AJ Ferrari Tabbed Amateur Wrestling News Rookie of the Year
Oklahoma State star freshman AJ Ferrari has picked up another national award following his stellar first year in Stillwater.
A little more than a month after becoming John Smith’s first national champion since Dean Heil in 2017, Ferrari was tabbed the Rookie of the Year by Amateur Wrestling News.
Ferrari finished his freshman season with a 20-1 overall record, 10-0 in dual meets, and was 10-1 against ranked opponents, with his only loss coming at the hands of West Virginia’s Noah Adams.
He rolled his way through the Big 12 tournament with relative ease knocking off top seed Tanner Sloan from South Dakota State in the semis and the No. 2 seed Stephen Buchanan from Wyoming in the finals to earn his first Big 12 title and was named Most Outstanding Wrestler.
Related: AJ Ferrari fires out perfect first pitch, rips off his shirt and flexes on OU
Tabbed as the No. 4 seed, Ferrari dominated his way through the NCAA tournament knocking off the top-seed Myles Amine from Michigan in the semis and Nino Bonaccorsi from Pitt in the finals, becoming just the third true freshman national champion in OSU history, the first since Pat Smith in 1990.
He also became the 41st freshman All-American in program history.