Wisconsin head wrestling coach Chris Bono announced Thursday that former Badger wrestler and NCAA champion Seth Gross will be joining his coaching staff for the upcoming 2020-21 season.
Gross will begin his coaching career with the Badgers while also training for the 2021 Olympic games.
Gross is very familiar with Bono and associate head coach Jon Reader. The duo recruited him to South Dakota State as a transfer in 2015. As a redshirt freshman, Gross went 27-13 and competed at the NCAA championship for the Jackrabbits. Moving onto his sophomore year, Gross was never ranked below seventh in the country at 133 pounds and earned a second-place finish at the 2017 NCAA Championships.
In his junior season at South Dakota State, Gross was the top-ranked wrestler in his weight class for the entire season. He took his 29-1 record to the NCAA championship and claimed the 133-pound title over Michigan’s Steven Micic.
The following year, Bono and Reader left South Dakota State to take over the Wisconsin program while Gross wrestled one match before he was ruled out for the rest of the season with a back injury.
Following back surgery, Gross was granted a sixth year of eligibility from the NCAA and transferred to Wisconsin.
Gross finished his collegiate wrestling career with a third-place finish at the 2020 Big Ten Championship and qualified for the NCAA Championship, which wasn’t held due to COVID-19.
In freestyle wrestling, Gross won the Bill Farrell Open in November, earning him an automatic spot at the USA Olympic Team Trials and USA Wrestling Wrestler of the Week honors. Gross will look to compete for a spot on Team USA’s 2021 Olympic wrestling team at 57 kilograms.