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NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 16 Roundup: The End Is Nigh

NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 16 Roundup: The End Is Nigh

The world's finest collection of noteworthy happenings from the 16th week of the 2025-26 NCAA D1 wrestling season.

Feb 16, 2026 by Andrew Spey
NCAA D1 Wrestling Week 16 Roundup: The End Is Nigh

I hope everyone enjoyed their Valentine's Day. Regardless of your current romantic entanglements, we all got to enjoy the sweetest gift of them all: another weekend of NCAA D1 college wrestling dual meets!

Week 15 Rankings | Week 16 Box Scores

Roundups: Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15

I know my Valentine's Day weekend did not disappoint in that regard. The only disappointment was knowing that the dual meet season, and thus, the entire 2025-26 season, is drawing to a close. But now is not the time to lament the imminent conclusion of the season, but to celebrate the bounty of entertainment it provided, specifically the noteworthy happenings of week 16! 

The Dual of the Century of the Week

Iowa Comes Up Clutch On Senior Night

The Hawkeyes didn't have the lead in their Friday night dual meet against Michigan until the final whistle blew on the tenth bout of the evening. That happened after senior Drake Ayala came to the rescue and secured a tech-fall to put the Hawks ahead when they needed him most. 

Seriously, how great was this dual? Obviously, the Wolverine faithful will think differently, but for fans of wrestling? It doesn't get much better.

I'll just let the box score speak for itself.

141: Dylan Ragusin (MICH) over Kale Petersen (IOWA) (MD 11-2)

149: #17 Lachlan McNeil (MICH) over #13 Ryder Block (IOWA) (Dec 8-3)

157: #13 Cameron Catrabone (MICH) over #15 Jordan Williams (IOWA) (Dec 5-4)

165: #3 Mikey Caliendo (IOWA) over Justin Gates (MICH) (TF 21-6 3:18)

174: #11 Beau Mantanona (MICH) over #3 Patrick Kennedy (IOWA) (SV-1 6-3)

184: Gabe Arnold (IOWA) over #7 Brock Mantanona (MICH) (TB-1 3-2)

197: Harvey Ludington (IOWA) over #20 Hayden Walters (MICH) (Dec 6-4)

285: #5 Taye Ghadiali (MICH) over #9 Ben Kueter (IOWA) (MD 10-0)

125: #6 Dean Peterson (IOWA) over #27 Diego Sotelo (MICH) (SV-1 4-1)

133: #8 Drake Ayala (IOWA) over Gauge Botero (MICH) (TF 21-5 4:25)

The drama started at 141 and kept coming throughout the dual. McNeil upset Block. Then Catrabone beat Williams. Caliendo got things back on track for the Hawkeyes but then BeauMan upset Kennedy. Arnold needed tiebreakers to beat BrockMan, then Ludington, in the final varsity dual he could be in if he wanted to keep his redshirt, beat Walters. Ghadiali took out Kueter in a top ten bout, but then Peterson and Ayala brought it home for Iowa. Outstanding dual all around. 

Iowa won their second dual of the weekend on Sunday over Purdue, though Boilermaker fans were treated to a big win at 165 when Joey Blaze defeated Mikey Claiendo. Blaze is undefeated on the season and is on pace to get back to the NCAA finals, as he did last season at 157. 

OVC > SEC

That’s according to the second coaches’ poll, anyway. 

Neither the Ohio Valley Conference nor the Southeastern Conference sponsors wrestling (because they are cowards) but that doesn't mean we can't look at the individual programs that do sponsor wrestling that belong to both conferences and compare how they might do in the NCAA championships. 

Little Rock and SIUE, who are both constituents of the OVC, are projected to score 39 points at NCAAs, while Missouri and Oklahoma, who are full time members of the SEC, are projected to score 32 points at NCAAs. So there you have it. According to the NCAA D1 wrestling coaches, OVC>SEC.

It might be worth noting that Little Rock is leaving the OVC next year, but honestly that’s neither here nor there. 

Now let's go around the horn and see what else is going on in the penultimate weekend of the regularseason. 

EIWA

Kicking off the week was the Battle of Long Island on Monday. Hofstra won 31-11 at home in Hempstead and now lays claim to the entirety of Strong Island, New York.

Elsewhere in the EIWA, Lehigh took on two Keystone State rivals this weekend. Penn on Friday and Bucknell on Saturday, both of which were Mountain Hawk victories. Notably, Penn's Jude Swisher upset Logan Rozynski at 157. Additionally, Lehigh's Luke Stanich did not wrestle in either dual, though (AFAIK) he's still expected to wrestle in the postseason.

ACC

Virginia Tech defeated the Tar Heels at home in Blacksburg. Few people do more to advance the sport of wrestling than UNC head coach Rob Koll, so it is with all due respect that I say that I am a big fan of his status as the ACC heel. I am also a fan of the Virginia Tech social media for leaning into coach Koll's heel status. 

Elsewhere in the ACC, Stanford, the least Atlantic of all the ACC programs, defeated Pittsburgh, a school whose campus lies in the Mississippi drainage basin, and is thus also not technically "Atlantic". That dual featured 17 ranked wrestlers, with the most notable result coming at 197lbs, where #13 Angelo Posado of Stanford upset #7 Mac Stout of Pittsburgh. 

MAC

Lock Haven lost two team points due to “mat control” at two different weights but still defeated Edinboro 18-12 during some Thursday night MACtion. 

Elsewhere in MACtion, SIUE picked up another win over Buffalo and are 10-2 on the season. #3 at 149 Caleb Tyus notched another win and is 15-0 on the season against D1 opponents. 

Rider also won, defeating Drexel 30-10 in the Battle of the Delaware Valley. The Broncs are 12-5 on the season, with all the losses being to P4 Big Ten or Big 12 programs. 

Clarion also picked up a win over Ohio, 25-16. The Bobcats have four nationally ranked wrestlers, who all won their bouts, but the Golden Eagles had enough firepower in the other weight classes to get the dub. 

BIG 12

Oklahoma State defeated Virginia Tech in a contending contest for Dual of the Century of the Week. The marquee matchup was between two true freshmen phenoms at 133. #10 Jax Forrest beat #6 Aaron Sidel 10-9 in one of the most entertaining bouts of the year. Wrestling fans are in for a treat as they can look forward to three more seasons from these two warriors. 

Elsewhere in Big 12 country, Mizzou defeated Oklahoma. The Sooners were unfortunately without the services of Peyton Kellar, Carter Schubert, and Brian Soldano at 165, 174 & 184, respectively. On the plus side for the Sooners, #30 Conrad Hendriksen upset #16 Mack Mauger at 125.

Wyoming also defeated Oklahoma 24-10, with the headliner at 197 going in the Cowboys' favor, as #5 Joey Novak majored #12 DJ Parker. 

On Friday, Iowa State defeated West Virginia in what is shaping up to be one of the best rivalries in the conference. Stevo Poulin set the tone for the Cyclones in the lead off spot with a major over Jett Strickenberger. Then at 157, Vinny Zerban notches a mild upset over Ty Watters, though the validity of the match winning takedown had many wrestling fans in doubt. 

West Virginia was able to rebound with a decisive win over Northern Iowa on Saturday, which saw Jordan Titus register an upset at 141 to lead off the dual, and Gunnar Andrick win at 133 to close out the contest in the Mountaineers' favor. 

Utah Valley picked up a couple of conference wins over Air Force on Friday and Northern Colorado on Sunday. The Falcons were able to score a couple of upsets at 125 and 141, courtesy of Tucker Owens and Carter Nogle, respectively. 

Ivy League

It's party time in Morningside Heights, as the Columbia Lions clinched an Ivy League regular season championship for the first time since 1982! Many wise and learned wrestling fans were not yet born the last time Columbia could make this boast. I myself was alive when it happened last, though I was a little tiny baby and don't remember any of it. 

The Lions defeated Harvard 38-9 on Saturday and Brown 28-10 on Sunday, completing a sweep of the Ivies. Congrats to head coach Donny Pritzlaff and the entire Columbia wrestling community! 

Though the team did not prevail, Jimmy Harrington deserves a shout out for this incredibly clutch lat drop for a pinfall while trailing by four late in the third period. 

Elsewhere in the Ancient Eight, Princeton defeated Penn 23-14. Penn won the ranked matchup at 149, with #11  Cross Wasilewsk over #15 Eligh Rivera, but that bout was preceded by two upsets for the Tigers. Unranked Ethan Rivera and Matthew Martino notched wins over #12 Evan Mongolian and #7 CJ Composto at 133 and 141, respectively, to set Princeton up for the win.

Big Ten

The Iowa vs Purdue dual was afroementioned, but that doesn't mean we can't drop a tweet of Blaze's victory over Caliendo here. 

In what was potentially the dual of the season, #1 Penn State throttled #2 Ohio State 36-5. The Buckeyes were without the services of Ethan Stiles, Brandon Cannon, and Carson Kharchla at 149, 157 & 174, respectively. However, that does make what the Nittany Lions did on Friday night any less impressive. 

The dual started with two top-five matchups, where Luke Lilledahl and Marcus Blaze picked up overtime victories against Nic Bouzakis and Ben Davino. Afterwards, Jesse Mendez collected the sole Buckeye win of the evening, but after that it was all Blue and White. The most competitive bout after 133 was at 184 where Rocco Welsh eked out a win over Dylan Fishback, 7-6. 

All of which is to say that Penn State is quite good at wrestling. 

On Sunday, Wisconsin piled on Michigan's not-so-great weekend with a 19-17 victory. Taye Ghadiali got his second ranked win of the weekend over Braxton Amos, but that was not enough for the Wolverines, as the Badgers got a big upset at 157 where #29 Luke Melcher defeated #13 Cam Catrabone. 

SoCon

Chattanooga threw a spanner in the works of App State's quest for a SoCon regular season championship. The Mountaineers were downed by the Mocs, 20-13, giving App State their first SoCon loss of the season. 

The Moc previously lost to the Citadel, who previously lost to App State, so someone that knows the tiebreaker procedures will have to tell you who gets the trophy if all three of those programs win next weekend. 

Speaking of the Citadel, the Bulldogs beat Davidson 20-14, but not before the Wildcats picked up three upsets at 149, 157, and 165. 

Pac 12

Oregon State defeated North Dakota State 20-11 in the most significant action in the Pacific Twelve. And that will conclude our whip around week 16 of the NCAA D1 2025-26 season. See you next week!