By Brian Reinhardt
USA Wrestling

CLEVELAND – Points were plenty to come by for the top seeds in Thursday’s action at the 2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships. The 10 No. 1 seeds throughout each weight class went for bonus points in 19 of their 20 matches during the first two sessions.

Penn State leads the team race with 40.5 points, and a tournament-high eight quarterfinalists. The eight Nittany Lions still on the front side combined to go 16-0 with 15 bonus point wins (four falls, seven tech falls and four major decisions) on the first day of action.

True freshman PJ Duke made short work of his first two career NCAA Championships matches as neither bout made it out of the first period, scoring falls at the 1:56 and 1:38 marks. Classmate Marcus Blaze also didn’t go the full seven minutes in either bout with back-to-back tech falls, outscoring his foes 34-4. Both men were U20 World champions for Team USA last summer.

Nebraska sits in second with 27 points, Iowa in third with 25.5 points and Oklahoma State in fourth at 25 points. All three schools have seven into the quarterfinals, with Penn State, Nebraska and Oklahoma State all still having all 10 wrestlers advance to the second day of action.

A pair of No. 2 seeds took losses in the Thursday night session. First, it was Navy’s No. 15 seed Danny Wask taking out previously undefeated Simon Ruiz at 174 pounds, 9-5. Then at 197 pounds, fellow No. 15 seed Remy Cotton put together a 12-4 major decision over four-time All-American Rocky Elam of Iowa State.

Only 133 and 141 pounds saw each of the top eight seeds advance to the quarterfinals.

There were six wrestlers seeded 20th or higher that advanced to the quarterfinals with a pair of upsets during the first day of action. The upper weights had four of those six wrestlers, led by heavyweight with a pair in No. 21 Juan Mora of Oklahoma and No. 27 Hunter Catka of Rutgers. Arizona State’s No. 29 Colton Hawks (197) was the lowest to advance to the quarterfinals, followed closely by Catka and fellow 27-seed EJ Parco (165) of Stanford.

Session three action begins at noon (ET) tomorrow, with TV coverage on ESPNU.

2026 NCAA Division I Men’s Wrestling Championships 

At Cleveland, Ohio, March 19 

Team Standings 

1. Penn State, 40.5 (8 QF, 2 Con.)

2. Nebraska, 27 (7 QF, 3 Con.)

3. Iowa, 25.5 (7 QF, 2 Con.)

4. Oklahoma State, 25 (7 QF, 3 Con.)

5. Ohio State, 23 (4 QF, 6 Con.)

6. Iowa State, 21.5 (3 QF, 6 Con.)

7. Arizona State, 17 (4 QF, 1 Con.)

8. Stanford, 15 (3 QF, 5 Con.)

t-9. Cornell, 14 (3 QF, 2 Con.)

t-9. Michigan, 14 (4 QF, 1 Con.)

t-9. Virginia Tech, 14 (2 QF, 6 Con.)

t-9. Minnesota, 14 (3 QF, 3 Con.)

Quarterfinal Matchups 

125 pounds 

#1 Luke Lilledahl (Penn State) vs. #8 Dean Peterson (Iowa)

#5 Troy Spratley (Oklahoma State) vs. #4 Sheldon Seymour (Lehigh)

#14 Jacob Moran (Indiana) vs. #6 Jore Volk (Minnesota)

#10 Marc-Anthony McGowan (Princeton) vs. #2 Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech)

133 pounds 

#1 Jax Forrest (Oklahoma State) vs. #8 Markel Baker (Northern Ill.)

#5 Kyler Larkin (Arizona State) vs. #4 Aaron Seidel (Virginia Tech)

#3 Marcus Blaze (Penn State) vs. #6 Drake Ayala (Iowa)

#7 Lucas Byrd (Illinois) vs. #2 Ben Davino (Ohio State)

141 pounds 

#1 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) vs. #8 Vance Vombaur (Minnesota)

#5 Luke Stanich (Lehigh) vs. #4 Anthony Echemendia (Iowa State)

#3 Brock Hardy (Nebraska) vs. #6 Vince Cornella (Cornell)

#7 Nasir Bailey (Iowa) vs. #2 Sergio Vega (Oklahoma State)

149 pounds 

#1 Shayne Van Ness (Penn State) vs. #8 Casey Swiderski (Oklahoma State)

#12 Carter Young (Maryland) vs. #20 Chance Lamer (Nebraska)

#3 Cross Wasilewski (Penn) vs. #11 Lachlan McNeil (Michigan)

#10 Aden Valencia (Stanford) vs. #2 Jaxon Joy (Cornell)

157 pounds 

#1 PJ Duke (Penn State) vs. #8 Brandon Cannon (Ohio State)

#5 Landon Robideau (Oklahoma State) vs. #4 Kalen Larkin (Arizona State)

#3 Meyer Shapiro (Cornell) vs. #11 Ty Watters (West Virginia)

#7 Kannon Webster (Illinois) vs. #2 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska)

165 pounds 

#1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) vs. #9 Bryce Hepner (North Carolina)

#12 Cesar Alvan (Columbia) vs. #4 Nico Ruiz (Arizona State)

#3 Mikey Caliendo (Iowa) vs. #27 EJ Parco (Stanford)

#10 Will Denny (NC State) vs. #2 Joey Blaze (Purdue)

174 pounds 

#1 Levi Haines (Penn State) vs. #9 Beau Mantanona (Michigan)

#5 Patrick Kennedy (Iowa) vs. #4 Carson Kharchla (Ohio State)

#3 Christopher Minto (Nebraska) vs. #11 MJ Gaitan (Iowa State)

#7 Cam Steed (Missouri) vs. #15 Danny Wask (Navy)

184 pounds 

#1 Rocco Welsh (Penn State) vs. #8 Silas Allred (Nebraska)

#5 Brock Mantanona (Michigan) vs. #20 Brian Soldano (Oklahoma)

#3 Max McEnelly (Minnesota) vs. #6 Eddie Neitenbach (Wyoming)

#7 Angelo Ferrari (Iowa) vs. #2 Aeoden Sinclair (Missouri)

197 pounds 

#1 Josh Barr (Penn State) vs.#9 Angelo Posada (Stanford)

#5 Joey Novak (Wyoming) vs. #29 Colton Hawks (Arizona State)

#3 Stephen Little (Little Rock) vs. #11 seed Camden McDanel (Nebraska)

#7 Cody Merrill (Oklahoma State) vs. #15 Remy Cotton (Rutgers)

285 pounds 

#1 Yonger Bastida (Iowa State) vs. #8 Ben Kueter (Iowa)

#21 Juan Mora (Oklahoma) vs. #4 AJ Ferrari (Nebraska)

#3 Taye Ghadliali (Michigan) vs. #27 Hunter Catka (Rutgers)

#7 Konner Doucet (Oklahoma State) vs. #2 Isaac Trumble (NC State)

Reference links  

• Session two live updates

• Brackets

• Photo gallery

• Interview playlist