PHILADELPHIA – CJ Composto was named the 2021-22 Amateur Wrestling News First-Team Rookie of the Year. Composto adds another Rookie of the Year honors to an already impressive rookie campaign. He was also named Rookie of the Year by the Ivy League and the EIWA. He became an All-American at the 2022 NCAA Championships as he placed eight at 141 pounds.

Composto competed extremely well all season long as he worked to earn a spot on the podium and All-America status at 141 pounds at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships earlier this month. Composto defeated #5 seed Andrew Alirez from Northern Colorado in the second round, and then beat three-time All American and Olympian Stephan Micic of Michigan in the blood round to secure All American placing.

Composto gained the finals of the prestigious Matman Open in Chicago in December, posting ranked wins of Parker Filius of Purdue and eventual All-American Cole Matthews of Pitt.  Composto went undefeated through January and March and gained the finals at the 118th EIWA championship before dropping a narrow 6-4 decision to Columbia's Matt Kazimir in the finals. He made his way through the competition to the title bout with victories over Drexel's Jared Donahue (TF 22-6, 6:35) in the round of 16, F&M's Wil Gill (6-3) in the quarterfinals, and Binghamton's Ryan Anderson (6-1) in the semifinals.

In his first season of competition, Composto made a huge impact in the starting lineup in 2021-22 as he went undefeated in dual meet action going 9-0 against EIWA competition and 5-0 against Ivy opponents. He ended the regular season ranked in seven different rankings. He was ranked by Amateur Wrestling News (#12), Intermat (#14), NCAA Coaches' Panel (#14), The Open Mat (#16), Wrestlestat (#18), Wrestling Insider Magazine (#18), and Flo-wresting (#20). He posted the one of the fastest falls on the team at :40.

Composto went 5-0 in Ivy action as a First Team All-Ivy honoree, as he defeated Columbia, Brown, Harvard, Cornell, and Princeton. With 37 team points for Penn on the season he leads the team in that category as he and Michael Colaiocco were the only starters to not yield any team points to their opponents. He was the seventh Quaker to earn Ivy Rookie of the Year honor and is the first since Kyle Cowan (2011) and Lorenzo Thomas (2012) won back-to-back Rookie of the Year honors.