Wrestling 3/9/2026 12:00:00 PM Mike Kirk

Gabe Johnson Made Right Choice With Wrestling

Two-time National Champ Ranks Among UCO's All-time Greats

Wrestling in college wasn't in Gabe Johnson's plans during his days as a gifted two-sport standout at Choctaw High School.

Sure he showed great promise on the mat and ended up being a two-time state champion for the Yellowjackets. His true passion, though, was football. Snagging passes and scoring touchdowns is what he wanted to keep doing after high school.

But the demand for 150-pound wide receivers wasn't great, so Johnson sifted through the wrestling offers he had and settled on Central Oklahoma. Now he's on the cusp of finishing off one of the best careers in the program's rich history.

"I wanted to play football in college, but being undersized I only had a couple of offers," Johnson said. "That was the sport I really loved and it was fun. I didn't have to cut weight and all that stuff."

Opting to go the wrestling route has certainly paid off for the soft-spoken Johnson.

A three-time All-American and two-time NCAA Division II national champion at 157 pounds, Johnson captured his fourth Super Regional IV title last week with a dominating performance at UCO's Hamilton Field House. He has a sensational 110-16 career record with 61 bonus-point wins, including a school-record 30 technical falls.

Johnson is 19-0 with 12 bonus wins this season. He'll be the top seed for the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships this weekend in Sioux Falls, S.D. in his quest for a third straight national title.

It was undoubtedly hard to envision that kind of success while competing as a scrawny 40-pounder in little league. And there was something about wrestling that Johnson wasn't fond of.

"I didn't like it because it was just tough," Johnson said of his early days on the mat. "I was kinda soft then and it was just hard. But what I did enjoy about it was I knew it was all on me. In wrestling, I controlled what happened and was wrestling somebody my size."

Johnson eventually grew from that 40-pound little leaguer into a 152-pound senior at Choctaw. He was state runner-up as a sophomore before winning back-to-back titles his last two years and finished with more than 120 career wins.

Then, after football didn't pan out, it was off to Edmond.

Johnson beat out a returning national qualifier at 149 to make the starting lineup as a true freshman in the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season. He ended up qualifying for the national tournament with a regional runner-up finish and promptly went 0-2, which was an eye opener.

"It was a weird year," Gabe said. "It was good in the long run because I got to see a version of the national tournament and I didn't perform well. I went 0-2 and felt like I let the team down, but it made me realize how hard I needed to work.

"In high school I was just good and knew a few moves and was pretty athletic so I could win. So it kind of started the process of knowing that I had to evolve and get better. Plus it was a free year."

Indeed Johnson and hundreds of others retained an additional season of eligibility after the NCAA ended up not counting the 2020-21 campaign. That resulted in Johnson redshirting in 2021-22 while he moved up to 157, going 21-3 in five open tournaments.

Then came 2022-23 and Johnson put together a fantastic redshirt freshman season in helping UCO to its first team title since 2007. He went 33-7, captured the first of his four regional titles and earned All-America honors with a seventh-place finish after entering as the No. 3 seed.

And that proved to be a pivotal moment.

"I think that was the biggest turning point in my career," Johnson said. "For me, I thought it was awesome we won as a team but I was hurt. I had put in like two years of summer work and the goal was to win an individual title.

"So it hurt, but it definitely made me hungry. It made me not want to feel that again. I was upset. I was mad because I knew I could perform better, but you just have to learn from it."

Another summer was spent working on technique in morning drills along with lifting and live wrestling in the evenings. And the results were spectacular.

"Something clicked," Johnson said of his sophomore season in 2023-24. "I put the work in, I improved my skills, now like the last piece of the puzzle was just going out and proving it."

That he did, going 26-4 with 16 bonus wins in claiming the national title as UCO repeated as team champions. He rolled into the national finals with three easy wins as the No. 3 seed and then knocked off top-seed and previously unbeaten Nick Novak of St. Cloud State 10-7 for the gold medal.

"It was an amazing feeling," Johnson said of winning the title. "It felt great doing it for the team, my family, myself. But nothing really changed. I used to think if I was a national champion my life would change and it didn't.

"It's kind of humbling. You have to just get back to work. You got to change it from being a national champion to just doing it for yourself, your family, your coaches, people who invested in you. So that took some pressure off me."

The off-season work that went into achieving that level of success proved to Johnson he was on to something. The process worked.

"Sometimes when you win it's harder the second time because you did it," Gabe said. "But kind of the way I think about things is I put all that work in and I did it, I got the result I wanted. So I'm just going to do it again and do it better."

Did he ever. Johnson was a dominating force throughout his junior season, finishing 26-1 with 18 bonus wins. He claimed a third straight regional crown and avenged his lone loss in the national finals with a 4-1 overtime triumph over St. Cloud State's Joel Jesuroga.

As the saying goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it. So Johnson went back to his normal habits last summer.

"I did basically the same thing," he said. "I think in the summer is when you can make the most ground. You're not cutting weight, not stressing about competition, you're just getting better.

"I had the same routine. Worked hard all summer because I know it's going to be just as hard to win again."

Johnson's quest for a third title will indeed be difficult at one of the deepest weights in Division II. Jesuroga is back and undefeated. Other capable challengers await. It will be no stroll in the park.

"This is a great opportunity," Gabe said of his final national tournament. "We have a chance to win it as a team and I just want to go have fun. Go out and enjoy it. The work's been put in, so now it's just going out and doing it. I'm excited."

Already a graduate with a degree in marketing, Johnson will return to UCO next year to serve as an assistant coach while finishing his master's in business.

And, though reluctant to reflect on his amazing career until it's over, Gabe has a clear prospective of what the sport has done for him.

"At the end of the day, I don't think there will be anything tougher than wrestling," Johnson said. "You're cutting weight, you're getting beat up every day and you're doing it because you love it. Wrestling has definitely shaped me.

"Looking back I'm grateful for how much I've grown as a wrestler and as a man. I just think Coach (Todd) Steidley and Coach (Scott) Chenoweth for that. They're the best coaches I've had for sure. It's been a long journey."

Spoken like a true champion.

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Players Mentioned

Gabe Johnson: 5' 8"; Senior

Players Mentioned

Gabe Johnson
: 5' 8"; Senior