Nov. 1 is always a special date. The new month marks the beginning of yet another college wrestling season, and this year’s slate of duals starts off with three ranked teams in action: No. 14 Stanford, No. 15 Rutgers and No. 21 Pittsburgh.
Here’s what you need to know about these three teams, their opening matches and what we could learn from Week 1 of the 2025-2026 college wrestling season.
No. 21 Pitt vs. Navy creates early season excitement for top-30 teams
For the last two seasons, No. 21 Pittsburgh and Navy have clashed in November, with the Panthers winning the last meeting in dominant fashion, 35-3, and the Mids earning the victory the previous season, 21-12. This year’s nonconference showdown will feature 10 ranked wrestlers across the two teams with a top-25 ranking spot on the line.
Monday - back on the mat getting ready for Pitt!
— Navy Wrestling (@NavyWrestling)
On paper, the Panthers have the edge in any match with a ranked athlete. No. 32 Briar Priest is considered a favorite by rankings over Navy’s Brendan Ferretti or Hunter Heflin at 125 pounds, No. 17 Kade Brown is ranked ahead of both Kaemen Smith and Frank Antonelli for the Mids at 133, No. 21 Dylan Evans is listed above Navy’s No. 28 Dylan Elmore or Davis Park (though Evans’ ranking is comes at 157 pounds not 165), Stout is seeded 19 spots above his Navy counterpart in Payton Thomas and Pitt’s No. 7 Dayton Pitzer sits 22 spots ahead of No. 29 Spencer Lanosga.
Rankings in November are fickle, though. No. 6 Wask, for instance, is 1-2 against No. 15 Augustine, and in a dual where every match will count with the team winner either holding on to a top 25 ranking or breaking into the top 25, every point will matter.
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Navy head coach Cary Kolat is 1-4 against Pitt in his career. Pitt head coach Keith Gavin, meanwhile, is 2-1 against Navy and 8-0 in opening duals. Navy will have the home match advantage and will need to compete tough in the unranked match and flip a ranked weight to stay in this bout.
Expect this dual — which will be streamed on Navy Athletics YouTube — to be the closest of the opening weekend matches featuring a top 25 team.
Stanford’s bout against Utah Valley gives Cardinal a runway to test new lineup
After finishing 18th at NCAAs last year with two All-Americans, Stanford head coach Chris Ayres’ program returns to the mat this year with six ranked wrestlers, including two in the top 5 led by No. 4 Daniel Cardenas at 157 pounds and No. 4 Hunter Garvin at 165 pounds. Neither of these athletes are expected to be in action on Saturday, though, as they will be competing in the NWCA All-Star classic against Ty Watters and Max Brignola, respectively. Their absence evens out the dual, though the Cardinal are still favored because of their strength at the lightweights and their potential depth in the middle of the lineup.
No. 12 Stanford opens the season on Saturday at Utah Valley. The Cardinal and Wolverines will square off at 6 p.m. PT on UVU's YouTube channel. x
— Stanford Wrestling (@CardWrestling)
No. 11 Nico Provo gives Stanford firepower at 125 pounds now that he’s back in the lineup, and he’ll be followed by All-American No. 7 Tyler Knox at 133 pounds. The big question for Stanford in this first dual will come at 141-157 pounds, and its bout against Utah Valley on Saturday will be a great opportunity to see what kind of the strength the team has in those spots.
Sophomore Aden Valencia, a redshirt freshman, will be one of the biggest names to watch for the Cardinal this year as he enters the starting lineup at 149 pounds. Originally projected to compete at 141, Valencia announced a few weeks ago that he was planning to move up to compete for a title in a weight class that has cleared out a little bit since last year and is now led by All-Americans No. 1 Shayne Van Ness of Penn State, No. 2 Lachlan McNeil of Michigan and No. 3 Ethan Stiles of Ohio State. In his redshirt season, Valencia finished 3-3 with wins over Round of 12 finisher Zach Redding of Iowa State, Round of 16 finisher Elijah Rivera of Princeton and Ryder Block of Iowa. Valencia’s freestyle results earlier this summer and fall though suggest that the Cardinal freshman is ready to compete and beat the best, though, as he notched a win over senior world bronze medalist Real Woods at the US Open before ultimately dropping a buzzer-beater to the NCAA finalist later in the summer.
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Utah Valley is expected to send out its lone ranked wrestler, No. 19 David Evans, to take on Valencia for his first college bout of the season — and this is the perfect test for Valencia. The Cardinal will be favored against the former Penn State backup, but this isn’t a match he can overlook. Evans is 30-9 on his career but has never qualified for the NCAA tournament; he’s on a path similar to 2025 All-American Terrell Barraclough, who transferred to Utah Valley after spending his career at Penn State on the bench and then breaking through for a podium spot with his final year of eligibility. Evans wrestles tough and held Penn State All-American Tyler Kasak to a 4-2 decision last season. A ranked win for either athlete would be a strong way to start the year, making this a spotlight match in a dual that heavily leans in favor of the Cardinal at every other weight.
With Valencia at 149 pounds, the Cardinal are expected to slot in Jack Consiglio at 141 and EJ Parco or Jason Mara at 157 pounds. Parco was originally ranked No. 18 at 149 pounds but will now potentially hold down the 157 pound spot in place of Cardenas for this dual. Stanford’s middleweight, either Parco or Mara, will wrestle either Mark Takara or Ian Fritz of Utah Valley, both of whom are just under .500 in their careers. Takara did qualify for the NCAA tournament in 2024 at 174 pounds and will now look to replicate that result down two weight classes against a previously ranked 149-pounder.
Yes, Aden Valencia of is changing his weight class.
— Rock Harrison (@rockreax)
Stanford beat Utah Valley in this dual last year, 29-12, even without Nico Provo (or any athlete for that matter) at 125 pounds. Now the Cardinal will attempt to do the same without two of their All-Americans on the road in a hostile environment in Utah Valley. Fans can follow the dual on YouTube or live on FloWrestling at 9 p.m. EST.
Rutgers quad meet (and the All-Star Classic) offers opportunity for ranked athletes to shine
Like Stanford, Rutgers will compete in an opening weekend dual while also sending two of its star athletes — Lenny Pinto and Dylan Shawver — to the NWCA All-Star Classic on Nov. 1. The location of the All-Star Classic in Rutgers' home gym potentially offers Shawver and Pinto the chance to compete in both the exhibition event and their team's matches the following day, an opportunity that is not possible for Garvin and Cardenas, who will be coming in from the West Coast.
Shawver and Pinto are listed as options in the team's probable starters for the Rutgers quad meet against Bloomsburg, Gardner-Webb and Centenary on Nov. 2, and if Shawver wrestles in the Gardner-Webb dual against No. 17 TK Davis of the Bulldogs, he'll be the only Rutgers athlete who could see a ranked Division I opponent across these three duals. In their last meeting, Shawver topped Davis 11-6 while the Scarlet Knights beat the Bulldogs 32-6 in the lone meeting in history between these two programs. Davis is listed as one of two options for Gardner-Webb at the weight though with Tyler Lamon included as well. Lamon and Shawver have never wrestled in college.
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Shawver's All-Star Classic opponent, Lucas Byrd, will pose an even bigger test though, as Byrd is the returning national champion at 133 pounds and is 1-0 against Shawver after a 6-5 win in last year's dual. While the All-Star Classic is just an exhibition match and will not count on official records, a win over the reigning champ would create undeniable momentum for the Scarlet Knight lightweight. Pinto has a similar opportunity, as he'll be wrestling All-American Simon Ruiz from Cornell, who finished 5th at 174 pounds last year and is 2-0 against the Rutgers transfer.
Team-wise, Rutgers will be heavily favored in all three of its duals against Bloomsburg, Centenary and Gardner-Webb — with or without Shawver and Pinto. Rutgers has the most recent series wins against Bloomsburg, 37-8, from 2024 and Centenary, 38-6, from 2019. The Scarlet Knights will be favored in at least nine bouts against the Huskies and the Cyclones this year with 125 pounds being the only weight without a ranked wrestler for Rutgers.
Season on deck 👀 x 📸
— NCAA Men's Wrestling (@NCAAWrestling)
These opening bouts will still give an early look at this year's deep Scarlet Knight lineup, even if the team score isn't expected to be competitive. Three of Rutgers' nine wrestlers — Shawver, 141-pounder Joey Oliveri and 149-pounder Andrew Clark — advanced to the Round of 12 at last year's NCAA tournament, while 174-pounder Lenny Pinto and 285-pounder Hunter Catka have been in the Round of 12 earlier in their careers. Shawver also does also already have All-American honors to his name from his 2024 NCAA tournament performance.
The quad meet for the Scarlet Knights begins with Centenary at 10 a.m. on Sunday and Gardner-Webb at 11:30 a.m. and then finishes with Bloomsburg at 1 p.m. All of the duals will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.
