LA CROSSE, Wis. – The Vermont State University Castleton wrestling program wrapped up its best NCAA Division III National Championship result in history on Saturday, landing a 12th-place finish as a team with a pair of top-eight finishers.
 
Sampson Wilkins' fourth-place finish is the best result in program history, improving upon James Rodriguez's seventh-place finish in 2023, while Gavin Bradley set a personal-best mark as a seventh-place finisher. Wilkins and Bradley become the second and third All-Americans in program history in addition to Rodriguez, who earned the honor in each of the previous two seasons. With 24.5 team points, the Spartans locked in a 12th-place finish as a team among 55 schools at the event.
 
Wilkins opened the day in the semifinals after winning twice on Friday to cement his All-American status. The senior had a tough matchup with top-seeded Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann of Augsburg for a trip to the championship bout, but wrestled him evenly through a period as the duo went into the second frame scoreless. Schwanebeck-Ostermann got ahead with a second-period escape point and later notched a takedown to lead Wilkins 4-0 after two periods. He added to his lead in the third, finishing a 9-0 major decision to send Wilkins to the consolation semifinals.
 
He advanced to the third-place match after dominating Adrian's Dylan Wellbaum in the consolation semifinals, 14-0. Wilkins logged a takedown and two near-fall points in the first period, but both wrestlers went scoreless in the second to send the match to the final two minutes with Wilkins leading 5-0. Wilkins escaped to start the third and then followed up with a takedown to extend the edge to 9-0. He racked up four more near-fall points and earned the riding time bonus for the 14-0 shutout and a spot in the third-place bout.
 
He drew Wisconsin Eau Claire's Nlall Schoenfelder in his final match and fell behind 3-1 after a period thanks to a Schoenfelder takedown and an escape. Wilkins pulled within a point in the second after escaping bottom positon, but a late takedown and four near-fall points for Schoenfelder cemented a 10-2 lead going to the final frame. Schoenfelder escaped bottom early in the frame and avoided action the remainder of the match, giving Wilkins his spot as the fourth-place finisher after entering the tournament as the No. 4 seed.
 
Bradley began Saturday's action in the consolation quarterfinals after winning a pair of matches on Friday to guarantee a top-eight finish and All-America status. He faced off with third-seeded Zac Blasioli of Millkin in the consolation quarters, falling 9-1. Bradley led 1-0 after the first thanks to a stalling penalty on Blasioli, but Blasioli leveled it at 1-1 with a second-period escape before earning a takedown for a 4-1 lead. Blasioli tacked on another takedown in the third and with a penalty point and riding time secured the victory to land Bradley in the seventh-place match.
 
Bradley coasted in the seventh-place bout against Roanoke's Mac Cafurello, grabbing a pair of first-period takedowns to lead 6-2 after a period. He allowed an escape point in the second but got it back with an escape of his own in the third to go ahead 7-3. Cafurello got his final point on a stalling penalty by Bradley, but the Spartan sophomore held on to become the program's second seventh-place finisher in program history and matched his starting seed as the No. 7 wrestler in the bracket.
 
The Spartans conclude a historic season that saw them win a program-record 20 dual matches and qualify a program-best six wrestlers for the NCAA National Championships. Of the six 2024 NCAA qualifiers, five won at least one match at the event: Wilkins, Bradley, Rodriguez, Nicholas Roeger and Darby McLaughlin.