Another Tucson wrestler has made history at the collegiate level.
Oklahoma State freshman and former Sunnyside High School standout Sergio Vega won the 141-pound NCAA wrestling national championship at Rocket Arena in Cleveland on Saturday.
Vega beat Jesse Mendez, a two-time national champion and three-time All-American at Ohio State, 4-1 following a takedown in overtime. Vega snapped Mendez's 31-match win streak.
Vega is the first freshman to cap an undefeated season with a national championship since Oklahoma A&M's Dick Hutton in 1947. Vega went 24-0 in his first season with the Cowboys.
Jax Forrest, Vega's teammate at Oklahoma State, also went undefeated as a true freshman and won the 133-pound national championship.
Former Sunnyside wrestler Sergio Vega, pictured in 2024, became the first freshman in 79 years to go undefeated and win a national championship.
Vega is the latest Sunnyside product to win a national championship at the collegiate level. Former Blue Devil Roman Bravo-Young was a two-time national champion at Penn State in 2021 and ’22. Audrey Jimenez, who was the first girl in Arizona history to win a state championship in the boys division, won the 110-pound national championship at Lehigh.
Oklahoma State had three individual national champions, but Penn State won its fifth straight team national championship.
