KANSAS CITY, Mo. – No. 4 David Carr defeated Penn State’s Mitchell Mesenbrink, 9-8, to win his second national title Saturday night inside the T-Mobile Center. He becomes the 17^th Cyclone to win multiple national titles and the first since 2010 (Jake Varner, 2009-10).

His path to the title included wins over the No. 1, 2 and 5 seeds, and four of his five opponents in the tournament were All-Americans.

Carr is the first five-time All-American in program history and the 12th Cyclone to finish on the podium four times. The Cyclone legacy never placed worse than third at the national tournament, following his 2021 national title with a third-place finish in 2022, a runner-up in 2023 before securing a second title in 2024.

The Canton, Ohio native finishes his career with a 120-5 record, tied for the 15th-most wins in school history, and as a three-time national finalist. His .960 career winning percentage ranks fourth in program history behind Cael Sanderson (1.000), Dan Gable (.990) and Tim Krieger (.967).

Carr, along with his father Nate who won three national titles for ISU from 1981-83, are one of four father-son duos in Division I history to win two-plus national titles. Carr’s title is the 71^st individual wrestling title in Iowa State history.

Carr led the resurgence of a program which finished tied for 57^th at the 2017 NCAA Championships. In his final season, Iowa State finished in fourth place with 68.5 team points, it’s best finish and point total since 2010 when the Cyclones placed third with 75.0 points. ISU placed four wrestlers on the podium, its most since 2009.

The Cyclones finished just outside the top three of Penn State (172.5), Cornell (72.5) and Michigan (71.0). Rounding out the top five was Iowa with 67.0 points.