Wyatt Hendrickson admits he tried not watch teammate Dean Hamiti’s national title win

Before Wyatt Hendrickson pulled off one of the greatest wins in NCAA Wrestling history, his teammate Dean Hamiti had some history to make. Hamiti also beat two prior national champions en route to his crown at 174 pounds in Philadelphia.

Hendrickson was the main event vs. Minnesota’s Gable Steveson but Hamiti was a couple of matches prior. While the heavyweight was warming up in the back, he was trying to avoid getting amped up watching his teammate.

But when he heard roars, he couldn’t resist. It ended up being a banner night for the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

“Yeah, that’s actually hilarious you say that because the warm up room did have a TV that that was showing the match,” Hendrickson said on The Bader Show. “And Luke Surber, I was warming up with Luke, and they turned the volume down off of the TV, but some of the coaches in the practice mat room were still, you know, watching it, and I was practicing, and I would hear the coaches go like, ‘Oh,’ and I’d like, try to look.

“And Luke was like a tree. He’d open his arms out like to a kid, like, ‘no, don’t look.’ And I was just like, at that point, I’m like, ‘Alright, look, I can hear something’s going on. Just let me watch it, because now I’m gonna start thinking about what just happened.’” Because I know the coaches are getting involved, and they’re like, ‘oh my gosh, three, three,’ yelling, three. I’m sitting there, like, ‘Guys, I’m trying to warm up. I’m still in here.’ And they’re like, ‘oh, sorry, sorry.’”

Hamiti beat Penn State’s Levi Haines in the semifinals, last year’s champ at 157, and then Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole, a two-time champion. The Cowboy won 4-1 in sudden victory after losing in sudden victory two weeks prior at the Big 12 Championships.

“Yeah, I think my body’s just kind of used to that,” Hendrickson said of being last and not watching teammates from the back. “You know these guys, I’ve watched these guys wrestle a lot, and they’ve done a lot of winning. And at the beginning of the year, I was probably a little bit too amped up. It hyped me up, but I just saw it, and I’m like, yeah. Like, I knew Dean deserves this. Dean has worked his butt off … It wasn’t really much of a surprise, I would say. I mean, I was like, Yeah, that’s a hard working dude. He’s gonna be a national champion. 

“He won a national championship, all right, you know, boom, there it is. And so I was kind of just like, I was excited for him, but I was still able to kind of sit there and focus on myself. I didn’t lose sight or, you know, wander off to something else after that match.”

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