NCAA wrestling: Anthony Ashnault and Nick Suriano are national champions. Now they have to do this rare feat at Rutgers

They are the first NCAA National Champions at Rutgers University in all sports since 2003. Now, Anthony Ashnault and Nick Suriano will receive a rare honor in the traditions of Rutgers University.

A university spokesman told NJ Advance Media that Ashnault and Suriano would be allowed to ring the bell at Old Queens sometime this week as students return from spring break.

Located inside a tower atop the historic administrative building of the Rutgers campus in New Brunswick, at the mouth of College Avenue, the Old Queens Bell was a gift from Colonel Henry Rutgers in 1826. Before expanding beyond the Old Queens campus in the early twentieth century, the One rings every day to signal worship and class change.

But over the years, the ringtone has been set aside for such milestones as the inauguration of the new president of the university, the integration of Rutgers Medical School in 2014 and the 250 years of celebration of the school in 2016.

The bell was rung in honor of the AIAW national championship of the Rutgers women 's basketball team in 1982 and its appearances in the Final Four in 2000 and 2007. Rutgers football team in 1961 and 1976 also rang.

In March 1976, after the men's basketball team Rutgers won an undefeated regular season and only weeks before reaching NCAA Finals Four, the Old Queens bell rang 26 times, with each strike signaling a victory.

The last Rutgers athletes to ring the bells were members of the 2014 Rutgers Women's Basketball Team after winning the WNIT title. Coaches and players were all shooting.

Suriano became the first national champion in the history of the Rutgers fight on Saturday night, fighting for a 4-2 win in the second period of sudden victory against the Oklahoma State Daton Fix in the final. £ 133 NCAA championships in Pittsburgh.

Ashnault followed about half an hour later with his own national championship, recording a 9-4 win over Micah Jordan of the state of Ohio in the 149-pound bout.

Asked what it meant to be the first national champion in the history of the Rutgers fight, Suriano told ESPN in a post-match interview: "That's all I dreamed of .. I've thought of everyone behind the scenes right here, my coaches – they had my back, we did the story. "

Ashnault has echoed this sentiment during a post game interview on ESPN. "I'm just very happy to have this opportunity," he said, "I went there and did my best, and good things happen." Let's hear that for the Knights Scarlet. "

At exactly sixteen years of age, Rutgers has produced his latest NCAA champion.

On March 23, 2003, Alexis Jemal produced an 18-5 record, scoring 107 touchdowns and only 61 en route to win the women's saber fencing title at the NCAA Championships at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado .

A graduate of Westfield High, a graduate of Rutgers & Douglass College and also a Ph.D., Master of Social Work and JD from the State University, Jemal was a three-time American shooter. finished 33-2 a senior.

Prior to Jemal's triumph, the last Rutgers athlete to win an individual title in the NCAA was Elliott Quow, a native of Brooklyn. win gold in outdoor athletics.

The only other Rutgers athlete to win an NCAA title in the last 50 years is Tom Ulan, who won the 440-yard title in 48.8 seconds at the Athletics Indoor Championships in Detroit on March 12, 1971.

The last time Rutgers had two national champions in the same sport in the same season, it was in 1949, while Alex Treves (saber) and Ralph Tedeschi (foil) had won the title of the same season. fencing.

Keith Sargeant can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @KSargeantNJ. Find NJ.com Rutgers Football on Facebook.