We knew we’d have to make some difficult decisions when we took on this project. 

That’s inevitable when you take 160 wrestlers who won NCAA titles during the past 25 years and try to pare the list down to 10. 

Some of our toughest decisions with the Flowrestling All-Quarter Century Team presented by Defense Soap were simply trying to figure out what to do with the 18 wrestlers who won titles at multiple weights. Do we slot them in where they finished their career? Do we put them at the weight where they competed most or where they accomplished their top feats? 

Ultimately, we decided to let every member of the Flowrestling team cast a ballot with only one restriction — we couldn’t vote for the same wrestler at two different weights — and we’d let the proverbial chips fall where they may. 

This caveat came into play at 133 pounds — most notably with Logan Stieber and Jordan Oliver, whose illustrious careers began here before they enjoyed additional success at 141 and 149, respectively. 

But before we delve deeper into the resumes of Stieber, Oliver and the rest of the top vote-getters at 133, we first must provide some context on how incredibly deep this weight has been throughout the past quarter century. 

Here’s a sampling of those who had a viable case for cracking the top four but fell short in the voting:

Eric Juergens (Iowa) — Last week we laid out a case for Stephen Abas at 125 pounds. Abas won three NCAA titles, ended his career on a 95-match winning streak and went 144-4 during his time at Fresno State. Half of those losses came against Juergens in one weekend. Juergens beat Abas 11-8 in the 1998 NCAA quarterfinals and defeated him again the next day 5-3 in overtime for third at 118 pounds. 

It was the first All-American finish for Juergens, who went 3-3-1-1 in four trips to the NCAA Championships and wrestled on three national title teams for the Hawkeyes. Juergens’ overtime win against Cody Sanderson in the 2000 NCAA title bout at 133 tipped the team championship race in Iowa’s favor. The next year, Juergens rallied back from an early deficit to beat Oklahoma State’s Johnny Thompson 10-7 in the 2001 NCAA title bout, which brings us to… 

Johnny Thompson (Oklahoma State) — Thompson arrived in Stillwater as an unheralded recruit. He didn’t win an Oklahoma state high school title until his senior year and he was a backup at the beginning of his freshman year with the Cowboys. But Thompson seized the starting job midway through the season and became one of the sport’s biggest stars for the rest of his time in Stillwater. He went 32-3 with nine pins as a freshman and reached the NCAA finals, where he ultimately lost to Juergens. 

Thompson dropped regular-season bouts against Minnesota’s Ryan Lewis in his sophomore and junior seasons but avenged those defeats in the NCAA finals in 2002 and 2003. His bid for a third title unraveled when he got upset in the 2004 quarterfinals against Penn State’s Josh Moore, but Thompson battled back to take third to help Oklahoma State win its second straight team title. 

Matt Valenti (Pennsylvania) — Pulled off three straight wins over higher-seeded wrestlers on his way to the 133-pound title in 2006 and then went back-to-back the next year in Detroit to become Penn’s first two-time NCAA champ in 65 years. Valenti also placed fifth at 125 in 2004. He finished his career as Penn’s all-time leader in victories with 137.   

Jayson Ness (Minnesota) — The only 133-pounder to win the Hodge Trophy. Ness placed fifth, second, third and first in four trips to the NCAA Championships, highlighted by his 31-0 senior season. He compiled a 148-15 record with the Gophers and set a school record with 73 pins. 

Additionally, Travis Lee (Cornell) and Nick Suriano (Penn State/Rutgers/Michigan) each won a title at 125 and another at 133, Cory Clark (Iowa) made three finals appearances and won a title in 2017. 

Building The Quarter Century Team

We put together a list with every NCAA champion since 2001 — all 160 of the guys who combined to win the 240 individual national titles during that time frame — and the Flowrestling team pared it down to 40 (the top four at each weight) with a staff vote. Ultimately, we'll cut the list down to 10 with the help of a fan vote on social media. 

Last week we revealed the 125-pound team member — Iowa's Spencer Lee. 

Now you can cast a vote for the top 133-pounder from the past quarter century. 

Who was the best 133-pound wrestler of the last 25 years?

— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) June 9, 2025

(Listed in chronological order) 

Jordan Oliver (Oklahoma State)

His career unfolded while Jordan Burroughs, Kyle Dake and David Taylor were collecting NCAA titles and Hodge Trophies, which may have cast a slight shadow over Oliver’s true greatness with the Cowboys. Oliver finished his career as Oklahoma State’s all-time leader in pins with 54 and career bonus-point rate at 74.4 percent. On the Oklahoma State season bonus-point chart, Oliver is second, fourth and eighth. 

Oliver spent three seasons at 133 and recorded an 89-6 record there before moving up to 149 as a senior, when he went 37-0 with 31 bonus-point victories. He won two NCAA titles and narrowly missed out on one or two more. He dropped a 1-0 decision in a tiebreaker against Jayson Ness in the 2010 NCAA semifinals and ultimately placed fourth. He won his first NCAA title as a sophomore. He lost in the finals the following year when time expired on his bid for a winning takedown after Oliver collected both of Logan Stieber’s legs with the Ohio State star wrapped around his chest — a position that would’ve counted as a takedown in subsequent years.

Oliver finished second in the Hodge Trophy voting in 2011 and third in 2013. 

Logan Stieber (Ohio State)

There’s a case to be made for putting Stieber at 141, where he spent the second half of his career, completed his journey into the four-time NCAA champion club, won a Hodge Trophy and posted a slightly better record (he was 59-1 at 141 after going 60-2 at 133). But Stieber notched 30 of his 50 career pins at 133, scored seven wins over reigning or eventual NCAA champions, and he earned more points at 133 in the Flowrestling staff vote, so that’s why he’s here. 

Stieber’s 119-3 career record included 50 pins, 28 technical falls and 22 major decisions. His three defeats came in regular-season bouts and he avenged each of them in the postseason. In 20 career matches at the NCAA Championships, he notched seven pins, five techs and two majors. 

Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)

Bravo-Young earned All-America honors as a true freshman in 2019 when he compiled a 25-7 record and placed eighth in a bracket with wrestlers who combined to make 13 NCAA finals appearances. The next year, he went 19-2 — his only losses came against NCAA champ Seth Gross and Sebastian Rivera — and Bravo-Young was off to the races after that. He won his next 56 matches and collected a pair of NCAA titles by grinding out tough finals match victories against Daton Fix before he lost to Vito Arujau in the 2023 NCAA title bout. 

Vito Arujau (Cornell) 

There might not have been a more impressive title punctuation in the last 25 years at this weight than Arujau’s 2023 run when he scored 21 points against two of the stingiest 133-pounders of the past quarter century. Prior to the NCAA semifinals that year, Daton Fix had four career losses by a combined seven points. Arujau handed him the only bonus-point loss of his time at Oklahoma State — an 11-3 major decision — and followed that up by ending Bravo-Young’s 56-match winning streak with a 10-4 win in the finals. He kept his red-hot run going by winning a 61-kilogram World title six months later. 

Arujau battled through injuries during his senior season with the Big Red but got right in time for another title run. After losing twice to Lehigh’s Ryan Crookham, Arujau posted a 13-3 victory in an NCAA semifinal rematch and won his second title with a 5-3 win over Fix. It completed a 93-9 career for Arujau, who placed fourth and third in two previous trips to the NCAA Championships.