Luke Nichter would love to be one of 33 young men in his weight class to at least qualify in March for the 2026 NCAA Division I Championships in Cleveland.

That is especially true for the 157-pound redshirt senior from Drexel University. The native of Chambersburg, Pa., is completing his sixth and final year, thanks in large part to entering the Dragon program as Covid-19 interrupted this nation, providing wrestlers like him with an extra year of eligibility.

But whether Nichter emerges from the 2026 EIWA Championships as a national qualifier or not, the Dragon will always be remembered for his perseverance in a career of highs and lows.

One of those highs came as a true freshman in 2021 when he qualified for that season’s national championships at 149 pounds — and he has earned more wins (62) than losses (35) over the past six years. 

But he has failed to qualify for any national postseason since then and is hardly mentioned among ranked wrestlers in the country, leading one to ask, “Why are you still wrestling?”

“I knew that when I came in that I would wrestle all the years because I loved wrestling,” said Nichter, a former four-time Pennsylvania state placer who ended his prep career at Chambersburg Area with a state championship in 2020 and a career mark of 154-28. 

“I never thought about it as ‘Let’s see what happens and maybe I won’t (go the distance),’ and everyone knew that. There were some guys who got that extra year but weren’t sure they wanted to keep wrestling

“My coaches and support system knew the whole time that I’m going to wrestle every single moment that I can because this is something I’ve done my whole life and I don’t want to cut that short. I want to live in the moment and take as many opportunities as I can.”

Like many in the sport, injuries caused an interruption in his career when Nichter suffered an ankle injury and a concussion during his second season (2021-22).

“I was out mid-November until the end of February,” said Nichter, who did not get a chance to compete in the EIWAs that March. “That was hard in terms of feeling that I was ready to go out and give it my all at the conference tournament. It showed that year that I was unsure; not in my abilities but did not have the confidence of my training.”

One year later, Nichter had a respectable 17-8 record, but failed to qualify for 2023 nationals when he settled for fifth at the EIWAs. That was followed by a redshirt season in 2024 when he moved up to 157 pounds and then also came up short of qualifying for the 2025 NCAAs with a second-place EIWA showing.

Despite all these past setbacks, Nichter maintained the journey.

“We can take the wins and losses out,” Nichter said. “If I was just wrestling for wins and losses, I would not be doing this right now. I’ve had ups and downs, good seasons and seasons where I’ve taken bad losses and almost did not like wrestling.

“I don’t wrestle to win or lose. I wrestle because I love wrestling and getting better. I love my team. I love practicing. I love going out and competing and all those things make it more enjoyable to come back after I might have a setback or a rough weekend.

“My ups and downs came from times where I was too focused on the thought that I have to win. I changed my mindset to say, ‘I’ve just got to get better, enjoy the practice room and let the wins and losses handle themselves.’”

At the same time, Nichter will have earned both an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in business.

“There were moments that were tough for Luke, where he might have questioned if he wanted to keep doing this,” admitted his head coach, Matt Azevedo, now in his 15th season at the school located in Philadelphia, with an enrollment of over 24,000 students.

“He could have graduated last year and had a great career at Drexel, but he didn’t. He wanted to come back, and I appreciated that because he really wants to do it. He wants to help our team and he believes that he has more to accomplish. Our coaching staff believes in Luke because we’ve seen when he is motivated and excited and really dialed in, he is capable of a lot. And he’s fun to watch.

“He's a very dynamic wrestler who can hit big moves and get into crazy scrambles and end up on top. We all see his potential, and we don’t want to give up on that, and he doesn’t want to give up either. Hopefully, our encouragement has helped him find that in himself.”

Nichter also believes his story is actually more common than the success stories one normally hears about All-Americans and national champions.

“It’s hard to wrestle in college and I know there are guys on every team who are going through what I am,” Nichter said.

That includes his teammate Kyle Waterman, a 133-pound redshirt senior from Holland, Pa., who is 47-39 in his career and also earned a sixth year to continue his dream. The difference is that Waterman, who did not earn a starting spot until 2023, has yet to qualify for nationals after finishing sixth in the 2023 EIWAs and second in last year’s conference tournament.

Much of the credit for both Dragons even getting a chance to continue wrestling — at a time when many Division I wrestlers transfer for championships or financial NIL deals or are simply replaced by an ever-growing number of talented high school wrestlers — goes to Azevedo.

“Three years ago, we made the decision for them to redshirt and work on areas to develop and then finish out their careers over two years,” Azevedo said. “Our team will be very good with a lot of depth and experience. There will be two of our leaders and that’s what we decided to do. 

“We stuck with them and told them, ‘Your best is yet to come, stay the course, go out there, compete and have fun. Use it to get better. You have nothing to lose.’”

Helping out with this process is Dr. Coyte Cooper, the All-American former wrestler from Indiana and professor at North Carolina, who now works with wrestlers from at least seven different schools, including Drexel, as a “high-performance” coach.

 “I work with a lot of athletes and see a lot of athletes who have success their first year and come back with more weight or more inconsistency, which leads to more disappointment,” said Cooper, who now resides in the state of Washington. “When more (psychological) weight is added, you see a downward trend for those athletes.

“A lot of athletes struggle when you put too much weight on just competing, and there can be a lot of disappointment in that.

“Luke has done a great job of recreating his system around wrestling. He’s made it more about the person that he is becoming. When you get your mind set around a purpose, one of the big things we work on is controlling the back end by eliminating disappointment and embarrassment and making growth one of the highest standards. Luke has done a great job of that. That is the foundation of the things that Luke has done.”

Nichter, 24, believes his story can inspire others.

“At Drexel, our team culture has really changed from when I was first here,” he said. “I’m trying to show the younger kids that our coaches don’t care if you win or lose. They care if you are doing your best. You see it in some of the younger guys who don’t open up because they think they have to win. 

“Coaches want us to let it all loose and work on where you need to get better. If you lose, we will figure it out.”

There are no guarantees for post-season success for either Nichter or Waterman, whose respective records this season were 6-5 and 2-2 a week before Christmas. (Drexel was scheduled to wrestle at Cal Poly and Cal Baptist on Dec. 20 and host Purdue Jan. 2 before competing in the NWCA Mid Major National Duals, Jan. 9-10, in Cedar Falls, Iowa.)

But each man showed his postseason promise in a Dec. 14 dual meet at Rutgers, where Nichter avenged an earlier-season loss to Anthony White and Waterman upset 2024 All-American Dylan Shawver.

“When I wrestled (White) earlier in the year, I didn’t wrestle my smartest and knew that I had some mistakes,” Nichter said. “I made the change, and it was a completely different match. I just had to be a little more disciplined in my stance and stay low.”

Nichter said he would love to coach some day and hopefully share what he’s learned from his college experience, which he hopes ends with his initial goal.

“I would love to qualify and get on that (All-American stand), but I also want to have as much fun as I can and do better,” he said. “If those two things happen, the materialistic goals of being at the tournament or on the podium will take care of themselves. I will have no regrets. I will be happy.”