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5-Foot-5 NCAA Champion Wrestler Lucas Byrd And 6’2 Volleyball Player Girlfriend Ellie Holzman Clarify Relationship Status

#NCAA Wrestling
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A collage featuring Illinois women's volleyball player Ellie Holzman and her now husband Lucas Byrd, who won an NCAA wrestling championship for the Fighting Illini in 2025.

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports / Eric Hartline-Imagn Images

A collage featuring Illinois women's volleyball player Ellie Holzman and her now-husband, Lucas Byrd, who won an NCAA wrestling championship for the Fighting Illini in 2025.


True love knows no bounds, especially not for former University of Illinois star athletes Lucas Byrd and Ellie Holzman, who went viral for their dramatic height difference after Byrd won an NCAA wrestling championship at 133 pounds in 2025.

Byrd, who stands at 5’5, and Holzman, a former volleyball player for the Fighting Illini who is 6’2, are now lighting up the internet again after their recent engagement.

The pair, which has over 570,000 followers on their TikTok page, first announced their engagement back in June and again went viral on social media after a post on X claimed that they had gotten married.

However, it turns out that the X post announcing their marriage was a hoax! The couple sadly took to their TikTok page on Tuesday night and explained that they have not wed, despite the story even running during a late-night Fox News segment, which they took exception to.

Not only that, but Holzman and Byrd went into detail about why the Fox segment was derogatory, noting that it called their relationship “weird,” and then proclaimed that Holzman is the one who looks like the wrestler while Byrd is “vertically challenged,” which is pretty lame!

@ellie_and_lucas

@Fox News really creative segment here!!! Thanks!!!

♬ original sound – Ellie & Lucas

The good news is that the couple is, in fact, still engaged. But we’re still waiting on a wedding.

Ellie Holzman And Lucas Byrd’s Relationship Has A Great Backstory

Byrd and Holzman previously sat down with the Big Ten Network for an episode of “Beyond the Mat” to discuss both their relationship and social media stardom.

Holzman wasn’t always sold on the idea of the pair as a couple. But pretty soon it became undeniable.

“I tried to keep it as a hard friendship because I never really let myself see anything past that because I’m like ‘ugh, he’s shorter than me. I’m never gonna date him,’” Holzman said. “I posted a video about us and I was like ‘there was a time where I was ignoring these rumors that my best friend was in love with me because I couldn’t get over the height difference.’ But then once I got over it, it flourished into this kind of beautiful thing.”

And what a beautiful thing it is! Surprisingly, social media was actually overwhelmingly positive about the news for once. However, they’ll have to wait for an actual wedding.

Congratulations to Lucas and Ellie, who are seemingly the world’s most celebrated couple!