Pac-12 Awards Sweep
STANFORD, Calif. – For the second consecutive season, Stanford's Shane Griffith has been named the Pac-12 Wrestler of the Year, while Jaden Abas earns Newcomer of the Year and Jason Borrelli is the Coach of the Year, the conference announced Friday.
Griffith is the first Stanford wrestler to repeat as the Pac-12 Wrestler of the Year, bringing the Cardinal's total award count to four (Matt Gentry, 2004; Nick Amuchastegui, 2012).
Abas is the sixth Stanford wrestler to be named the Newcomer of the Year, joining Gentry (2002), Zack Giesen (2007), Jim Wilson (2014), Joey McKenna (2016) and Griffith (2020). It is the second time in three years that Borrelli has been tabbed the Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
Griffith, a redshirt sophomore, became the program's second individual NCAA champion on March 20 and was named Outstanding Wrestler at the national tournament. He knocked off the No. 1, No. 3 and No. 5 seeded wrestlers en route to the 165 pound title. The Westwood, New Jersey, native is 40-1 in his collegiate career after going 28-0 in his rookie campaign and 12-1 this season.
Dating back to 2019, Griffith registered 34 straight wins to begin his career – the second-longest winning streak in school history. The 2020 Pac-12 champion, he is now an NCAA All-American (2021) and an NWCA First Team All-American (2020). He is just the sixth Stanford wrestler to be a multiple-time All-American and first since 2012.
Abas won the Pac-12 title at 149 pounds and placed seventh at the NCAA Championships to become just the second freshman to garner NCAA All-America honors in school history, joining McKenna (2016), and the fourth overall to be a freshman All-American (Griffith and teammate Real Woods were NWCA All-Americans in 2020).
The San Diego native was 13-4 overall and became the eighth freshman in program history to win an individual conference title. At NCAAs, he won four consecutive matches in the consolation bracket to achieve All-America status. His only losses of the tournament came to Northwestern's Yahya Thomas, who finished third overall.
Borrelli, who just completed his 13th season at the helm of the program, led Stanford to its seventh top-20 finish at the NCAA Championships in 2021 and its fourth-highest overall (17th). The Cardinal sent seven wrestlers to the 2021 NCAA Championships in St. Louis – the second-most NCAA qualifiers in school history.
The program's all-time winningest coach with 122 dual meet victories, Borrelli has had 32 wrestlers qualify for the NCAA Championships a total of 64 times, and have garnered a total of 15 All-America honors and 21 individual Pac-12 championships. In 2019 he led Stanford to its first Pac-12 team title in program history. Stanford has also had six wrestlers named Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year under Borrelli, including heavyweight Nathan Traxler in 2021.