In pursuit of a long-awaited NCAA championship, DJ Washington felt off, experiencing persistent stomach pains throughout the day. It wasn’t until the Indiana graduate student wrestler found himself urinating blood in a Philadelphia hotel bathroom that Washington sought help and landed in the emergency room.
It was his last chance to secure a spot on the podium of the NCAA Championships, yet on the night of March 20, just after the first day of the NCAA championships, it seemed unlikely whether he’d pull it off.
“I feel like working for a goal for six years, sometimes it just feels like you were never gonna make it,” Washington said.
Washington’s journey to this monumental opportunity started when he began his wrestling career at 7-years-old. From the moment he stepped onto the mat, Washington’s path seemed destined for success. Even at such a young age, Washington knew that he was a competitor after winning a youth state title at 8-years-old.
“I like the feeling of winning. I like the feeling of catching up and beating people that I couldn’t beat before,” Washington said.
Washington's father instilled a growth mindset, teaching him that setbacks were temporary and with hard work, they could defeat opponents who once seemed unbeatable. This philosophy became increasingly useful as his career progressed.
After a standout career in the youth wrestling circuit and two years of wrestling at Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, Illinois, Washington made the move to Portage, Indiana, for his junior year. The encouragement of current Hoosier wrestler graduate student Jacob Moran helped influence that decision.
“My boy Jake was telling me about how well they are doing out at Portage and getting college ready for wrestling,” Washington said. “They had a few coaches who wrestled at the college level, so they knew what they were doing.”
After a solid fifth place finish at the Indiana state tournament his junior year of high school, Washington dominated competition in offseason tournaments, wrestling in national contests around the country with a style that caught the eye of wrestling fans: offensive and explosive. For his senior year, he was a heavy favorite to win an Indiana state title.
Washington blitzed through the 160 lbs. weight class in the state championships his senior year, winning all four matches including a pin in just under a minute against future Hoosier and two-time state champion Gabe Sollars. All that came to a grinding halt in his final high school match when he gave up a 12-7 decision to Cathedral High School senior Jordan Slivka in the finals. Slivka went on to wrestle at Ohio University.
“How can I say it?” Washington said. “It was like one of those things that hurt so bad, like you just don’t want to do it again.”
While the loss to Slivka stung, it became fuel for his college career at Indiana. It was here, under the guidance of head coach Angel Escobedo, that Washington would find the environment he needed to develop not just as a wrestler, but as a person.
“I saw IU as the best plan for me to do academics and wrestling,” Washington said. “Our coaching staff, I was able to familiarize myself with them, and they felt like family and home.”
Washington kicked off his first official season in 2020 with a statement win. Wrestling at 174 lbs., he defeated Penn State’s No. 5 Carter Starocci. At the time, both were just redshirt freshmen, but Starocci would go on to suffer just one more loss in his college career and become the only wrestler to win five NCAA division one wrestling titles.
As for Washington, the win propelled him into the upper echelons of the national rankings, and he enjoyed a breakout season. He entered the 2021 NCAA Championships as the No. 9 seed but ultimately fell short of All-American status.
Washington went on to qualify for the NCAA tournament three more times, becoming just the ninth ever Hoosier wrestler to qualify for four NCAA championships. He qualified by placements at the Big Ten Championships and once by securing college wrestling’s wild card via an at-large bid. Plagued by injuries and unable to wrestle to his fullest potential, he made a weight change for his final collegiate year.
Washington began by bumping up into what many considered the toughest weight class in division one wrestling. The field of 184 lbs. wrestlers included titans of the sport — Starocci, reigning national champion and University of Northern Iowa redshirt senior Parker Keckeisen and a myriad of other All-American's.
Even with a stacked weight class, Washington was undeterred. He and Coach Escobedo knew that to perform at his best, staying injury-free was crucial — a goal made difficult by the strain of a tough weight cut.
“One thing about Angel is that he’s never afraid of competition,” Washington said. “So we never even thought about like ‘oh, this guy is coming down to 184, this guy is going up to 184.’”.
Washington had a solid campaign and felt good about his return to 184 lbs., collecting ranked wins along the way. Adjusting to the new weight class, he relied heavily on proper nutrition and weightlifting to support his performance.
“If anything, I feel like going up a weight class was harder than cutting the weight,” said Washington. “It’s hard to put on weight and put on muscle. It’s a different type of grind than actually just losing weight.”
Finally starting to hit his stride at the Big Ten Championships, Washington ran with momentum into his final NCAA Championships.
The first morning of the competition on March 20, Washington began to experience stomach pains while warming up, which persisted throughout the day.
Washington dropped a close 4-1 decision in the first round and had the tall task of wrestling back in the consolation bracket to achieve an All-American finish. He had to win four straight matches against the best college wrestlers the sport has to offer. Not only that, but Washington’s stomach pains continued.
“It really wasn’t going away, and it was just getting worse and it's getting worse,” Washington said. “But I ended the first day without really telling the coaches anything.”
Initially, Washington told himself to tough it out and that he would be fine but realized he had a problem when he was urinating blood in the hotel that night. That’s when he texted Indiana staff about the issue and by midnight, Washington was in the emergency room.
It was there that hospital staff diagnosed him with the early stages of Rhabdomyolysis or “Rhabdo” — a serious condition brought on by dehydration that could lead to potential kidney failure. Rhabdo can be potentially life threatening. Washington ended up staying in the emergency room until about 4:30 a.m. with an early day of wrestling ahead. With little to no sleep, Washington awoke the following morning to lose his last half pound before weigh-ins at 10:00 a.m.
Despite being on medication for a torn MCL, which contributed to his condition, Washington decided to continue. Notably, he refused an IV in the emergency room to rehydrate him because it would’ve added around five pounds of additional weight to lose the following morning.
“Maybe I wrestle better off of no sleep than I wrestle with a good night's rest,” Washington said jokingly. “I was feeling really good.”
Despite exhaustion, injury and anxiety, Washington had to punch through two returning All-American's in South Dakota State's No. 5 seed redshirt sophomore Bennett Berge and Illinois No. 10 seed redshirt senior Edmond Ruth.
First, Washington shutout Berge with a 12-0 major decision.
“Once I finally opened up and got to my bread and butter, which is that double to the body lock, I was like ‘yeah, let's do it,’” Washington said.
After his match with Berge one match remained to determine if Washington would leave Philadelphia as an All-American or empty handed, he began to feel the pressure of the moment. Assistant coach Riley Lefever was there to help him refocus.
“(Lefever) was just saying ‘being nervous is a good thing, that means you're ready to go,’” Washington said. “And secondly, he’s just happy I’m even able to be in the position to go out there and compete.”
When Washington stepped onto the mat against Ruth, the stakes were higher than ever. Having lost to Ruth in two previous encounters, the pressure was mounting. But this time, something was different.
“I’m just like, ‘it’s not happening,’ you know?” Washington said. “I’m not going out this way again. I don’t wanna feel like I just came up short and that's the story of my career. I wasn’t gonna let it happen for the last time.”
After learning from his losses earlier in the year, Washington was prepared for a tactful approach. He scored early and forced Ruth to chase him for the remainder of the match.
“He doesn’t shoot, and he doesn’t come after you if he doesn’t have to,” Washington said. “I knew he’ll have to come after me and it was just gonna open up one of my re-attacks so I just kind of stayed patient.”
Washington executed the plan to perfection scoring on a re-attack in the second period going up 7-1 into the third with over a minute of riding time. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Washington shouted in excitement and rushed to the corner to his coaches embrace.
Washington walked off the mat for the last time as a student-athlete March 22 at the 2025 NCAA Championships. He had just completed a nearly six-year long journey with the Hoosiers. After years of uncertainty, he became the first wrestler to achieve All-American status since 2017.
A wave of relief passed through him when he finally accomplished the historical feat.
With that victory, Washington secured an eighth-place finish and ascended onto the podium for the first time in his career and in his very last collegiate competition.
Following this accomplishment, Washington recovered from the Rhabdo scare and returned to Bloomington. He has thoughts about helping the next generation chase greatness just as he has.
“I think I might pivot into coaching,” Washington said. “I have two little brothers that are on the high school level trying to get ready for college.”
Who better to teach them than DJ Washington — an All-American and an Indiana wrestling legend.
