2017-18 Wrestling Roster
Rivera, Sebastian
Sebastian Rivera
- Weight:
- 125
- Class:
- Redshirt First-Year
- Hometown:
- Jackson, N.J.
- High School:
- Christian Brothers Academy
Bio
2017-18 Match-by-Match Results
2016-17 Match-by-Match Results
2019-20: Redshirt Junior ... Competed at 133 lbs ... Big Ten Champion ... NWCA All-American ... Picked up a commanding victory in his first win of the season by major decision over #15 Collin Gerardi of Virginia Tech (11/10) ... Recorded a win by major decision over Northern Iowa's Jack Skudlarczyk (11/17) ... Won in a 7-3 decision over #8 Cam Sykora of North Dakota State (11/24) ... Racked up four wins en route to taking fourth place, including a 13-3 victory by major decision over Ty Agaisse of Princeton and a 14-5 victory by major decision over Louie Hayes of Virginia at the Midlands Championships (12/30) ... Captured his second-consecutive Big Ten championship after defeating the No. 1 Seth Gross, Wisconsin in the semifinals and the No. 2 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) in the finals ... Named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Big Ten Championships, as voted on by the conference's coaches, joining Jake Herbert as the only other Wildcat wrestler to earn that honor ... Earned No. 1 seed at the 2020 NCAA Championships and was named an NWCA All-American, becoming just the eighth wrestler in Northwestern history to earn at least three All-American honors.
2018-19: Redshirt sophomore ... Competed at 125 lbs. ... Took third place at the NCAA Championships for a new career-best finish (3/21-3/23) ... Defeated #7 Vitali Arujau of Cornell in the quarterfinals and again in the third-place bout ... Won five of his six matches at the tournament, including the opener by technical fall ... Big Ten Champion at 125 lbs. (3/9-3/10) ... Won each of his first two matches by bonus points, including a major decision of #9 RayVon Foley, to book his spot in the final ... Faced off against Spencer Lee of Iowa in the championship bout for a rematch of the finals at Midlands ... Defeated Lee once again, this time with an overtime takedown to win via sudden victory ... Completed the regular season undefeated at 125 lbs. ... Compiled a 30-2 mark on the campaign ... Only regular season loss came to #1 Stevan Micic at 133 pounds when Rivera wrestled up a weight class in the dual meet at Michigan (2/10) ... Ranked #1 in the nation since early January ... Notched a victory by major decision in the opening bout against #6 Ohio State (2/3) ... Won by major decision in the dual match against #4 Iowa (1/27) ... Recorded a tech fall in the dual against #1 Penn State for his seventh of the season (1/11) ... Pinned #12 Zeke Moisey in the first period in the Big Ten opener at Nebraska (1/6) ... Went 5-0 at the Midlands Championships to win the title at his weight class (12/29-30) ... Won each of his first four matches by technical fall to reach the finals ... Defeated #1 Spencer Lee of Iowa in the title bout, taking him down three times and winning via 7-3 decision ... Won all five matches at the CKLV Invitational, including victories over #17 Drew Mattin (Michigan) and #3 Ronnie Bresser (Oregon State) (11/30-12/1) ... Ranked as high as #2 nationally in pre-season polls.
2017-18: Redshirt first-year ... Competed at 125 lbs ... All-American ... 40th Wildcat wrestler to become an All-American ... Became the first Northwestern All-American since 2015, when assistant coach Mike McMullan and Jason Tsirtsis earned the honors ... He is also the highest-seeded Wildcat (10th) to become an All-American since a 10th-seeded McMullan finished in third place in 2012 ... Wrestled at 125 lbs. ... Led the Wildcats with five technical falls and 12 major decisions ... Combined with Ryan Deakin (149) to notch 63 combined wins, the most for a rookie pair in NU history since Jack Griffin and Mike Funk combined for 70 wins in the 1986-87 season ... Placed sixth at the NCAA Championships (3/15-17) ... His run included wins over #13 Ryan Millhof (Arizona State), #14 Louie Hayes (Virginia), and #10 Ronnie Bresser (Oregon State) ... Racked up four wins at the Big Ten Championships en route to finishing fifth at 125 (3/3-3/4) ... Won by fall in his bout against Indiana to finish the dual season with a 12-2 mark (2/11) ... Beat #17 Luke Welch in dominant fashion with a 12-1 major decision in the win over #22 Purdue (2/9) ... Recorded his seventh major decision of the campaign with an 11-3 victory in Northwestern's win over #14 Minnesota (1/28) ... Won by major decision to give the team a 10-0 lead over #18 Nebraska (1/19) ... Dominated Wisconsin's Johnny Jimenez via 16-0 tech fall in NU's upset victory of the #16 Badgers (1/12) ... Defeated No. 15 Travis Piotrowski in the dual at Illinois (1/7) for his third ranked win of the season... Won 17 of his first 18 bouts... Placed third at Midlands (12/29-30), including two wins over ranked opponents ... Posted a major decision (15-2) over No. 19 Zeke Moisey (West Virginia) and shut out No. 7 Sean Russell (Edinboro), 6-0 ... Narrowly edged by No. 2 Nick Suriano (Rutgers), 7-6, the eventual champion of the open ... Had gotten off to a 14-0 start ... Ten of his first 14 wins were via fall, tech fall, or major decision.
2016-17: First year ... Competed unattached at 125 lbs ... Finished 14-4 on the year … Tied for the team lead with two wins by tech fall … Tied for fourth on the team with three wins by major decision … Beat defending MAC champion Barlow McGhee at the Duhawk Open … Finished 4th at the Midlands Championships, including a win over No. 17 Shakur Laney … Finished 2nd at the Michigan State Open (11/20) ... Finished 4th at the Eastern Michigan Open (11/5) ... Wrestling unattached for Northwestern during his freshman year.
High School: New Jersey state champion ... Two-time New Jersey state place-winner … Member of the All-Shore Team … Super 32 champion … Journeyman Classic champion … Has a 73-12 high school record … Ranked third at 113 lbs. by InterMat … Ranked fifth at 120 lbs. by FloWrestling … High school team is ranked top-20 in New Jersey … Member of Elite Wrestling for 13 years … Earned honors twice at his academy.
Personal: Son of Melissa and Steve Rivera … Dad was a Division III national champion at The College of New Jersey … Competed against current Northwestern wrestler Johnny Sebastian … Major is learning and organizational change.
2016-17 Match-by-Match Results
2019-20: Redshirt Junior ... Competed at 133 lbs ... Big Ten Champion ... NWCA All-American ... Picked up a commanding victory in his first win of the season by major decision over #15 Collin Gerardi of Virginia Tech (11/10) ... Recorded a win by major decision over Northern Iowa's Jack Skudlarczyk (11/17) ... Won in a 7-3 decision over #8 Cam Sykora of North Dakota State (11/24) ... Racked up four wins en route to taking fourth place, including a 13-3 victory by major decision over Ty Agaisse of Princeton and a 14-5 victory by major decision over Louie Hayes of Virginia at the Midlands Championships (12/30) ... Captured his second-consecutive Big Ten championship after defeating the No. 1 Seth Gross, Wisconsin in the semifinals and the No. 2 Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) in the finals ... Named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the Big Ten Championships, as voted on by the conference's coaches, joining Jake Herbert as the only other Wildcat wrestler to earn that honor ... Earned No. 1 seed at the 2020 NCAA Championships and was named an NWCA All-American, becoming just the eighth wrestler in Northwestern history to earn at least three All-American honors.
2018-19: Redshirt sophomore ... Competed at 125 lbs. ... Took third place at the NCAA Championships for a new career-best finish (3/21-3/23) ... Defeated #7 Vitali Arujau of Cornell in the quarterfinals and again in the third-place bout ... Won five of his six matches at the tournament, including the opener by technical fall ... Big Ten Champion at 125 lbs. (3/9-3/10) ... Won each of his first two matches by bonus points, including a major decision of #9 RayVon Foley, to book his spot in the final ... Faced off against Spencer Lee of Iowa in the championship bout for a rematch of the finals at Midlands ... Defeated Lee once again, this time with an overtime takedown to win via sudden victory ... Completed the regular season undefeated at 125 lbs. ... Compiled a 30-2 mark on the campaign ... Only regular season loss came to #1 Stevan Micic at 133 pounds when Rivera wrestled up a weight class in the dual meet at Michigan (2/10) ... Ranked #1 in the nation since early January ... Notched a victory by major decision in the opening bout against #6 Ohio State (2/3) ... Won by major decision in the dual match against #4 Iowa (1/27) ... Recorded a tech fall in the dual against #1 Penn State for his seventh of the season (1/11) ... Pinned #12 Zeke Moisey in the first period in the Big Ten opener at Nebraska (1/6) ... Went 5-0 at the Midlands Championships to win the title at his weight class (12/29-30) ... Won each of his first four matches by technical fall to reach the finals ... Defeated #1 Spencer Lee of Iowa in the title bout, taking him down three times and winning via 7-3 decision ... Won all five matches at the CKLV Invitational, including victories over #17 Drew Mattin (Michigan) and #3 Ronnie Bresser (Oregon State) (11/30-12/1) ... Ranked as high as #2 nationally in pre-season polls.
2017-18: Redshirt first-year ... Competed at 125 lbs ... All-American ... 40th Wildcat wrestler to become an All-American ... Became the first Northwestern All-American since 2015, when assistant coach Mike McMullan and Jason Tsirtsis earned the honors ... He is also the highest-seeded Wildcat (10th) to become an All-American since a 10th-seeded McMullan finished in third place in 2012 ... Wrestled at 125 lbs. ... Led the Wildcats with five technical falls and 12 major decisions ... Combined with Ryan Deakin (149) to notch 63 combined wins, the most for a rookie pair in NU history since Jack Griffin and Mike Funk combined for 70 wins in the 1986-87 season ... Placed sixth at the NCAA Championships (3/15-17) ... His run included wins over #13 Ryan Millhof (Arizona State), #14 Louie Hayes (Virginia), and #10 Ronnie Bresser (Oregon State) ... Racked up four wins at the Big Ten Championships en route to finishing fifth at 125 (3/3-3/4) ... Won by fall in his bout against Indiana to finish the dual season with a 12-2 mark (2/11) ... Beat #17 Luke Welch in dominant fashion with a 12-1 major decision in the win over #22 Purdue (2/9) ... Recorded his seventh major decision of the campaign with an 11-3 victory in Northwestern's win over #14 Minnesota (1/28) ... Won by major decision to give the team a 10-0 lead over #18 Nebraska (1/19) ... Dominated Wisconsin's Johnny Jimenez via 16-0 tech fall in NU's upset victory of the #16 Badgers (1/12) ... Defeated No. 15 Travis Piotrowski in the dual at Illinois (1/7) for his third ranked win of the season... Won 17 of his first 18 bouts... Placed third at Midlands (12/29-30), including two wins over ranked opponents ... Posted a major decision (15-2) over No. 19 Zeke Moisey (West Virginia) and shut out No. 7 Sean Russell (Edinboro), 6-0 ... Narrowly edged by No. 2 Nick Suriano (Rutgers), 7-6, the eventual champion of the open ... Had gotten off to a 14-0 start ... Ten of his first 14 wins were via fall, tech fall, or major decision.
2016-17: First year ... Competed unattached at 125 lbs ... Finished 14-4 on the year … Tied for the team lead with two wins by tech fall … Tied for fourth on the team with three wins by major decision … Beat defending MAC champion Barlow McGhee at the Duhawk Open … Finished 4th at the Midlands Championships, including a win over No. 17 Shakur Laney … Finished 2nd at the Michigan State Open (11/20) ... Finished 4th at the Eastern Michigan Open (11/5) ... Wrestling unattached for Northwestern during his freshman year.
High School: New Jersey state champion ... Two-time New Jersey state place-winner … Member of the All-Shore Team … Super 32 champion … Journeyman Classic champion … Has a 73-12 high school record … Ranked third at 113 lbs. by InterMat … Ranked fifth at 120 lbs. by FloWrestling … High school team is ranked top-20 in New Jersey … Member of Elite Wrestling for 13 years … Earned honors twice at his academy.
Personal: Son of Melissa and Steve Rivera … Dad was a Division III national champion at The College of New Jersey … Competed against current Northwestern wrestler Johnny Sebastian … Major is learning and organizational change.
| Season | Overall W-L | Dual Meet W-L | Big Ten W-L |
Dual Points For-Against | Big Ten Champs. | NCAA Champs |
Pins For-Against | Tech Falls For-Against | Major Dec. For-Against |
| 2016-17* | 14-4 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 2-0 | 3-0 | 3-0 |
| 2017-18 | 31-8 | 12-2 | 7-2 | 52-6 | 5th | 6th | 5-1 | 5-0 | 12-1 |
| 2018-19 | 30-2 | 12-1 | 8-1 | 59-3 | 1st | 3rd | 2-0 | 10-0 | 7-0 |
| 2019-20 | 12-2 | 5-0 | 1-0 | 23-0 | 1st | Qualified | 2-0 | 0-0 | 5-0 |
| Career | 73-12 | 29-3 | 16-3 | 134-9 | 1st | 3rd | 9-1 | 15-0 | 24-1 |
* Wrestling unattached
Wrestling - 'Cats Take Down Wisconsin, 27-11, on Senior Night (2/14/25)
Saturday, February 15
Wrestling - Seven 'Cats Claim Victory in 27-12 Win Over Michigan State (2/8/25)
Saturday, February 08
Wrestling - 'Cats Tame Mustangs, Take Down Cal Poly 29-14 (12/19/24)
Friday, December 20
Michael DeAugustino and Yahya Thomas Join 'Big Ten Wrestling & Beyond' (2/20/23)
Tuesday, February 21
