After a third place finish in a national tournament, senior Josh Holforty can be happy and proud of his wrestling career.

“It was more than I could’ve imagined,” Holforty said. “It was the perfect way to end my wrestling career. It was incredible.”

Holforty took third place on Saturday in the 197 pound weight class at the NCAA Championships at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Holforty was impressed with how he wrestled, saying it was one of the best tournaments of the year, if not his whole college career.Coach Don Parker was proud to see Holforty go out on top.

“What he did was pretty spectacular, going in there unseeded,” Parker said. “He did a tremendous job. It was a good way to end up.”

Holforty wrestled against the No. 1 seed in his first match, which was a pretty big surprise for him.

“I beat him and that was a huge upset,” Holforty said. “Losing in my second match was a huge surprise. There were some ups and downs and definitely some surprises in there.”

He lost to a wrestler from UW-La Crosse but later beat him, which vaulted Holforty to third.

Holforty said he was pretty calm last year at nationals but was a little nervous this year.

“I felt a little more nervous than usual but when it actually came to match time, I felt more focused than ever before,” he said.

About 10 or 12 of Holforty’s friends, family members and his coach went to show their support for him.

“Having them there, having their support, it just made it that much sweeter to have them experience that with me,” he said.

This wasn’t only the end of Holforty’s career as a wrestler but also the end of Parker’s coaching career. Parker said it was tough knowing it was the last time he would coach and the last time he would coach Holforty.

“That was real emotional afterwards,” Parker said. “It’s hard to have been involved in something 50 years, basically your whole life, and it’s going to be difficult.”

Parker was extremely pleased with Holforty’s performance, saying he was in the best shape he’s probably ever been in.

“He ran them into the ground,” Parker said. “They basically had to crawl off the mat when it was all over.”

Holforty had been used to playing fresh guys time after time during practices and this is what helped get him the success he saw.

Aside from physical training, Holforty said there’s one other thing that helped him get on the mat and do his best.

“My relationship with Christ is the most important thing in my life and to feel his life and his peace,” Holforty said. “Before I wrestled I felt his presence. It’s so easy to play mind games and to be really nervous and to let things get out of hand but I just felt his peace and was able to wrestle for him.”

While this was Holforty’s last time competing as a wrestler, he has plans to continue wrestling. He was offered the assistant coaching position at St. Cloud State University (Minn.). Holforty still doesn’t know how to feel about being done competing though.

“I’ve been having a really tough time finding words to describe it,” he said. “It’s just the way you want it to happen, you want to finish wrestling your very best. And I feel like that’s what I did. I wrestled my best. It felt incredible to finish off that way.”