Real Woods

Real Marshall Ray Woods (born 1999) is an American freestyle and folkstyle wrestler who competes at 65 kilograms. In freestyle, he qualified to represent the United States at the 2025 World Championships.^[1]

In folkstyle, Woods was a three-time NCAA Division I All-American, twice for the Iowa Hawkeyes and once for the Stanford Cardinal.^[2]

Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Woods moved to Shungnak, Alaska early in his life, where he started wrestling at age seven.^[3] He then moved to Lombard, Illinois so he could attend Montini Catholic High School, mainly due to their wrestling program.^[4]

Woods was a three-time IHSA state champion and a four-time finalist, and was highly ranked in the nation when he committed to wrestle at Stanford University in 2017, before graduating in 2018.^[5]

After a 19–1 season while wearing a redshirt in 2018–2019 at 141 pounds, Woods became a NCAA qualifier and Pac-12 champion as a redshirt freshman in 2019–2020, posting once again a 19–1 record before the NCAA tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[6]

As a sophomore, Woods only competed in the post-season, placing second at the Pac-12 Championships and going 2–2 at the 2021 NCAA tournament, finishing 6–3 on the year. In 2021–2022, he claimed his second Pac-12 title and became an NCAA Division I All-American with a sixth place finish at the 2022 NCAA tournament, closing out 17–4.^[7]

After earning a degree from Stanford University, Woods decided to transfer to the University of Iowa for his remaining two years of eligibility.^[8]

For his junior year, Woods claimed the Big Ten Conference title and made it to the finals of the NCAA tournament, placing second and closing out the year with a 20–1 record.^[9]

After folkstyle season, Woods made his senior level freestyle debut, placing second and going 2–1 at Italy's Sassari City Matteo Pellicone Memorial that took place in June.^[10]

For his final season, Woods placed third at the Big Ten Championships, and claimed All-American status for the third time with a fourth place finish at the NCAA tournament, closing out the year with a 23–5 record and his career with a 104–15 record.^[11]

In August 2024, Woods announced he would move to Michigan to join the Cliff Keen Wrestling Club and pursue freestyle accomplishments.^[12]

Woods took the freestyle mat for the second time in his senior level career at the Muhamet Malo Tournament in February.^[13] After three dominant wins over foreign opposition, including Bulgaria's European finalist Mikyay Naim, he was stopped by Iran's World champion Rahman Amouzad in the semifinals, which pulled him into a bronze medal match where he defeated Japan's Kaiji Ogino.^[14]

Competing domestically for the first time, Woods placed fourth at the US Open National Championships in April, racking up five victories though falling to Aden Valencia twice.^[15]

Woods avenged his losses to Valencia in the first round of May's US World Team Trials Challenge tournament, where he claimed first place after three victories, including one over two-time NCAA champion Jesse Mendez. This set him up for a best-of-three series at Final X against US Open champion Joseph McKenna to decide the fate of the US World Team spot.^[15]

In June, after two straight victories over McKenna, Woods became the US World Team member at 65 kilograms, and will represent the United States at the World Championships later in the year.^[16]