Ceron Francisco was an Assistant Coach for the NDSU Wrestling program for two season, joining the Bison in August of 2023 and remaining with the program until May of 2025. Francisco was elevated to a full-time role in June of 2024 after his first season with the Bison.
Francisco worked primarily with the upperweights, but aided in the development of All-American Gavin Drexler in 2025, as well as blood round appearances for Gaven Sax in 2024 and Aidan Brenot in 2025.
Francisco came to NDSU after wrapping up his freestyle wrestling career with the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club at Penn State. As a collegiate athlete, Francisco was a two-time All-American at Concordia (Neb.) University, graduating in 2017.
As a Bulldog, Francisco was the 2017 NAIA heavyweight national runner-up and 2017 GPAC Wrestler of the Year. He won two GPAC titles, qualified for nationals three times and had a career record of 100-52. Francisco played a starring role in three GPAC championship seasons at Concordia.
Following his collegiate career, the Fayetteville, N.C. native wrestled a pair of freestyle seasons for the Cavalier Wrestling Club at the University of Virginia. Following his time in Charlottesville, Francisco moved back to Nebraska in 2019 and coached at Doane University under his former head coach at Concordia, Dana Vote. During his time at Doane, Francisco helped coach Baterdene Boldmaa to a NAIA national championship.
Francisco returned to the mat as a wrestler in 2020, heading to Minneapolis where he wrestled for the Gopher Wrestling Club at the University of Minnesota. He spent one season with the Gophers before heading to Happy Valley and the Nittany Lion Wrestling Club in 2021. During his time at Penn State, Francisco has wrestled in several key international events as part of the UWW Ranking Series which included events in Croatia and Bulgaria.
Francisco graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Special Education from Concordia (Neb.) University in 2017.
