Hunter Jump was ready to put wrestling behind him and move on with his life after the 2025 NCAA Division II national tournament.
A third-place All-American for Central Oklahoma in 2024, Jump had a disappointing performance in last year’s event and was finished with the sport he started as a three-year-old. Ready to walk away, even though he could earn another season of eligibility with a retroactive medical hardship.
“Honestly I was done,” Jump said. “I wasn’t coming back. I was just working, just trying to figure out a new life. Coach (Todd) Steidley would call me probably once a week to ask if I was coming back and I would always tell him no.
“My dad (Robert) wanted me to come back too. He was hounding me and I just kept telling him ‘No, no, no, I’m not coming back. I’m not doing it. I’m hanging it up.’”
Jump was working for his dad’s tree trimming business in Duncan when a group of what were then former UCO teammates staged an intervention of sorts during a summer gathering.
“In July, I came to Edmond to sign the papers on the house a few of us had to take my name off the lease,” Jump said. “We had a little get-together with probably 10 or 12 wrestlers and they kept hounding me and hounding me and hounding me to come back.
“Finally, I got tired of it and just said ‘Let’s do it then.’ I called my dad the next morning to tell him and then called Coach Steidley and told him. Once I finally decided, it was full throttle getting ready to make the most of it.”
The medical hardship was secured and Jump got back to the business of getting his body ready for the rigors of another season. Back to running and lifting and wrestling. Back to getting prepared for one final run at a national championship.
And Jump has taken full advantage of his return to the mat.
He moved up to 174 pounds this season after spending his entire career at 165 and has flourished in helping lead No. 2-ranked UCO to another stellar season. Jump is 22-4 with 13 bonus-point wins, captured his third straight regional title March 1 in Edmond and earned the No. 1 seed for this week’s Division II national tournament in Sioux Falls, S.D.
“I made a great decision,” said Jump of opting to return to UCO. “It was kind of like I knew I should do it (come back), and I just kept saying no. Ten years from now I’ll look back on it and still think that I should have come back.”
It’s been a long arduous journey for Jump, who was a state champion and two-time runner-up at Lawton MacArthur High School before moving to Duncan as a senior and claiming another state title.
Jump wasn’t heavily recruited despite his outstanding prep success – he finished with a 158-13 career record – and signed with UCO, arriving in Edmond in 2019.
He competed in a few open tournaments while redshirting in 2019-20, then hit a snag the following fall.
“I was struggling with my grades and quit school,” Jump said. “I went home and worked for my dad. I was actually up in a bucket truck cutting trees when I felt my phone vibrate and it was Coach Steidley.
“He told me my scholarship was still there if I came back to school, so I went back in the spring.”
The NCAA ended up not counting the 2020-21 season because of the COVID pandemic and Jump broke into the starting lineup at 165 the following year. He went 22-7 but just missed qualifying for nationals with a fourth-place regional finish.
Hunter was set to make a breakthrough in 2022-23 and instead it was a break that set him back once again.
He wrestled in the first dual and was competing in an early-season open tournament when a gruesome collarbone injury sent him to the sidelines.
“I split it straight in half,” said Jump of the injury that ended up resulting in the medical hardship that got him an extra season. “It took seven screws and a plate to fix me up. I might be hurting in 20 years.”
There was no drama in 2023-24 as Jump produced a banner season in helping the Bronchos capture their second straight team title. He went 25-8 and finished with a flourish, winning the regional crown and taking third at nationals.
An up-and-down campaign followed in 2024-25. Hunter finished 17-7 and won a second straight regional title before going 0-2 at the national tournament.
“I had a good regional tournament, but I went to nationals thinking everyone was going to let me place,” said Jump, who has 89 career wins at UCO and a degree in general studies. “I took third the year before so I can only get third or better is what I was thinking. I didn’t go in with the right attitude.”
Then came the decision to walk away. And then come back – again.
“I have no regrets,” Jump said of a career filled with peaks and valleys. “A lot has happened, but here I am.”
He Quit Wrestling to Cut Trees. Now He Is the No. 1 Seed in the Nation
