Take 10 wrestling enthusiasts and ask them to pare a list of the sport’s top 160 stars from the past 25 years down to 40 and you’re bound to get a wide range of opinions and some spirited debate. 

That’s what happened with our team as we went through the initial stages of assembling the Flowrestling All-Quarter Century Team. There were several weights where our internal vote turned up an extensive array of names. 

This was not one of those. 

The Flowrestling squad was fully in agreement on the four 174-pound finalists. That’s not to say there weren’t other viable candidates. After all, this weight has produced 11 undefeated NCAA champions in the last 25 years and there was a six-year stretch when six different wrestlers went unbeaten en route to national titles at 174. 

Here’s a sampling of some of the top 174-pounders who didn’t crack the top four in our first round of voting: 

Josh Koscheck (Edinboro) — Edinboro’s first four-time All-American placed fourth, second, first and third in his four trips to the NCAA Championships. Koscheck went 42-0 on his way to the 174-pound title in 2001. His tournament title run in Iowa City included five wins by a combined 41-7 count. 

Keith Gavin (Pittsburgh) — Gavin was a late bloomer who placed twice in high school at the Pennsylvania state tournament but never higher than third. He was unranked at the start of his junior season at Pittsburgh but made the NCAA finals that season and then went 27-0 as a senior in 2008.  

Steve Luke (Michigan) — Like Gavin, Luke lost in the finals as a junior (against Gavin) and then turned in an undefeated senior season. Luke compiled a 93-8 record over the course of his final three seasons with the Wolverines and won three Big Ten titles. 

Jay Borschel (Iowa) — After losing a season of eligibility following his transfer from Virginia Tech, Borschel became one of Iowa’s most consistent performers during the Hawkeyes’ three-year team title run. He went 98-10 in those three seasons and 62-3 in duals. He placed third at the NCAA Championships as a sophomore and put his best season together as a senior, going 37-0 with 21 bonus-point wins. His 2010 title run included a dramatic comeback win in the semifinals and before he took out previously unbeaten Mack Lewnes for the title. 

Jon Reader (Iowa State) — Reader won 30 matches and earned All-America honors at 165 in each of his first two seasons with the Cyclones before getting knocked off in the blood round. He moved up to 174 as a senior and bounced back in a big way, going 39-0 with 27 bonus-point victories on his way to the national title. He ran through the 2011 bracket, outscoring his opponents by a combined 48-11 count, punctuated by a 10-3 win in the finals. 

Chris Perry (Oklahoma State) — Perry reached the blood round in 2011 at 184 as a freshman before cutting down to 174 as a sophomore. The weight suited him well. He went 96-4 during his final three seasons, placing third before winning NCAA titles each of his next two seasons. He finished his career with a 122-11 record. 

Mark Hall (Penn State) — Hall joined the Nittany Lion lineup midway through his true freshman season and finished the year atop the podium at the NCAA Championships. He was an NCAA runner-up each of the next two seasons. He was the #1 seed at 174 for the 2020 national tournament before it got canceled due to the pandemic. Hall finished his career with a 116-6 record. 

Building The Quarter Century Team

We put together a list with every NCAA champion since 2001 — all 160 of the guys who combined to win the 240 individual national titles during that time frame — and the Flowrestling team pared it down to 40 (the top four at each weight) with a staff vote. Ultimately, we'll cut the list down to 10 with the help of a fan vote on social media. 

We’ve already revealed half of the All-Quarter Century Team. 

Now you can cast a vote for the top 174-pounder from the past quarter century. 

Who was the best 174-pound wrestler of the Quarter-Century?

— FloWrestling (@FloWrestling) July 14, 2025

(Listed in chronological order) 

Chris Pendleton (Oklahoma State)

Pendleton got tossed into the Oklahoma State lineup late in his freshman season as a fill-in starter for a team with national championship aspirations. It didn’t work quite as well as the Cowboys had hoped. He went 1-2 at the NCAA Championships and Oklahoma State finished third as a team. He redshirted during his second season on campus, moved up to 174 and became a force. He went 100-4 over the course of his final three seasons, wrestled on three national championship teams and won a pair of NCAA titles. 

Ben Askren (Missouri) 

Missouri is a perennial power these days, but it wasn’t that way until Askren joined the Tigers. Prior to his arrival, Mizzou had two NCAA finalists and no national champions in program history. Askren started changing history in his first season, reaching the NCAA finals. He lost to Pendleton in national title bouts in 2004 and 2005 before becoming Missouri’s first national champ in 2006. He went 87-0 in his final two seasons with 54 pins and won the Hodge Trophy in back-to-back seasons. He owned a 153-8 career record with 91 pins. The Tigers finished third in the NCAA team race during Askren’s senior season. 

Zahid Valencia (Arizona State) 

Valencia was the centerpiece to Arizona State’s top-ranked recruiting class in 2015 and he was as good as advertised in college. He spent his first three seasons at 174, where he went 97-4 and won two national titles. He might’ve won another championship if not for a video review that erased a takedown due to a headgear pull in the 2017 NCAA semifinals against Mark Hall. Valencia finished his college career with a 115-4 record. 

Carter Starocci (Penn State) 

Starocci lost the first match of his freshman season, dropped a decision in the Big Ten finals that year and didn’t lose another contested bout the rest of his career, becoming the first five-time NCAA champion. He won his first four titles at 174 — capturing the fourth 27 days after suffering a knee injury that kept him from wrestling at the Big Ten Championships — and then moved up in his final season with the Nittany Lions to 184, where he notched a pair of wins against returning national champ Parker Keckeisen. He finished his career with a 103-4 record.