Conqu'ring Heroes: Parris Overcomes Injury to Achieve Perfection
3/30/2023 1:25:00 PM | Wrestling, Features
On this week's episode of the "Conqu'ring Heroes" podcast, Jon Jansen welcomes Michigan senior Mason Parris to discuss his selection as the 2023 Dan Hodge Trophy winner as college wrestling's most dominant wrestler, overcoming injury to post an undefeated season and his future plans in wrestling.
By Leah Howard
This season was perfect for Mason Parris. From start to finish, he did not miss one competition en route to a 33-0 record, the NCAA heavyweight title and the 2023 Dan Hodge Trophy, presented annually to the nation's top collegiate wrestler.
What a difference a year makes.
The 2021-22 season was a challenging one for Parris, who went 19-6 and took fifth place at the NCAA Championships. A successful season by most standards, but Parris was not himself, wrestling through the limitations and frustrations caused by a herniated disc in his neck that he suffered in the U.S. World Team Trials semifinals in early September.
"I couldn't sleep for maybe a week (afterward) because my neck was in so much pain," said Parris. "That pain radiated down my left arm, and I lost all the (strength) in my arm. I could barely pick up a cup. The doctors suggested surgery to me, and that scared me. But I decided not to undergo surgery and just rehab it myself. That turned out to be the best call for me."
When the season ended, Parris poured himself into training and the weight room, in particular, to regain the strength lost in his left arm and even out the sides of his body.
"I just trained that entire summer, getting healthy, getting strong," he said. "I took weight lifting really seriously and spent a lot of extra time in the wrestling room too, just improving my technique. One of the major things for me was building the mental side of wrestling. So, I came into the season with my body feeling good, my mind was feeling good and got a lot better at wrestling."
There was some consideration of redshirting this season, but Parris instead went the other direction. Not only did he wrestle this year, but he wrestled every single competition on the Wolverines' schedule, starting with the MSU Open through the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and every single dual through the grind of the Big Ten slate. By season's end, more than half of his opponents (17 of 33) were nationally ranked.
"It's as tough as it gets," said Parris. "The Big Ten wrestling schedule is the toughest in the country. It's nothing like anything else in any sport I think. We're battling every single weekend with the best guys in the country. You know you've got to go out there and give it your all; there's never any easy matches. But they say iron sharpens iron, and that just makes me that much better of a wrestler."
Parris posted a 10-0 record against the other seven heavyweight All-Americans, including three wins over Penn State's Greg Kerkvliet, who started the season ranked No. 1 nationally. He defeated the Nittany Lion 5-1 in the NCAA championship final.
"I have a lot of respect for him," said Parris. "He goes out and wrestles hard. He beat me three times last year. This entire offseason and season I was game planning and thinking about how I was going to beat him, what I was going to do and why I needed to work so much harder to beat him."
Parris' quality of competition this season was one of several factors that went into his Hodge Trophy win. Other criteria includes overall record, bonus-point percentage and sportsmanship. He is the first Wolverine to ever claim college wrestling's top honor.
"It's been an honor winning that prestigious award," said Parris. "I've just been on cloud nine and super excited about it. This was my goal coming into the season. I was setting my goals as high as possible, and finally got it done. It feels great and a huge relief."
Parris is getting ready to start training again. A former junior world champion, he is among the top candidates to make the freestyle senior world team this summer and ultimately has his sights set on Paris and the 2024 Olympic Games.
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