Wrestling 2025-26

[ugarte]

The season started this past weekend, so I may as well blend the results with a bit of a season preview, such as it is. This is going to be a bit of a punt season, with an incredible freshman class coming in next season, one of our best starters out with a medical redshirt and a few of our starters taking off the fall semester. That said, we still have a few potential All-Americans in the current lineup and a couple more coming back for the Spring.

125: 2025 will begin with Marcello Milani as the starter. He stepped up last season when Greg Diakomihalis got hurt and Brett Ungar could no longer make the cut to 125. His reward was a clutch performance in the Ivy tournament, an autobid to NCAA and a win in the pigtail match between the 32/33 seeds. He comes into this season as the starter for the fall semester, but Greg D. is expected to take back the role in the spring. If Milani can hold him off that will be very impressive; he also needs it to happen because next season top recruit Anthony Knox comes off his greyshirt season and is expected to step into the lineup as an All American out of the gate.

At Clarion:

Cornell: At the season-opening Clarion Open, Milani had an excellent start, beating Kilkeary (a former top recruit now caught in an embarrassment of riches at 125 for tOSU) straight up and a narrow 1-0 loss to a 2x NCAA qualifier, the starter for Ohio State.

SCRTC: The aforementioned Knox dominated most of his opponents but did lose to exchanged takedowns with tOSU's Bouzakis but the real problem was (1) throwing away an early escape point by firing off a shot before he had achieved separation at the end of the first period and (2) giving up a clean reversal. Bouzakis had over a minute of RT in the first and Knox really needed the escape. He's very talented but green and will have to learn to respect the skill level at the top of D1. Bouzakis is ALSO at tOSU, apparently dropping down from 125 to avoid Davino (see 133) and a 2x champ at 141.

133: Returning National Qualifier Tyler Ferrara and 2x NQ at 125 Brett Ungar will fight for the spot in the starting lineup. Last year, Ungar was too big for 125 but not yet strong enough to compete at 133. In the abstract, if Ungar can get his strength up after a year of training for it, he's probably who would get the role on paper. The heir apparent, though, is coming next year as well.

At Clarion:
Cornell: Ferrara went 4-1, but with no wins of note. He lost 10-3 in the final to Ben Davino, a potential AA from Ohio State. Ungar didn't compete.

SCRTC: The heir apparent, Isaiah Cortez, lost to Davino as well, but in a match that went to SV. Great result.

141: Joshua Saunders, last years NQ, is the likely starter for at least the first semester. In the spring, Vince Cornella - the starter and NQ in 2023 - returns to the lineup after an injury riddled '23-'24 season and a year to recover. The tournament time starter remains to be seen, but my money is on Cornella if he can stay healthy.

At Clarion:

SCRTC: Isaiah's twin brother Elijah Cortez had no problem with the field. MD over a Penn State RSFR (Herring), tech over a tOSU backup, fall over a second year starter at SIUE and a pair of wins over other D1 starters.

Cornell didn't send Saunders or Cornella so only a glimpse of the future, not the present.

149: Another wrestler who is taking the fall off, 2x NQ Ethan Fernandez, is going to have a hard time breaking back into the lineup. Freshman Jaxon Joy, coming off a great greyshirt season, is a heavy favorite to keep the starting role even when Fernandez returns. A shame for Fernandez, who would definitely be an NQ again, though he lacks Joy's AA potential.

At Clarion:
Cornell: Jaxon Joy blitzed the field until running into a high school phenom Bassett, a two-time age group world medalist, who will arrive at VT next year as a title contender. In the QF, though, he pinned a returning AA. Clean TD right to a cradle. Great start to his college career.

157: Another deferral, this time 2x AA Meyer Shapiro is trying to maximize his health since he's had a number of concussions in his first two college seasons. He didn't compete internationally this year, after winning age group world titles in 2021 and 2023. In the meantime, Benny Rogers will probably start in his place. Nate Wade didn't compete at Clarion but he is a possible fill-in as well.

At Clarion:
Cornell: Benny Rogers didn't beat anyone of note but lost a close match against another high school phenom. Even that was a pleasant surprise.

165: Freshman Louie Cerchio is the uncontested starter. He is coming off a pretty good greyshirt year. Too early to tell what his potential is but I suspect the floor is NQ.

At Clarion:

Cornell: Cerchio lost in the final to AA contender Paddy Gallagher in a one TD match.

SCRTC: Alessio Perentin, who will arrive next year, also was within a takedown of Gallagher, losing in the semis. Like Cerchio, Gallagher was his only loss.

Between the two, Cerchio's run through the bracket was far more dominant but that competition is a question to be resolved next year.

174: Returning AA Simon Ruiz has this spot on lock. He didn't go to Clarion but he did wrestle 3x NQ and AA contender Lenny Pinto in an All-star exhibition over the weekend, beating him for the third straight time. He's likely to AA again.

184: With Mikey Dellagatta out for the season with an injury, senior Christian Hansen gets his first opportunity in a starting role. He's a gamer so I'm hoping for the best. I don't know how the Ivy stacks up at 184 - it would be cool if he got to go to NCAAs if the conference is weak.

At Clarion:

Damning with faint praise, I suppose, but Hansen had a respectably close loss to 2x R12 Fishback.

197: A hole in the lineup this year with our starter-in-waiting greyshirting. Probable starter Aiden Hanning doesn't have anything in his record to suggest he'll have much success but a couple of key wins would look nice. He skipped Clarion but the backups didn't do anything there to suggest I need to write about them.

At Clarion:

SCRTC: Jude Correa, next year's likely starter, had 4 pins and a single close loss to the probable Ohio State starter.

Hwt: Ashton Davis, last year's starter and NQ, is back. With a very good heavy joining the program next year, he's going to have a lot more competition for the spot. Likely NQ again. 

At Clarion:

Cornell: Ashton Davis dropped a close match to a wrestler from Bellarmine. The loss looks bad on paper but it belies his performance. He was in on multiple shots and while he needs to finish his good shots better than he did, I don't have a lot of doubt that he'd win a rematch. In any event, he clearly separated himself from Henderson as the starter by beating him handily in the 5th place match.

SCRTC: Rocco Dellagatta, on the other hand, looked very good. His only lost was a narrow one to an AA contender from Ohio State.

Shapiro and Ruiz are likely AA. Joy is a strong possibility, as is a healthy Cornella. If Greg D. can stay healthy and if Ungar grew into the weight I can see them on the podium as well.

For next year, though, Knox, the Cortez brothers, Perentin, Correa and the Dellagatta brothers in the lineup look great in a year when we aren't losing many guys to graduation. But that's a preview for 12 months from now.

[scoop85]

Thanks as always for your informative summary. If Shapiro is fully healthy, do you think he can win it all or is AA now his ceiling?

[ugarte]

Thanks as always for your informative summary. If Shapiro is fully healthy, do you think he can win it all or is AA now his ceiling?

he can absolutely win it all. he has to stop bouncing his head off of the mat in funky positions.

[ugarte]

Here are the first rankings after the start of actual wrestling (references in the notes to moving up or down are relative to preseason rankings, which I forgot to post here). I'm not including the guys taking Fall sabbaticals in the chart until they start wrestling. That means no lines for Greg D., Cornella, Fernandez and Shapiro. That way the chart reflects the guys actually wrestling for us. To the extent that those guys stay in some rankings, I'll put it in the notes below. Ungar and Ferrara, on the other hand, are both rostered right now, as far as I can tell. I'll keep them both in the chart.

Code Select Expand

                Flo WIN IM TOM AWN BEG WSt SHP CR   RPI
125: Milani 24 -- 26 NR xx -- 33 -- --   --
133: Ferrara xx -- 24 NR NR -- 18 -- --   --
133: Ungar 23 -- xx NR NR -- 28 -- --   --
141: Saunders xx -- xx NR xx -- 28 -- --   --
149: Joy 10 -- 7 12 15 --   3 -- --   --
157: Rogers xx -- NR NR xx -- 56 -- --   --
165: Cerchio NR -- 26 NR NR -- 63 -- --   --
174: Ruiz 3 -- 3 3 4 --   6 -- --   --
184: Hansen  NR -- NR NR NR -- 48 -- --   --
197: Hanning NR -- NR NR NR -- 43 -- --   -- 
285: Davis 33 -- 29 NR NR -- 25 -- --   --
TEAM NCAA: 13 -- 18 14 -- --   6 -- --   --
TEAM DUAL:      -- -- 13 14 -- -- 14 -- --   --

Flo ranks to 33. Joy jumps six spots. Cerchio falls out of the rankings because some other fringy guys had good wins, I guess. Cornella moves up to 15 due to an upset loss above him. Davis falls to 33 as Mayer (Bellarmine) leapfrogs him in typical Flo ranking fashion. Shapiro stays at 3. He's also 12 in P4P, in a block of 157s from 10-12.
WIN ranks to 20. Site doesn't seem to be updating at all, not just the rankings. Is it dead?
Intermat ranks to 33. Ferrara replaces Ungar as the Cornell rep; IM is ranking the lineup as it is, not as it will be. Joy jumps two spots into AA range. Cerchio moves up 5. Davis slides down 3. Tournament rankings drop but dual rankings up a pip.
Open Mat ranks to 20. Ferrara falls out of the rankings behind some guys who haven't lost yet, even if I doubt they've faced anyone as good as Davino. Joy up 4. Still listing Shapiro.
AWN ranks to 20. Joy enters the rankings at 15. Still Greg D. at 13, Cornella at 18, Shapiro at 3.
BEG Rank to 33. TK?
WrestleStat ELO updated. Joy from 198 to 3 (lol). Cerchio from 165 to 63. The huge jump for Joy (sorry) along with some smaller jumps and keeping Shapiro in the lineup also boosted the team tournament ranking to 6.
SHP DII SHP's Dual Impact TK, but not this week. (explainer)

Coaches Ranking and official RPI won't be out for a while. I'll probably add in the WrestleStat RPI ranking when it's closer to meaningful.

[mountainred]

Thanks as always for your informative summary. If Shapiro is fully healthy, do you think he can win it all or is AA now his ceiling?

he can absolutely win it all. he has to stop bouncing his head off of the mat in funky positions.

ugarte doesn't need my support when it comes to wrestling, but I will second his opinion.  A healthy Shapiro is national champion quality. I can absolutely see him making a Nahshon or Vito like run through nationals telling the field: "This is my title, have fun competing for second."  Yes, I know Nahshon's win in the championship was 7-6, but it was the most lopsided 7-6 win in wrestling history.

[ugarte]

Thanks as always for your informative summary. If Shapiro is fully healthy, do you think he can win it all or is AA now his ceiling?

he can absolutely win it all. he has to stop bouncing his head off of the mat in funky positions.

ugarte doesn't need my support when it comes to wrestling, but I will second his opinion.  A healthy Shapiro is national champion quality. I can absolutely see him making a Nahshon or Vito like run through nationals telling the field: "This is my title, have fun competing for second."  Yes, I know Nahshon's win in the championship was 7-6, but it was the most lopsided 7-6 win in wrestling history.

couple of bullshit stalls at the end, right? and that was after a 20 second semifinal match IIRC.

the field is closer to shapiro than i think anyone realized when he was coming out of high school but the top 3 157s are all coinflips. Kasak has the muscle, Shapiro the funk and Taylor the guy who was close second on both and won the title. Ignore the guys who took second and fourth. The former got a little lucky to beat Kasak and is up at 165 now. The latter got an incredibly lucky draw, not facing any of the top three until the third place match and graduated anyway.

That said, if Shapiro is totally healthy at the end of the year, I think he's the champ.

[ugarte]

We didn't wrestle this week but the rankers still watched everyone else.

As previously noted, I'm dropping the Fall sabbaticals from the chart until they start wrestling. That means say goodbye to the lines for Greg D., Cornella, Fernandez and Shapiro. That way the chart reflects the guys actually wrestling for us. To the extent that they stay in the rankings, I'll put it in the notes below. Ungar and Ferrara, on the other hand, are both rostered right now ( as far as I can tell) and competing internally to start at 133 when it matters. I'll keep them both in the chart.

Code Select Expand

                Flo WIN IM TOM AWN BEG WSt SHP CR   RPI
125: Milani 25 -- 25 NR xx -- 34 -- --   --
133: Ferrara xx -- 26 NR 20 -- 20 -- --   --
133: Ungar 23 -- xx NR NR -- 31 -- --   --
141: Saunders xx -- NR NR xx -- 25 -- --   --
149: Joy 9 -- 7 10 10 --   3 -- --   --
157: Rogers xx -- NR NR xx -- 56 -- --   --
165: Cerchio NR -- 24 NR NR -- 61 -- --   --
174: Ruiz 3 -- 3 3 4 --   5 -- --   --
184: Hansen  NR -- NR NR NR -- 47 -- --   --
197: Hanning NR -- NR NR NR -- 46 -- --   -- 
285: Davis NR -- 29 NR NR -- 28 -- --   --
TEAM NCAA: 13 -- 17 25 -- --   8 -- --   --
TEAM DUAL:      -- -- 13 14 -- -- 12 -- --   --

Flo ranks to 33. Milani down a pip, Joy up one. Cornella moves up to 14. Davis falls out of the rankings; perils of life on the bubble. Shapiro tentatively moves up to 2 with Kasak likely redshirting and PJ Duke not yet "qualified" for Flo's rankings.
WIN ranks to 20. Contacted WIN; they are issuing rankings in the print edition but are holding off on posting them online until the dust settles a little and various lineup decisions shake out.
Intermat ranks to 33. Minor shuffling.
Open Mat ranks to 20. Typo last week; Joy was not at 4. He's at 10 this week.
AWN ranks to 20. Ferrara enters the rankings at 20. Joy up to 10. Shapiro at 2 but they've stopped including Greg D. and Cornella.
BEG No longer lists rankings in the site menu. Rankings from a Cornell partisan so I'd like to see his rose-colored rankings.
WrestleStat ELO updated.
SHP DII SHP's Dual Impact Index TK mid-Decemberish. (explainer)

CR and RPI won't be out for a while.

[ugarte]

Team had a rough week. We went to the National Duals tournament and got blown out in back to back matches against Oklahoma State and Northern Iowa. That said, there were some real bright spots.

Against Oklahoma State, Ferrara beat a 2024 national champion and Jaxon Joy beat a top 5 wrestler. In a shocking upset Chase Hansen also beat a top wrestler, scoring the only takedown of the match. Joy followed up with another big win against Northern Iowa. Simon Ruiz is also beating quality opponents. Aside from that, we had a rough go. Cerchio went 0-2 but kept it close against a pair of top 10 opponents. Saunders looked bad. Cornella is going to walk back into the starting spot.

We are sending wrestlers to the Big Red Invitational this week but the quality of the opposition looks to be pretty thin.

As previously noted, I'm dropping the Fall sabbaticals from the chart until they start wrestling. That means no Greg D.* (125), Ungar* (133) Cornella (141), Fernandez* (149) and Shapiro (157). That way the chart reflects the guys actually wrestling for us. To the extent that they stay in the rankings, I'll put it in the notes below.

* Fernandez may be rejoining the team but Jaxon Joy is keeping his spot for sure. Ungar is going to have to win a wrestle-off with Ferrara. Greg D. may have to win a wrestle-off but he's a big favorite over Milani if he's healthy.

Code Select Expand

                Flo WIN IM TOM AWN WSt SHP CR   RPI
125: Milani 26 NR 27 NR NR 37 -- --   --
133: Ferrara 21 NR 21 17 11 18 -- --   --
141: Saunders NR xx 32 NR NR 37 -- --   --
149: Joy 9 7 3 7 3   3 -- --   --
157: Rogers NR xx NR NR xx 80 -- --   --
165: Cerchio NR NR 26 NR NR 69 -- --   --
174: Ruiz 3 3 3 3 3   4 -- --   --
184: Hansen  30 NR 29 NR NR 32 -- --   --
197: Hanning NR NR NR NR NR 47 -- --   -- 
285: Davis NR NR 29 NR NR 35 -- --   --
TEAM NCAA: 22 12 13 16 -- 13 -- --   --
TEAM DUAL:      -- 12 17 17 -- 20 -- --   --

Flo ranks to 33. Flo dropped the sabbatical guys from their rankings. Hansen and Ferrara both jump into the rankings. Team ranking takes a big hit from losing Shapiro in the calculation.
WIN ranks to 20. Joy jumps to 7. Shapiro at 3, Cornella at 14.
Intermat ranks to 33. Joy up to 3. Hansen and Cerchio enter the rankings. Davis hanging on. IM also dropped the sabbatical takers, but maybe not from the tournament rankings.
Open Mat ranks to 20. Joy to 7. Ferrara enters at 17.
AWN ranks to 20. Shapiro at 1! Joy at 3, Ferrara up to 11.
WrestleStat ELO updated.
SHP DII SHP's Dual Impact Index TK mid-Decemberish. (explainer)

CR and RPI won't be out for a while.

[ugarte]

We are sending wrestlers to the Big Red Invitational this week but the quality of the opposition looks to be pretty thin.

Looks like we're sending a thin roster too. Joy and Ruiz are skipping the BRI in favor of training for something unspecified.  I suspect it has to do with international competition or a Team USA qualifying event but I have no idea what is coming up.

[underskill]

2027 recruiting seems to be lagging? Any insights why (assuming it's correct)

[ugarte]

2027 recruiting seems to be lagging? Any insights why (assuming it's correct)

we're lagging a little on '27 but we have 5 guys on the Flo '26 Big Board (top 100, all weights), including #19 (2d at 175). maybe lagging a little on 27, with 3 (all below 75) but we'll see if we have a better read on the class than Flo does. Plus it's still early. There are still seven uncommitted in the '27 top 25. and all of that is following an incredible class of '25 which will probably have up to five guys step right into the lineup.

if it's anything probably NIL from the top programs - outside of the Big Ten, VT seems to be going for it too.

[ugarte]

Didn't update last week but there isn't much change. Here's the latest. Big competition in Las Vegas this weekend but Greg D., Cornella and Shapiro don't return until the 21st IIRC so I don't expect a lot of change. Especially since the only place for Ruiz to go is down and he's skipping the weekend trip because he's got the sniffles.

Flo didn't update the Ivy rankings.

Code Select Expand

                Flo WIN IM TOM AWN WSt SHP CR   RPI
125: Milani 30 NR 32 NR NR 48 -- --   --
133: Ferrara 23 NR 18 19 10 20 -- --   --
141: Saunders NR xx 30 NR xx 39 -- --   --
149: Joy 9 7 4 6 2 3 -- --   --
157: Rogers NR xx NR NR xx 57 -- --   --
165: Cerchio NR NR 28 NR NR 56 -- --   --
174: Ruiz 2 2 2 2 2 4 -- --   --
184: Hansen  26 NR 28 NR NR 24 -- --   --
197: Hanning NR NR NR NR NR 52 -- --   -- 
285: Davis 32 NR 30 NR NR 29 -- --   --
TEAM NCAA: 20 11 11 16 -- 12 -- --   --
TEAM DUAL:      -- 12 18 17 -- 21 -- --   --
Wresting Insider Newsmagazine*, Intermat, The Open Mat and Amateur Wrestling News only rank a top 20. Flo and Intermat go to 33, the number of qualifiers for NCAA. Wrestlestat is an ELO ranking for all wrestlers in a weight class and Seton Hall Pirate has his own proprietary formula for his Dual Impact Index.

CR and RPI are not out yet but I think the first release is soon.

*lol

[ugarte]

Not a great showing overall for the fall wrestling team in Las Vegas but we did have two outstanding results.

First, at 149, Jaxon Joy beat three ranked wrestlers, including #2 Kaleb Larkin (ASU). He beat Larkin by tech fall in the SF 15-0 in 2:53 then followed it up by pinning Princeton's #22 Eligh Rivera in the finals in 2:18. He gave up three points in four matches and all of them were on escapes.

Second, at 133, Tyler Ferrara finished in third place, with his only loss, a 1-0 snoozer to #9 Dillon Campbell of VT. Along the way to the bronze finish, he beat #32 and #15 by MD then won the rematch with Campbell in the third place match 8-1.

Other than those two, not much to write home about. A 12th place finish overall in a relatively weak field since a lot of teams who usually come skipped it. That said...

125: Marcello Milani went 2-2. Had a competitive match with #15.
141: Gabriel Bouyssou went 0-2.
157: Benny Rogers went 0-2.
165: Louie Cerchio went 1-2.
174: Simon Ruiz stayed home with a minor illness.
184: Christian Hansen went 1-2, losing both of his matches on last second takedowns.
197: Aidan Hanning went 1-2.
285: Ashton Davis went 2-2 but at least he destroyed the Harvard guy.

Joy is probably going to be 2 or 3 in all rankings this week and Ferrara will jump significantly. Pretty cool. Can't wait for Greg D., Cornella and Shapiro to get back at 125, 141 and 157 respectively.

[ugarte]

2027 recruiting seems to be lagging? Any insights why (assuming it's correct)

we're lagging a little on '27 but we have 5 guys on the Flo '26 Big Board (top 100, all weights), including #19 (2d at 175). maybe lagging a little on 27, ...

UPDATE: Class of '27 added Arseni Kikiniou, 2025 U17 world double medalist. He took bronze in greco and silver in freestyle at the same competition.

I listed greco first only because his father was a world medalist for Belarus back in 2009 and a 2x Olympian (2004 and 2012). I don't know when he moved to the United States but now he wrestles for Team USA. He was our world team representative in 2024 in his 40's which is simultaneously very impressive for him but less so for the state of the US Greco program.

Arseni is 33 on the Flo '27 Big Board.