Staff Directory

SIOUX FALLS, SD - NOVEMBER 11: xxxxxxxxxx (Photo by Dave Eggen/Inertia)

Cody Caldwell

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:

Cody Caldwell began his duties as an assistant wrestling coach at South Dakota State in September 2017 and continues in that role under head coach Damion Hahn heading into the 2025-26 campaign.

During his first season with the Jackrabbits, a program-best seven wrestlers qualified for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. Three SDSU wrestlers — Seth Gross (133), Luke Zilverberg (157) and David Kocer (174) — earned All-America honors, with Gross winning an individual national title.

Also during the 2017-18 season, the Jackrabbits posted a 14-2 dual record, including an 8-0 mark against Big 12 Conference opponents. SDSU finished third at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship with Gross and Nate Rotert (197) winning individual titles.

After a rebuilding year in Hahn's initial season with the Jackrabbits, SDSU rebounded during the 2019-20 campaign with a 12-6 dual record that included a 5-3 mark versus Big 12 foes. The Jackrabbits recorded dual wins against nationally ranked Northern Iowa and Stanford before notching a fourth-place finish at the Big 12 Wrestling Championship. SDSU qualified four wrestlers for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships out the Big 12 tournament and had another selected as an alternate before the postseason event was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Three of SDSU's 2020 national qualifiers — 149-pounder Henry Pohlmeyer, 184-pounder Zach Carlson and 197-pounder Tanner Sloan — were later honored as second-team All-Americans by the National Wrestling Coaches Association.

Sloan has gone on to qualify for nationals four more times (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024) alongside Cade DeVos , who has qualified five times (2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2025-25), while Clay Carlson is a two-time NCAA qualifier. Carlson earned All-America honors with an eighth-place finish in the 141-pound weight class in 2021.

In all, Caldwell has helped mentor 54 NCAA qualifiers and 14 All-Americans during his time in Brookings. The Jackrabbits also have compiled an 86-40 dual record.

A member of a wrestling-rich family, Caldwell spent the 2016-17 season as a graduate assistant coach at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, which won its sixth consecutive NAIA national title. He helped mentor 12 All-Americans, including five individual national champions as the Vikings set a team scoring record.

In addition, Caldwell served as a coach for the Viking Wrestling Club, which trained junior and senior wrestlers for high-level competitions, including the U.S. Open, World Team Trials and the Dave Schultz Memorial International.

As a collegiate wrestler, Caldwell was a four-year starter and team captain at the University of Northern Iowa. The Waverly, Iowa, native qualified for the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in 2014 at 174 pounds.