NCAA Wrestling Championships: Agenda, laws, scoring, stats

Mar 19, 2025, 07:30 AM ET

The most productive school wrestlers on this planet will compete this weekend on the 2025 NCAA Department I Males’s Wrestling Nationwide Championships. This 12 months’s match might be held Thursday via Saturday on the Wells Fargo Heart in Philadelphia.

300 thirty athletes will compete within the double-elimination event. Ten particular person champions throughout weight categories might be topped, however just one program will win the nationwide name. (Penn State received the 2024 Department I championship.) The highest 8 individuals in every weight elegance can also be awarded All-The us honors.

Here’s a whole information — together with the highest athletes to look at and scoring laws — for this 12 months’s championships.

When is the contest and how you can watch?

• The championships begin on Thursday and run via Saturday on the Wells Fargo Heart in Philadelphia.

• All fits might be aired on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN+. Mats 1-8 to be had on ESPN+ and MATCAST on ESPN.

The time table is as follows:

• Prelims | Thursday at midday

• Prelims and wrestle-backs | Thursday at 7 p.m.

• Quarterfinals and wrestle-backs | Friday at 12 p.m.

• Semifinals and wrestle-backs | Friday at 8 p.m.

• Comfort finals | Saturday at 11 a.m.

• Championship finals | Saturday at 7 p.m.

Gopher’s Gable Steveson was the 1st heavyweight in Large Ten historical past to win 4 titles. Jay LaPrete/Getty Pictures

Who’re the highest competition?

In line with the NWCA Coaches Ballot, the present workforce ratings are as follows:

1. Penn State (15-0); The Nittany Lions glance to win their twelfth nationwide championship beneath present Large Ten trainer of the 12 months, Cael Sanderson.

2. Iowa (14-1); The Hawkeyes have had a minimum of one wrestler compete within the finals of each and every NCAA championship since 1990.

3. Oklahoma State (13-1); The 2025 Large 12 champions are one in all ten groups to ship 9 wrestlers to Philadelphia together with the lone particular person convention champion, Wyatt Hendrickson.

4. Northern Iowa (14-1); Below head trainer Doug Schwab’s management, 13 UNI student-athletes have earned 20 All-American honors.

5. Nebraska (11-3); Caleb Smith grabs the very best pre-seed for Nebraska because the No. 2 at 125.

6. Minnesota (10-2); Gopher’s Gable Steveson was the 1st heavyweight in Large Ten historical past to win 4 titles.

7. Ohio State (13-3): Below head trainer Tom Ryan’s management, the Buckeyes have had 149 NCAA qualifiers.

8. Virginia Tech (9-2): The Hokies received the 2025 ACC Wrestling Championship, their final win used to be in 2018.

9. NC State (11-2): The Wolfpack took 3rd position on the 2025 ACC Wrestling Championships and Matty Singleton (174 kilos) earned his first particular person ACC name.

10. Cornell (11-1): Cornell took the first-ever Ivy League Event wrestling name in 2025 adopted via Penn (129.5), Columbia (144.5), Princeton (113), Brown (84.5) and Harvard (62).

Penn State freshman Luke Lilledahl battles Rutgers’ Dean Peterson within the 125-pound fit all the way through a twin meet at Jersey Mike’s Area in January. Lilledahl is the No. 1 seed in his weight elegance. Vincent Carchietta/Getty Pictures

The No.1 seeds in every weight elegance:

• 125 kilos: Luke Lilledahl of Penn State (19-2); 2024 U20 International Champion, U20 Pan Am name in 2024

• 133 kilos: Lucas Byrd of Illinois (18-1); 3x NCAA Championships Qualifier, clinical redshirt in 2023-2024

• 141 kilos: Brock Hardy of Nebraska (23-3); 3rd-place end at 2024 NCAA Championships, NWCA Pupil All-American (2021, 2023, 2024)

• 149 kilos: Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech (18-0); 2024 ACC Wrestler of the 12 months, 2023 ACC Freshman of the 12 months

• 157 kilos: Tyler Kasak of Penn State (17-1); 10-1 vs. the sector this 12 months and 7-1 on the event all-time

• 165 kilos: Mitchell Mesenbrink of Penn State (22-0); 2024 Large Ten Freshman of the 12 months, transferred to Penn State after redshirting at Cal-Baptist in 2022-23

• 174 kilos: Keegan O’Toole of Missouri (16-0); Completed the season 24-1 (.960), marking his fourth directly 12 months with a profitable proportion above 90 %

• 184 kilos: Carter Starocci of Penn State (21-0); 4-time All-American (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024), 4-time NCAA Champion (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)

• 197 kilos: Jacob Cardenas of Michigan (20-1); The graduate student-athlete is pursuing a Masters in Control on the Ross College of Industry at Michigan

• 285 kilos: Gable Steveson of Minnesota (14-0); The graduate pupil is a 2021 Tokyo Olympic gold medalist

Entire NCAA Wrestling Championships brackets and seedings.

Penn State’s Levi Haines, proper, wrestles Iowa’s Patrick Kennedy within the 174-pound bout on Jan. 31, 2025, in State Faculty, Pa. The Nittany Lions received 30-8. Dan Rainville/Imagn Pictures

What’s the variety procedure and event laws?

• The NCAA wrestling championships will function a complete of 330 competition. Wrestlers can protected a event spot in quite a lot of qualifying levels.

• A wrestler earns an automated qualification to the nationwide championships in the event that they win their convention event of their respective weight elegance. Every convention event is allotted at least 10 spots for every weight elegance.

Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole is the No. 1 seed within the 174-lbs weight elegance. He completed the season 24-1 (.960), marking his fourth directly 12 months with a profitable proportion above 90 %. Jay LaPrete/Getty Pictures

What are the foundations?

• There might be 33 wrestlers (seeded 1 via 33) competing within the following 10 weight categories: 125, 133, 141, 149, 157, 165, 174, 184, 197 and 285 kilos.

• The championship brackets have 5 rounds: The primary spherical of 32, the spherical of 16, quarterfinals, semifinals and the championship ultimate.

• The 2 lowest seeds in every weight elegance will struggle a pigtail fit, a prelim or qualifier, which can start the event. The winners advance to the 1st spherical of the championship brackets and compete towards the highest seed. The shedding competitor will struggle within the comfort brackets referred to as the wrestle-back.

• The wrestle-back brackets encompass wrestlers who misplaced a fit within the championship event. Those individuals will compete within the comfort brackets for a chance to earn All-American honors and proceed to give a contribution issues to their workforce.

• A pigtail fit can even start the comfort rounds. The winner of the wrestle-back bracket might be awarded 3rd position. 5th and 7th position can also be decided within the comfort rounds.

• A wrestler is eradicated from the event in the event that they lose two times, as soon as in every bracket.

How do at-large bids paintings for this event?

The 46 at-large alternatives have been introduced on March 11.

How are the fits scored?

Wrestlers compete in seven-minute fits that are divided into 3 classes. The primary duration is 3 mins, and the opposite two classes are two mins every. An athlete can win a fit in 3 alternative ways: outscoring an opponent with a variation of various strikes, incomes a technical fall or pinning an opponent.

Particular person fit scoring breakdown:

• Takedown (3 issues): When a wrestler takes down their opponent from a impartial place.

• Break out (1 level): When a defensive wrestler navigates out of a dangle and stays inbounds.

• Reversal (2 issues): A defensive wrestler positive aspects keep an eye on in their opponent and reverses a place both at the mat or in a rear-standing place.

• Close to Fall (2, 3 or 4 issues): When a wrestler virtually pins opponent. Level standards varies.

• Driving Time Benefit (1 level): If an offensive wrestler establishes keep an eye on over an opponent then the timekeeper will start to file this as using time.

Virginia Tech’s Caleb Henson, left, took on Michigan’s Austin Gomez of their 149-pound fit within the 2024 NCAA Males’s Wrestling Championships finals. Henson is the No.1 seed in his weight elegance getting into the 2025 event. AP Photograph/Charlie Riedel

So, how does workforce scoring paintings?

Fit winners will obtain issues for his or her victories that can even lend a hand their total workforce championship standings. There are 3 ways a workforce can acquire issues within the event:

• Bonus issues: awarded for profitable a fit with a vital margin of victory, comparable to via fall, technical fall, or main choice, including to the workforce’s total ranking.

• Development level: wrestlers are awarded some degree for every fit received within the championship bracket, and a part level for wins within the comfort bracket.

• Placement issues: additional issues are awarded to a workforce in line with a person wrestler’s ultimate placement within the event.

How does a fit finish?

• Choice: A wrestler has a margin of victory fewer than 8 issues over his opponent on the finish of a fit.

• Primary Choice: A wrestler has a margin of victory between 8 and 14 issues over his opponent on the finish of a fit.

• Fall: When any a part of each shoulders or part of each shoulder blades of both wrestler is held in touch with the mat for one 2nd.

• Technical Fall: When a wrestler earns a 15-point benefit over his opponent, the fit is then terminated and dominated a win by way of technical fall.

Disqualification, default damage or forfeiting would additionally finish the fit. Whilst, time beyond regulation and tie-breakers can get difficult.

What is the event’s backstory?

The inaugural NCAA Department I Wrestling Championships came about in 1928. The event has been held once a year except for 1943-1945 and 2020.

Colleges with probably the most particular person titles in NCAA historical past:

1. Oklahoma State College – 143 particular person titles

2. College of Iowa – 84 particular person titles

3. Iowa State College – 71 particular person titles

4. College of Oklahoma – 67 particular person titles

5. Penn State College – 59 particular person titles

Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson defeated Missouri’s Jarrett Stoner via fall in Feb. 2025. Nathan J. Fish/Imagn Pictures

Colleges with probably the most workforce titles in NCAA historical past:

1. Oklahoma State College – 34 titles (most up-to-date in 2006)

2. College of Iowa – 24 titles (most up-to-date in 2021)

3. Penn State College – 12 titles (most up-to-date in 2024)

4. Iowa State College – 8 titles (most up-to-date in 1987)

5. College of Oklahoma – 7 titles (most up-to-date in 1974)