 and 2015 and also competing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. He won gold at the 2015 Pan American Games and at the 2012 and 2014 Pan American Championships.

He’s a four-time World Team member, two-time U.S. Open champion and three times was named USA Wrestling Greco-Roman Wrestler of the Year from 2014-16.

And Bisek is the first NMU NTS head coach to earn a coach of the year honor and second to win both player and coach Greco-Roman honors, following in the footsteps of Spenser Mango.

NMU fares well at U.S. Open

Held April 24-26 in Las Vegas, Wildcats freshman Landon Drury at 63 kg won a national championship, while Jacobson at 87 kg and Black at 60 kg earned titles in the Senior World Team Trials.

In the U-20 nationals, Drury won his second U.S. Open title at his weight, earning his title this time around by defeating Ned Kauffman of Lancaster Alliance Wrestling Club by a 9-0 technical fall in the finals.

Fellow NMU freshmen Julian Slaastad at 77 kg (169.8 lbs.) and Hank Baronowski at 87 kg also earned All-American honors. Slaastad was third after defeating Micah Roper of the Viking (Iowa) Wrestling Club with a 10-0 technical fall at 2:27 of the bronze medal match, while Baronowski was eighth in his division.

In the Senior trials, seven Wildcats earned All-American honors.

Jacobson and Black won their divisions, earning spots on the Senior World Team heading to Zagreb, Croatia, in September. Ercanbrack at 63 kg was third, joining them.

Black made his first Senior World Team at 60 kg after defeating 2023 Senior Men’s Freestyle World Team member Zane Richards of Illinois RTC-Titan Mercury WC in two close rounds — 3-2 and 2-1.

Jacobson was also in an intense battle at 87 kg, defeating Spencer Woods, now of Army WCAP, in three rounds — a 5-1 win by Jacobson, 6-5 victory by Woods and a 7-5 triumph by Jacobson, who will make his first Senior World Team appearance.

Ercanbrack, an NMU junior, defeated Riley Lomenick of OTC 5-0 in his third-place match, while four teammates also made it to All-American status — Northern junior Jimmy Hustoles was sixth at 130 kg (286.6 lbs.), freshman Kenneth Crosby eighth at 55 kg (121.3 lbs.), senior Patrick Curran eighth at 77 kg and senior Timothy Eubanks eighth at 130 kg.

Story contents based on Northern Michigan University Sports Information press release reviewing/previewing the games/meet. Journal Sports Editor Steve Brownlee’s email address is sbrownlee@miningjournal.net.