Nick Suriano

Nicholas Raymond Suriano (born April 14, 1997) is an American freestyle and folkstyle wrestler who competes at 57 kilograms. In freestyle, he claimed the 2021 Henri Deglane Grand Prix gold medal and the 2021 Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series silver medal. As a folkstyle wrestler, Suriano was the 2022 NCAA Division I national and Big Ten Conference champion at 125 pounds for the Michigan Wolverines, repeating what he accomplished in 2019 at 133 pounds at Rutgers University, where he also was an NCAA finalist in 2018. Suriano is also the creator of "Handsome Tuesday", a weekly posting encouraging confidence and reminding everyone they are indeed Handsome, and deserve to have themselves a "Handsome Tuesday".

Wrestling career

High school Suriano was born and raised in New Jersey, where he played football as a defensive back in his youth and was introduced to wrestling by his father at age seven. At age 12, he quit football to focus on wrestling. Suriano then attended Bergen Catholic High School and became one of the most accomplished wrestlers in the history of his home state; accumulating eight NJSIAA state titles overall, four individual and four team championships, the first New Jersey wrestler to do so. Suriano was undefeated with a record of 159–0 and also picked up runner-up honors to eventual rival Daton Fix at the 2014 US Cadet Nationals in freestyle.

College years In high school, Suriano committed to Pennsylvania State University to wrestle as a Nittany Lion for Cael Sanderson.

2016–2017 As a freshman, Suriano compiled 16 victories and three defeats (two losses were by injury default), with notable wins over the season's NCAA champion and finalist Darian Cruz and Ethan Lizak, the season's B1G runner–up Tim Lambert and eventual NCAA DII National champion Jose Rodriguez. He was the third seed at the NCAAs; however, he suffered a broken ankle in a match against Nick Piccininni and was unable to compete at the Big Ten Conference championships or the NCAA championships.

2017–2018 After his injury, Suriano transferred to Rutgers University to wrestle as a Scarlet Knight beginning his sophomore year. He had a highly successful first year at Rutgers, with 25 wins and one loss, compiling notable victories over eventual three-time All-American Sebastian Rivera (twice) and eventual two-timers Ronnie Bresser and Zeke Moisey. At the Big Ten Championships, he won his first bout; however, he was forced to medical forfeit his next matches and was eliminated. Entering the NCAAs undefeated, he made his way to the finals by defeating four opponents, including the defending champion Darian Cruz and two other seeded wrestlers. At the finals, he fell to Iowa's Spencer Lee, thus finishing as national runner-up.

2018–2019 In his junior season, he moved up a weight class from 125 to 133 pounds. He ended the year with a 26–3 record and notable victories in regular-season over defending MAC champion John Erneste (eventual two–time MAC champion and All-American) and eventual ACC champion Micky Phillippi. At the Big Ten Conference championships, he defeated four opponents, including future two–time All–Americans Luke Pletcher and Austin DeSanto and future three-timer Ethan Lizak to win his weight class. At the NCAA championships, he made the final after beating three opponents including Stevan Mićić and Ethan Lizak. In the final, he faced Daton Fix, whom he defeated in the second sudden victory period to become the champion at 133 pounds, the first-ever national champion at Rutgers (his teammate Anthony Ashnault would become the second later in the tournament).

2019–2020 Suriano upset '19 Pan American champion and '18 world medalist Joe Colon at the annual Beat the Streets event on May 6 in a freestyle match. In September, Suriano announced he had taken an Olympic redshirt for the season to pursue freestyle aspirations.

At the prestigious Bill Farrell Memorial in November, Suriano dropped to 57 kilograms and won by tech over former DI All-American and two-time Big 12 champion from Oklahoma State Eddie Klimara and Canadian Dragos Robertson in his first two matches, before losing to fellow NCAA champion from Wisconsin Seth Gross. In the consolation bracket, he defeated former four-time DI All-American and '12 graduate from Minnesota Zach Sanders, '16 US University National champion and two-time D-I All-American Zane Richards (technical fall), and two-time US Open national runner-up and '16 NCAA champion Nahshon Garrett to place third.

Suriano competed at the US Nationals in late December, where he defeated future Pan American champion Shelton Mack and '13 NCAA All-American Britain Longmire in his first two matches, before losing a close match against 2019 Junior World finalist and D-I All-American from Cornell Vito Arujau. In the consolation bracket, he once again defeated Zane Richards and added fellow NCAA champion Darian Cruz to the list by technical fall before forfeiting the third-place match against Arujau, to place fourth and qualify for the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials.

2021 Suriano was scheduled to wrestle at the 2020 US Olympic Team Trials on April 4–5. However, the event was postponed along with the 2020 Summer Olympics due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both competitions were rescheduled to take place in 2021.

After more than a year of inactiveness in any ruleset and social spectrum, Suriano competed at the Henri Deglane Grand Prix of France on January 16, in his first international tournament overseas. In the quarterfinals, he dominantly shut down '19 European Games and '15 Junior World Champion from Azerbaijan Mahir Amiraslanov, with seven unanswered points.

Suriano then wrestled at the prestigious Matteo Pellicone Ranking Series on March 7. In the first round, he was edged by '18 World Championship runner-up Nurislam Sanayev, as Sanayev received two points off Suriano grabbing fingers and a point off passiveness, against a two-point takedown from Suriano. In his next three matches, he got an injury default from Daulet Temirzhanov and decisions from three–time Junior World Champion Ahmet Peker and '19 Yasar Dogu International champion Givi Davidovi. In the gold-medal match, he got a rematch against Sanayev, whom he once again lost to, claiming the silver medal.

Suriano was then slated to compete at the rescheduled US Olympic Team Trials in April 2–3 as the fifth seed, in an attempt to represent the United States at the 2020 Summer Olympics. However, it was officially announced in the day of the event, that Suriano had been forced to withdraw from the event due to a COVID-19 positive test. Suriano was considered by many as one of the favorites to claim the Olympic spot despite his seed. He was then registered to come back to competition on June 8, at the prestigious Poland Open. However, it was announced hours before his scheduled appearance that Suriano had withdrawn from the event for unknown reasons.

On July 21, it was announced that Suriano had officially finished his career at Rutgers University and entered the transfer portal.

Instead, he registered to come back at the 2021 US World Team Trials from September 11 to 12, intending to represent the country at the World Championships at 61 kilograms. After making the quarterfinals, Suriano was upset by 2015 NCAA champion Nathan Tomasello on points, dropping his chances of a World Team spot. He beat 2021 Pan American Champion Shelton Mack in the consolation bracket, but chose to forfeit his next match the next day.

2022 On November 28, 2021, it was revealed that Suriano had transferred to the University of Michigan and would compete at 125 pounds for the Michigan Wolverines in his return to college wrestling. Suriano went 8–0 during regular season before claiming his third Big Ten Conference championship. The top-seed, he went straight to the finals despite facing and beating returning NCAA finalist Brandon Courtney and returning All-American Sam Latona. Suriano won his second National title by beating fellow New Jersey native Pat Glory, capping off his college career.

2024 Suriano won the gold medal in the men's 61kg event at the 2024 Pan American Wrestling Championships held in Acapulco, Mexico.

Freestyle record

Res. Record Opponent Score Date Event Location

Loss

State College, Pennsylvania Loss 31–9

Win 31–8

Win 30–8

Acapulco, Mexico Win

Win 29–8

Win 28–8

Loss 27–8

Las Vegas, Nevada Win

Win 27–7

Win 26–7

Win 25–7

Loss 24–7

Alexandria, Egypt Loss 24–6

Win 24–5

Win 23–5

Win 22–5

Win 21–5

Nice, France Win 20–5

Win 19–5

Win 18–5

Coralville, Iowa

Loss

Win 17–5

Loss 16–5

Win 16–4

Loss 15–4

Rome, Italy Win 15–3

Win 14–3

Win

Loss 13–3

Win 13–2

Nice, France Win 12–2

Win 11–2

Loss

Fort Worth, Texas Win 10–2

Win 9–2

Loss 8–2

Win 8–1

Win 7–1

Win 6–1

New York City, New York Win 5–1

Win 4–1

Loss 3–1

Win 3–0

Win 2–0

Win 1–0

New York City, New York

NCAA record

Res. Record Opponent Score Date Event

Win 85–7

Win 84–7

Win 83–7

Win 82–7

Win 81–7

Win 80–7

Win 79–7

Win 78–7

Win 77–7

Win 77–7

Win 76–7

Win 75–7

Win 74–7

Win 73–7

Win 72–7

Win 71–7

Win 70–7

Win 69–7

Win 68–7

Win 67–7

Win 66–7

Win 65–7

Win 64–7

Win 63–7

Win 62–7

Win 61–7

Loss 60–7

Win 60–6

Win 59–6

Win 58–6

Win 57–6

Win 56–6

Loss 55–6

Loss 55–5

Win 55–4

Win 54–4

Win 53–4

Win 52–4

Win 51–4

Win 50–4

Win 49–4

Win 48–4

Win 47–4

Win 46–4

Win 45–4

Win 44–4

Win 43–4

Win 42–4

Loss 41–4

Win 40–3

Win 39–3

Win 38–3

Win 37–3

Win 36–3

Win 35–3

Win 34–3

Win 33–3

Win 32–3

Win 31–3

Win 30–3

Win 29–3

Win 28–3

Win 27–3

Win 26–3

Win 25–3

Win 24–3

Win 23–3

Win 22–3

Win 21–3

Win 20–3

Win 19–3

Win 18–3

Win 17–3

Loss 16–3

Loss 16–2

Win 16–1

Win 15–1

Win 14–1

Win 13–1

Win 12–1

Loss 11–1

Win 11–0

Win 10–0

Win 9–0

Win 8–0

Win 7–0

Win 6–0

Win 5–0

Win 4–0

Win 3–0

Win 2–0

Win 1–0

Stats Season Year School Rank Weight Class Record Win Bonus 2022 Senior University of Michigan 1 125 (1st) 16–0 100.00% 75.00% 2019 Junior

3 (1st) 133 29–3 90.63% 57.89% 2018 Sophomore 4 (2nd)

25–1 96.15% 65.38% 2017 Freshman Penn State University 3 (DNQ) 16–3 84.21% 57.89%

Awards and honors

2022 NCAA Division I (125 lbs) Big Ten Conference (125 lbs) 2019 Bill Farrell Memorial International (57 kg) BTS: Grapple at the Garden Dual (61 kg) NCAA Division I (133 lbs) Big Ten Conference (133 lbs) 2018 NCAA Division I (125 lbs)