By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — When his parents chose Gable Porter’s given name, they might well have foreshadowed his path as an athlete in wrestling-mad Iowa. It was a tribute to Dan Gable, one of the sport’s legendary figures, and the name proved fitting for Porter.
At Underwood High School, he won three state titles: at 106 pounds as a freshman and at 132 as a junior and senior. Porter placed second in the state at 132 as a sophomore.
Given all those accolades, and Porter’s roots in the Midwest, UVA head coach Steve Garland thought his top assistants, twins Trent and Travis Paulson, were wasting their time pursuing the young man from Council Bluffs, Iowa.
“There’s no way this kid’s coming to Virginia,” Garland recalled saying to the Paulson brothers. “He’s named after Dan Gable, and his dad loves the Iowa Hawkeyes.”
The Paulsons, though, had an in with Porter. They’d grown up in Council Bluffs, too, and their longtime coach, Keith Massey, had also worked with Porter.
“That’s a big connection there,” Porter said.
It didn’t hurt, either, that he’d be re-united at UVA with Nick Hamilton, with whom he’d wrestled for two years at Underwood.
“We've been family friends since I was little,” Porter said. “So it was nice to know somebody there, since it was so far away.”
Porter arrived on Grounds in the summer of 2023, a year after Hamilton enrolled. Wrestling unattached at 133 pounds in 2023-24, Porter posted a 10-5 record. Still at 133, he did not make the expected leap in 2024-25, when he finished 9-9. But now, as a redshirt sophomore competing at 141 pounds, Porter is showing why he was such a highly regarded recruit.
“To see him grow physically, but then also technically and in the way he competes, has just been awesome,” Garland said. “He's been definitely one of the rocks of the team this year.”
Gable Porter is your ACC Wrestler of the Week!#GoHoos | #TheVirginiaWay pic.twitter.com/raxTg1pjwX
— Virginia Wrestling (@UVAWrestling) January 13, 2026
Heading into UVA’s dual meet with No. 7 Virginia Tech at John Paul Jones Arena, Porter is 18-6. Twice this season he’s been named ACC Wrestler of the Week.
“I think I'm definitely a lot better this year,” Porter said. “I've finally started to put things together, multiple attacks, and just finally started to figure out college wrestling.”
As a freshman, Porter “won some big matches for us when we had to throw him in, when guys were hurt,” Garland said. “I remember taking him to the Appalachian State Open, and he took a nationally ranked guy right to the brink. But last year was really up and down, to be honest. He’d have a really good weekend, and then he’d have a head-scratcher.
“The biggest thing for him was learning a lot of technique. He's always been tough. Came out of the womb tough. He works his tail off. He'll do everything you ask him to do, but he really was making the same mistakes over and over again. It was like a robot. In our world, you’ve got be able to adapt. In wrestling, we call them action items, and you have to be able to be able to fix these things. You can't just keep making the same mistakes. So this year, what's been so amazing is to see him put those things together in real competition. Instead of losing close matches, and he’s always been right there, he's knocking off guys now.”
Porter said adjusting to wrestling on top and on bottom “on the college level is a huge deal. It makes or breaks big matches. So getting comfortable with top and bottom was huge. And then finally starting to open up my offense and use all my weapons has really helped.”