Admittedly, Jody Strittmatter might not be the most objective source for this story. 

But he is uniquely qualified to talk about the top two vote-getters at 125 pounds on the Flowrestling All-Quarter Century Team presented by Defense Soap. 

Strittmatter wrestled against Fresno State’s Stephen Abas in the 2001 NCAA finals. He also coached Spencer Lee through his formative years with the Young Guns Wrestling Club. 

Put those Abas and Lee in a time machine and what happens?

“That would be super interesting to watch and it’s probably not fair to ask me — I’m super biased,” Strittmatter said. “One beat me in the biggest match of my career and I trained the other since he was a young kid and think the absolute world of him.” 

It’s a fascinating fantasy matchup between two generational talents. It’s where the All-Quarter Century Team kicks off. 

The Final Two At 125 

Sustaining success is a monumental challenge in college wrestling — particularly at the lightest weight class. Only three wrestlers in the last 52 years have won three titles at the lightest class. Abas and Lee are the only two to accomplish the feat since Ricky Bonomo became a three-time champ in 1987. 

Abas used lightning-fast attacks to compile a 144-4 record at Fresno State. He placed fourth at the NCAA Championships as a freshman in 1998 before winning his first national title the following year when he knocked off returning champ Teague Moore on a 3-3 tiebreaker in the semis and downed 2000 national champ Jeremy Hunter in the finals. 

“I think what impressed me the most (about Abas) is an answer most people wouldn’t expect,” Lee said. “It’s the way he got scored on — he never stopped wrestling. When he was a freshman, sophomore in college, he would get taken down, but it didn’t matter. The score could’ve been 18-16 and he would find a way to win. He wasn’t afraid to get scored on, he just went for things. 

“There was no quit. That’s something I respect about him. To me, as athletic as he was and how explosive he was and the way he wrestled — he’s kind of an outside wrestler who moved a lot — to get scored on like he did and not get fazed but just keep going, he was like a machine. I’m not saying he got scored on a bunch because obviously he didn’t, but he wasn’t afraid if he got scored on to change the way he wrestled.”

After a redshirt season, Abas went 35-0 as a junior and 34-0 as a senior to end his college career on a 95-match winning streak. 

“That speed made it really hard,” Strittmatter said. “And he got me to wrestle in his positions. That’s what really great wrestlers do. I wanted to slow him down, I wanted to get it on the mat. He was really, really good on his feet and really fast, where maybe Spencer’s a little different that way. Spencer will beat you on his feet and he’ll beat you on the mat.”

Lee buried opponents with a barrage of first-period points during his time at Iowa, where he became a two-time Hodge Trophy winner (he’s the only 125-pounder to win the award). He went 98-6 with the Hawkeyes and 40 of those wins ended in three minutes or less. Lee scored bonus points in 80.7 percent of his matches at Iowa and piled up 35 pins and 33 technical falls. 

Four of those bonus-point victories occurred during Lee’s destruction of the star-studded 125-pound bracket as a true freshman in 2018. In a weight with four eventual NCAA champions two national finalists and three future Olympians, Lee ran through the tournament with two technical falls, a pair of pins and a 5-1 win in the final against eventual two-time NCAA champ Nick Suriano. 

Lee’s third title generated the most headlines. Wrestling with ACL tears in both knees, he outscored his five tournament opponents by a combined 59-8 count. That title came in the midst of a 58-match winning streak in which Lee outscored opponents 673-77. 

Abas said he was impressed by Lee’s “intensity and his pressure.” 

“He’s built a name for himself over the years,” Abas said. 

How would a bout between Abas and Lee look?

“I wrestled Abas in his prime and he was fast and that speed was so hard for me,” Strittmatter said. “I wrestled Spencer all through his youth, middle school and high school. I did not wrestle him during his prime and I don’t want to. 

“It was much different. Spencer can come at you so many different ways. I remember wrestling him the very first time — he was in sixth grade — and I was like, ‘Holy crap, I’ve got to start trying a little harder.’ I thought I was just going to play around. He has so many ways and weapons to score.” 

The Results Are In 

The Flowrestling team started with every NCAA champion from the last 25 years and pared the list down to four at every weight after tabulating the results of a staff vote. We let wrestling fans weigh in with a social media vote, and the results are in at 125 pounds. 

1. Spencer Lee (Iowa) 

2. Stephen Abas (Fresno State) 

3. Anthony Robles (Arizona State) 

4. Matt McDonough (Iowa) 

Facts, Figures And Those Who Missed The Final Cut At 125 

— The last quarter century produced 18 different NCAA champions at 125 pounds. 

— There were five multi-time champs at the weight — Abas, Lee, McDonough, Joe Dubuque and Jesse Delgado. 

— Two others — Travis Lee and Nick Suriano — were two-time champs who won one championship at 125 and another at 133. 

— Suriano went 86-7 during stops at Penn State, Rutgers and Michigan. He won the 133-pound title in 2019 for Rutgers to become the school’s first NCAA champ and finished his career with the Wolverines as the 2022 national champ at 125. 

— Travis Lee helped ignite Cornell’s rise under coach Rob Koll. He won the 2003 title as a sophomore at 125 and won another at 133 as a senior. The four-time All-American finished his career with 143 victories.

— Dubuque won titles in 2005 and 2006 to become Indiana’s second two-time NCAA champ and the first multi-time winner for the Hoosiers since 1938. He finished his career with a 114-18 record. 

— Along with his two titles as an athlete, Dubuque also played a key role in a third title during this quarter century. Then an assistant at Princeton, he helped train 2023 125-pound NCAA champ Patrick Glory. 

— In 2014, Delgado became the first Illinois wrestler in 56 years to win titles in consecutive years. He also placed seventh as a freshman in 2012. 

— Upperclassmen accounted for 15 of the 24 NCAA titles since 2001 with juniors winning eight of them. Freshmen won four titles during the quarter century at 125. Spencer Lee was the lone true freshman to reach the top of the podium at 125. 

— Thirteen different programs had a 125-pound national champ during the quarter century, led by Iowa’s five titles won by Lee and McDonough. Indiana was second with three titles (two from Dubuque and another from Angel Escobedo). 

— Along with the five titles, Iowa also had five other runner-up finishes at 125.