UNC Wrestling 2025-2026

It’s been 10 years since Tony Ramos joined the Carolina Wrestling program as a volunteer assistant. His contribution to the program is greatly appreciated.

With our roster likely set, I am starting to look at what we have for next year. Transfer Brendan McCrone from tOSU is the likely starter at 125. He is currently ranked #9 by WS, and is familiar with wrestling at the highest level. One thing that sticks out to me is that he is incredibly tough on top and is capable of pinning opponents more frequently than the average wrestler. The video linked below is from February 2025, and may be his biggest college win over this kid named Lilledahl from PSU. The second period is where the fun starts.

Christian Hansen is ranked 15th by WS, and will likely be our 184 pound starter next year. He was 20-7 prior to an injury cutting his season short. His best win was at the National Duals over #4 Zach Ryder of OK State. The video linked below is confused about who is wrestling, but I confirmed on the Cornell site that he was the one that beat Ryder. I will warn you there is a brutal crashing of heads in the first period, leading to extensive blood time and concussion protocol before he could continue wrestling.

One more nationaal champ. Can’t get the link to work. “With an 11-1 Tech in the finals Dunia Rodriguez-Sibomana is your U20 African National Champion for the Democratic Republic of Congo at 55kg.“

Dunia picks up the Sr African Gold at 57 kg to go with his U20 championship from last week. The Instagram links are still not working for the THWC.

More complete video of his match.

I missed Liam Hickey going into the portal, but it looks like he joined Dailey transferring to state. My assumption is that this relates to our portal acquisition and their portal loss. He has a good chance to start for them at 125, and likely would have started for us if we hadn’t picked up McCrone. I think Hickey would have been the backup at 125 next year, but Sibomana has looked good finishing up his high school career and wrestling in Africa the past few weeks.

Note that if they pass the 5 for 5 rule, freshmen redshirting will likely no longer be an issue. The immediate impact for UNC is that Askew and Levy will not be worried about counting matches for a redshirt year. While I can’t see any of the true freshmen taking a starting spot, Sibomana and Jipp have looked good in recent weeks. Notably Jipp and Platt both placed second in the U20 freestyle tournament last week at 92kg and 97kg respectively.

Won’t speak for hw07, but this was the late football addition that is ranked the #6 high school heavyweight this past year (Flo rankings from 4/3/26). Great addition to the wrestling room, though it will be interesting to see how they split the time in the sports. With the prospect of losing him to FB completely in a few years, only 2 other hwts, and the 5 for 5 rule looming, I would say let him wrestle if he can win the spot.

For comparison sake he is our top ranked wrestler coming in this summer. Other top ranked recruits in the Flo rankings include Bickerton (#6-113), Sibomana (#10-120), Kelly (#7-175), Shafri (#9-175), Moylan (#11-215), and Jipp (#15-215). Note that Bickerton and Moylan are both juniors, and Nafshi is listed as a senior on Flo but in the 2027 class on Intermat. Also of note is that both Jipp and Moylan wrestled at 92kg (198 pounds) in the recent USA Wrestling tournament.

Foca, UNC assistant coach, beat Ramos, former UNC wrestler and dook assistant coach, in the Pan Am games. Both work out with the THWC.

THWC brought back 2 bronze medals and a silver from Pan Am games. Docs with the silver, while Ramos and Hanna took bronze.

National Duals

I am planning to do a roster post on this thread post transfer portal, and am hoping to do look at the acc in general in the next two weeks. A lot going on right now, but I am retired and should be able to get it done early next week if a few things fall into place (I hope).

Looks like I am going to have to break my post up into multiple posts to comply with the 10,000 character limit. Please let me know if you have comments, additions, or opposing view points, and I will attempt to use them in an initial post for next year's team.

During the 2025-2026 season, the UNC Wrestling Team was ranked in the teens as a dual meet team for most of the season. The peak was at #10, just prior to losing the third returning ncaa qualifier for the season in January. The preseason expectation for the ncaa tournament was basically a top 50 finish, based on no expected AAs level rankings for the team. As we now know Hepner finished strong and did make AA, leading the team to a #31 finish at the ncaat. In the end we finished higher than expectations both as a dual team and in the ncaat. Not too bad for a young team that lost 3 experienced ncaa qualifiers.

From the 2025-2026 team we lose Terukina, Oakley, Darracott, Fea, Martin, and the Tenold twins to graduation/expiration of eligibility. In the transfer portal we lost Scott (Lehigh), Dailey (state), Hickey (state), and Sipes (WVU). That’s 2 ncaat qualifiers, and 2 young wrestlers that may, or may not turn out to be costly losses. Depending on how you count it, that is at least 4 starters level wrestlers lost (Terukina, Oakley, Scott, and Dailey), and potentially several more if you count Darracott/Fea who have been starters or the potential for Hickey and Sipes to have earned a starting spot at some point. It is also personally offensive that 2 of these wrestlers transferred to state, but that is their prerogative and there were apparent reasons for both transfers.

So what did we add? First of all we add 2 ncaa qualifiers that should be returning from injury (Ogunsanya and Neves). That could be huge, as both have a significant upside if they can take a step forward from where they were when they were last healthy. WrestleStat (WS) ranks them 15 and 23 respectively at their weights, and that may be lower than expected based on their absence this past season (all of our wrestlers that did not make any appearances after the early part of the season seem to have dropped in the rankings simply because other wrestlers were winning matches and they were not.

Perhaps the most significant new additions were McCrone and Hansen from the transfer portal. McCrone is the likely starter at 125, and if anything he may be a slight upgrade from what we have had in Moore and Terukina. Note that both were excellent wrestlers for Carolina, but McCrone (WS #8) could be our first AA at this weight for several years. Not a guarantee, but there is the possibility. Hansen is the replacement for Dailey, and based on ranking this is slightly better than a dead even swap (WS #16 vs Dailey at #23). Again there is potential for a higher outcome in the short term, as Hansen has upset a top wrestler, but the major difference is that Dailey is still young with more years to improve.

Note that I will list the recruiting class in a separate post, and discuss any potential they may have for earning a starting spot. My presumption for this post is that they will not be a primary factor in the starting rotation year 1. I will also remind folks that I use the WrestleStat (WS) rankings because they include everyone. They are not necessarily the best rankings, but many rankings only list starters and/or top 33 (predicted ncaat qualifiers). I will also note that they start freshmen out low in the rankings regardless of talent, based on no college wrestling experience (typically below 150). My personal observation is that they typically drop wrestlers in the rankings when they are out with an injury. Because they include every wrestler an AA who is redshirting will bump everyone below them down a spot, making it difficult to know where the cutoff is for ncaat qualifiers. Currently WS has Carolina ranked as the #10 dual meet team and the #20 tournament team. This is a substantial jump over prior year. Below are the available wrestlers and their WS rankings. I will list the predicted starter first, noting that some starters are easy to predict, and a few weights may have multiple wrestlers competing for the starting spot.

The listing of weight classes will be posted below.

Listing by weight classes are my guesses. Some wrestlers who are not likely to wrestle may stay up a weight class, rather than cutting weight during a season they are not wrestling, and others I may simply guess wrong on their weight direction. Most can easily compete in at least 2 weight classes, aside from the heavyweights.

125 – Branden McCrone (8), Cam Stinson (81), and Dunia Sibomana (16). McCrone was clearly brought in to start, and it is likely the reason Hickey transferred to improve his chances of starting after this addition. Stinson is the likely backup, unless Sibomana is able to beat him out as a true freshman.

133 – Matt Botello (19), Derek Guanajuato (28), Marco Tocci (119), and Lukas Littleton-Mascaro (192 at 141). I would love to be able to watch the wrestle-off for this spot, as I believe both Botello and Guanajuato are very good wrestlers at this weight. Botello is currently ranked about where Guanajuato was ranked at his peak, before his absence from any wrestling events last season began to drop his ranking. Tocci is probably better than a 119 ranked wrestler, but likely not a significant challenger to start. Littleton-Mascaro is ranked by WS at 141, but as he finished high school wrestling 126 I think they are off here. He will likely wrestle this year as a 133 pounder, unless something happens to McCrone and there is a possibility to challenge for a starting spot.

141 – Luke Simcox (16), Nick O’Neill (13), and Elias Navida (53). Although O’Neill has the higher WS ranking currently, Simcox clearly won the spot last season. My personal hope is that O’Neill will put on some weight and challenge for the 149 spot, as Navida and Botello/Guanajuato could easily provide an appropriate level of backup for this weight.

149 – Nate Askew (85) and Mitchell Younger (264). If memory serves me correctly Askew beat Younger by a single point early in the season last fall, and did not wrestle much after that. This suggests that the gap between their rankings is largely based on recorded matches for Askew that were not there for Younger. Regardless, I expect these 2 along with O’Neill and Navida to compete for this spot. Note that the traditional thinking would be to redshirt Askew this year if the competition is close for this spot. That may, or may not be impacted by the potential adoption of the 5 for 5 rule (depending on grandfathering, etc.).

157 – Laird Root (31), Joey Showalter (33), and Cullen Kane (136). Coming off a solid redshirt freshman season, Root seem likely to be the starter again. Showalter is a quality wrestler, however, and his ranking suggests that he could potentially challenge for the starting spot.

165 – Bryce Hepner (10), Collin Nugent (119), and Nadav Nafshi (170 at 174). Coming off an AA finish, there is little doubt that Hepner is the odd on favorite to be the starter here. Nugent would likely fall behind Showalter as a back up option for this weight. Not sure if Alvarez, Carrigan, or any of the others that bumped up looking to chase a starting spot last year could make it back down to this weight, but if a backup is needed at least 1 or 2 of them would likely consider dropping. Nafshi wrestled his senior season in high school at 175, and may not attempt to drop back down, but I am guessing he could still make this weight (started the 2025-2026 season at 165 I believe).

174 – Joshua Ogunsanya (15), Collin Carrigan (34), Marcus Murabito (83), Sabino Potella (90), Omaury Alvarez (110), Brody Kelly (157 at 184), and Ronin Gault (170). Carolina will welcome the return of Ogunsanya if he is healthy, though Carrigan finished really strong at the weight last year. Murabito appeared to have won the spot before getting hurt, so if he is healthy he could compete here. Kelly is an intriguing freshman here, though WS has him listed at 184 (up from his high school weight of 175).

184 – Christian Hansen (16), Nolan O’Boyle (92 at 174), and Aiden Schlett (133). Hansen was clearly brought in to start as a replacement for Dailey when he transferred. He is ranked a few spots ahead of Dailey, though this might be an interesting match to watch next January. The big difference, however, is that Dailey has 3 more years of eligibility left. O’Boyle did not wrestle at all this year, as far as I can tell, and his ranking is down as a result. If we need a backup here, it has already been proven that several 174 pounders will also jump up to compete.

197 – Robert Platt (29), Michael Calcagno (38), and Lincoln Jipp (157 at 184). Platt would seem to have this spot, based on the past season, but Calcagno is ranked very similarly and could compete here. Jipp bumped up to wrestle 215 in high school, and WS has him listed at 184. I expect him to wrestle 197 this year. After that we will see what he does.

285 – Nolan Neves (23), Jacob Levy (43), and Cristian Alvarez (159). Getting a healthy Neves back could be huge for the team, as Levy is still developing. Adding Alvarez (after football season) will be a great addition to the wrestling room. It remains to be seen what this arrangement will look like and how much wrestling Alvarez will be able to do, but having a 3rd workout partner that is a legitimate heavyweight can only help.

In the above listing we have 2 top 10 wrestlers. There are 6 more wrestlers that are ranked between 10 and 20. An additional 6 wrestlers are in the top 35, and therefore likely capable of being ncaat qualifiers. One other wrestler is ranked 38, so just outside of this group. That is a total of 14 wrestlers that are currently ranked to be likely ncaat qualifiers, meaning that we have a good shot of sending at least 8 back to the ncaat again next season. With the addition of Jipp and Alvarez to 197 and heavyweight respectively, we have at least 3 wrestlers at each weight which strengthens the workout room. There are no guarantees, but we have a team that is built to compete, with young wrestlers positioned to step in and compete at a high level should there be injuries. Where there were obvious holes in the lineup, we upgraded through the transfer portal. The fact that we did not bring in a transfer at 149 leads me to believe either we are set there, or we ran out of money (there are still options in the portal to take ncaat qualifiers from Cornell and Columbia).

So how do we stack up against the acc opponents? Dual team rankings from WS show Tech leading the way ranked #5, followed by Stanford at #8. As I have mentioned, UNC is ranked #10 as a dual team. Pitt and state are ranked #13 and #15 respectively. Virginia is ranked #33, and dook still lags behind coming in at #69. Having 5 top 15 teams suggests that the acc is getting better in wrestling. We still appear to be in 3rd place, which is very consistent with our positioning in the conference over the past several years. We should be competitive with everyone, with the possible exception of Tech. They may be tough to beat for the next few years.

The transfer portal was relatively good for us, though we lost 4 wrestlers we brought in 2 quality replacements for our graduation/portal losses. Tech lost 5 wrestlers via the portal. Although some of their losses were very good wrestlers, none have significantly impacted their predicted success. Stanford had 4 excellent wrestlers enter the portal, but 3 of the 4 have since committed to coming back. Pitt broke even in terms of numbers, and state may have been the biggest portal loser in the conference based on losing a national champion wrestler. A key reason why Hickey transferred to state may have been that they were in need of a 125 pounder after Robinson left for Nebraska.

The bottom line is that I am excited about the prospects for next year. Key challenges will be for all the wrestlers to keep improving and take a step forward. For some that is simply becoming more consistent, and not making freshmen mistakes. For others that may be getting more aggressive, and getting take downs in the OT period against high quality wrestlers. Are we where we want to be? Not yet, but we are moving the right direction. The challenge for us is to get wrestlers challenging for national championships, rather than being fringe AAs. If our 2 wrestlers that are ranked in the top 10 make AA, then next year will be a better finish than last year. If any of our top 16 wrestlers can also make AA, then we have a very good year for UNC. If none of that pans out due to injury or bad luck, then we are back to where we were a year ago as far as our tournament finish. We should all be excited about next season, but I am trying to be realistic as well. We always finished higher when we had at least 1 wrestler that was pretty much guaranteed to finish in the top 4.

posted on Facebook is a reminder of the impact of an individually dominant wrestler can have on a wrestling program.

The 2026 recruiting class is very good with 5 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 for their weights in their senior year of high school. While last season saw an unusual number of true freshmen perform well at the ncaat, this is not the norm and most true freshmen will not get the chance to start. The perception of using true freshmen may change with the 5 for 5 rule that is being considered, but there is normally an adjustment that is necessary for incoming freshmen to be ready to compete at the college level. After multiple key injuries we ended up using 2 true freshmen last year, and they were both competitive even if not fully adjusted to the college level. The assumption was that they would redshirt this year, but with the likely passing of the 5 for 5 rule they and the incoming freshmen will no longer be looking at redshirting as a way to adjust. If they earn the spot, they will likely wrestle going forward. While I am not sure that is what is best for the wrestlers or the sport, we are not likely going back to the days of all freshmen being on JV teams and practice squads.

The freshmen class coming in includes Dunia Sibomana (aka Dunia Sibomana-Rodriguez), ranked #10 at 120 by FloWrestling. He is from NY, by way of the Congo. His story has been documented as a survivor of a chimpanzee attack in 2014, before coming to America for medical help as an 8 year old. He was eventually adopted by Long Beach wrestling coach Miguel Rodriguez. He is a 3 time state champion in NY, and while still a high school student he won gold medals in both the U20 and Senior African Wrestling Championships representing the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is not likely he will win the starting spot at 125, but it will be very interesting to see how he matches up with Cam Stinson to back up McCrone.

Lukas Littleton Mascaro is a PA state champion and 2 time prep national champion. He wrestled for Malvern Prep in PA, a top prep school wrestling program that also gave us Nick O’Neill. While he was very highly ranked at one point, he dropped out of the rankings in his senior year with 10 losses. He lost 4 matches as forfeits, 4 matches by 1 point in tie breaker situations, and 2 matches by a takedown or less. Given the 4 forfeits I am not sure if injuries played a part in his losses and/or his ranking drop, but he wrestled consistently at a high level in his high school career winning 1 PA state championship in 3 final appearances. He can likely compete with Sibomana and Stinson in his freshman year, but will probably end his career at 133 I would guess.

Brody Kelly is 1 of 3 recruits ranked #6 at their weight by FloWrestling at the end of their high school wrestling career. He is a 2 time state champion from Illinois, this year pinning 3 of 4 opponents in the state tournament including in the championship match at 175 pounds. The other match was a tech fall win. Note that Kelly is from Elmhurst Illinois IC Catholic Prep, as is Mikey Calcagno, our backup 197 pounder. I expect him to be competing at 174, at least initially, unless he stays up at 184 rather than cutting weight given the likely starters are set for both weights.

Nadav Nafshi is another prep national champion from Lake Highland Prep, and is ranked #8 at 175 pounds by FloWrestling. Although listed as a 2027 recruit on Intermat, all indications are that he is in fact in the 2026 class and will be at Carolina this summer/fall. Note that Lake Highland is also Jacob Levy’s high school. He started the year his senior year in high school as a 165 pounder, and could possibly drop back down to that weight, though not likely to beat out our returning AA for that starting spot.

Ronin Gault is also coming in this summer/fall from Lake Highland Prep. He is not ranked, though he had been at points prior to the end of his high school career. His record for his senior year of high school was 26-4, but I don’t believe he was wrestling for Lake Highland in the end of year tournaments. It also appears that he wrestles Greco Roman style tournaments, and will likely join Omaury Alvarez and Tyler Eischens in that style of wrestling.

Lincoln Jipp bumped up several weight classes to wrestle at 215 this past season, finishing with a tech fall in the state championship match to complete his Bettendorf Iowa High School career. He won the championship match 21-6, after apparently being up 8-4 with 30 seconds left in the match. When most wrestlers stall out the match, he rattled off 3 take downs and back points to win by a tech fall. His Flo ranking is #6 for the 215 weight class. More recently he wrestled in the U20 US Open at 92kg (roughly 203 pounds) finishing 2nd, and will most likely wrestle at 197 for Carolina.

The final freshman addition to the 2026-2027 wrestling team is Christian Alvarez, a heavyweight ranked #6 at his weight by FloWrestling at the end of his high school career. He was a late addition, committing to play football and wrestle at UNC. In his last high school match he won the NJ state championship at heavyweight. It remains to be seen how the partnership between football and wrestling works out, but regardless he is a great addition to a thin heavyweight room.

Given the likely passing of the 5 for 5 rule in college sports, all freshman should be considered in the competition for starter spots as the redshirt year will be of little value. Two of the incoming freshmen are likely to wrestle 125 in their first year. With McCrone coming in to take the 125 starting spot, I don’t see either of the freshmen winning this spot year 1. Nor do I see them jumping up and taking the spot at 133 from either Botello or Guanajuato. Even with 2 top 8 ranked wrestlers coming out of high school, I don’t see any of the 3 freshmen wrestling around the 174 class taking a starting spot from Hepner, Ogunsanya, or Hansen (all 3 ranked between 16-10 per WS). Platt and Neves are both ranked in the 20s on WS, and should be able to hold on to their spots, theoretically, but Jipp and Alvarez are coming into the program ranked #6 at their weights in high school. There could be some competition at these weights from the freshmen, as well as from Calcagno and Levy.

I will close this with my predictions for the blue/white match. Remember that Koll doesn’t normally wrestle the presumed starters in these matches, but generally does give the freshmen a chance to wrestle for the first time in a college singlet. My guess is that Sibomana vs. Stinson, Littleton-Mascaro vs. Tocci, Gault vs. Alvarez, Nafshi vs. Carrigan, Kelly vs. Portella, Jipp vs. Calcagno, and Alvarez (if he is not tied up with football) vs. Levy. I sincerely doubt we will see key matches like Botello vs. Guanajuato or matches with Askew/Younger/O’Neill for the 149 spot, Simcox vs. O’Neill for the 141 spot, or Root vs. Showalter for the 157 spot.

It should be another fun year to watch the freshmen start to have an impact on the program, but absent key injuries which are clearly possible, I don’t see many freshmen starts in key matches. If we should see a significant true freshman impact it is either really good based on them earning the spot over a really good wrestler, or it is really bad because of injuries creating opportunities again.