The College of New Jersey said Hunter Mays will lose the Division III national wrestling championship he won in March after an NCAA policy violation made him ineligible. The school said the title will be vacated under NCAA procedures, stripping a championship from one of its top wrestlers.
The decision landed this week, turning a spring title into a vacant line in the record book and raising the possibility of more sanctions to come. Mays, who won at 174 pounds after finishing fifth as a junior, had also been named the Region III Most Outstanding Wrestler and was a two-time NWCA Scholar All-American for TCNJ.
Mays’ path to the title had already run through three colleges and a fast rise in Division III. He began his college career at Division I Rider in 2022, where he was a starter at 165 pounds as a true freshman. He later transferred to Lehigh for the 2023-24 season but was not a regular in the starting lineup there before landing at TCNJ last season and wrestling there for two years.
TCNJ said it accepts the NCAA’s findings and any additional sanctions that may still be handed down, but the school did not say what violation caused Mays to be ruled ineligible. That omission leaves the central question unanswered even as the punishment has already been set in motion: the championship is gone, but the reason for the loss has not been made public.
Mays was no stranger to winning before arriving in college. He captured his first state title for Howell at 160 pounds in 2021 as a junior, then won again as a senior at 165 pounds and finished with a 40-1 record. His two seasons at Howell were his only seasons in New Jersey, after he transferred in from Pennsylvania before his junior year.
In a statement, the school said it remains committed to fair competition, accountability and NCAA standards, while also saying the actions of one athlete do not diminish the accomplishments of the program’s other student-athletes or coaches. For TCNJ, the larger consequence is not just the loss of a title but the uncertainty of what else the NCAA may add next.
