Wrestling 2026-2027

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.

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).

Recruiting Board for Class of 2027 and beyond:

2027 Brandon Bickerton (113) Medina Highland, OH
Austin Bickerton (120) Medina Highland, OH
Owen Clark (150) Lansing, NY
Kane Shawger (150) St. Xavier, OH - State Champion
Ben Ziola (150) Skutt Catholic, NE - State Champion
Steel Meyers (165) Allen, TX - State Champion
Daniel (Mick) Moylan (215) Poway, CA

Currently there are 34 wrestlers that I have listed on the roster for 2026-2027. One may not count against the wrestling roster limit of 30, as he is on football scholarship as well. At least 3 are likely remaining holdover "designated student athletes" that are grandfathered on the roster and may exceed the limit. I count 6 wrestlers that are likely to run out of eligibility next year, and 7 freshmen coming in at this point. Almost certainly things will change somewhat, but at this point that is what the numbers look like to me.

I have used the SI rankings in the past, but tend more towards the Flo rankings these days. The Flo rankings are much more limited (only 20 per weight class), but they are likely much more accurate. I will add the some rankings soon, where the wrestlers are ranked in the Flo rankings.

This might be a good time to remind everyone that I have little to no inside information at any time. The information I am providing is publicly available, is my opinion, or is someone else's opinion that I am passing along. As such, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong, or to provide differing view points as you might disagree with my take on things. As Buck occasionally points out, reasonable minds may come up with different opinions.

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 (neither qualified for ncaat, however).

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 red-shirting 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. Note: per Greg's article on the 5 for 5 proposal, it sounds like wrestlers already enrolled may choose between the 4 in 5 vs the 5 for 5 rules, and Askew/Levy would choose the 5 for 5 as they can simply keep on wrestling without giving up the 5th year of eligibility.

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.

U20 and U23 USA Team trial participants:
U20 - Askew (70kg), Alvarez (77kg - Greco I'm guessing), Platt )97kg), and Levy (125kg)

U23 - Stinson (57kg), Tocci (61kg), Askew/Younger/O'Neill (70kg). Root/Showalter/Nugent (74kg), Carrigan/Portella/Alvarez (79kg), O'Boyle/Schlett (86kg), Calcagno (92kg), Platt (97kg) and Levy (125kg)

Because the link didn't work and I had to copy the wrestlers/weights, I will make a couple of observations. First, I believe Alvarez is trying for Greco in the U20 bracket, but appears to be going freestyle in the U23 bracket. Looks like Askew, Younger, and O'Neill are targeting the 149 weight class, implying that Simcox will be staying down at 141. This seems to confirm that O'Boyle is all in at 184. I could be misreading this and some of the guys are just not cuttng weight in the off season, but it does imply that some guys may be moving up a weight class.

Looks like the trials start on Thursday, 5/28/26 in Geneva, Ohio.

Askew and Platt lost in the semifinals of the U20 brackets, and there next match will be for a chance to wrestle for third. Levy lost in the quarters, but is also in the consolation semifinals.
In the U23 GR, Alvarez also lost in the semifinals and will be wrestling in the consolation semifinals next as well.

Platt finished 3rd, Askew 4th, and Levy 5th/6th in the U20 freestyle. Alvarez 5th in the U23 GR.

Today they started wrestling the U23 freestyle trials, and there are a lot of wrestlers in the brackets.

Wrestlers already eliminated:
61kg - Tocci (1 win)
70kg - Younger (2 wins), O’Neill (3 wins)
74kg - Showalter (5 wins), Askew (3 wins)
79kg - Alvarez (4 wins), Nugent (1 win)
86kg - Schlett (0 wins)
125kg - Levy (3 wins)

Still in consolation:
57kg - Stinson (4 wins so far)
74kg - Root (4 wins so far)
79kg - Portella (4 wins so far)
86KG - O’Boyle (5 wins so far)
92kg - Calcagno (3 wins so far)
125kg - Neves (3 wins so far)

Still in championship bracket:
79kg - Carrigan (4 wins so far) interestingly Carrigan’s next match is Matt Singleton

I think the final results are as follows:

Top 16 finish - Stinson, Portella, and Neves
Top 12 finish (blood round loss) - Root, Carrigan, and O’Boyle
4th place finish - Calcagno

I haven’t checked everyone, but Root lost to the champion and third place finisher at his weight, and Carrigan lost to the champion and 4th place finisher. Not a bad result for our young wrestlers that participated. Special congratulations to Calcagno on an excellent tournament.

As a side note, O’Boyle lasted 4 rounds farther in consolations than Dailey.

A few additional notes:

Stinson wrestled well, apparently, after falling in the rankings during the season.
Should make it clear that Askew wrestled at 70kg (154#) in the U20 tournament, and at 74 (163#) in the U23 tournament.
As stated above Root and Carrigan lost to the champion at their weight, and the third and fourth place finishers respectively.
Portella lost to the seventh and eighth place finishers.
After not wrestling this year, O’Boyle had a good tournament. He beat the wrestler that beat Dailey in the championship bracket, and lasted several consolation rounds deeper in the tournament than Dailey.
Though he lost to Stout (Pitt) in the consolation finals, Calcagno beat Brophy from state on his way to a 4th place finish.
It was good to see Neves wrestle well, after struggling with injuries until he was lost for the year.

So based on spending we should average a #16 finish in the near future. Virginia should improve to the point of passing up Pitt, and being competitive with us and state. Pitt should drop out of the top 25. Guessing Stanford was not included because they are a private institution and don’t have to report spending. Also, dook is not listed as a private institution that just never invested much energy or money in wrestling as far as I can tell.

It Will be interesting to see if increased spending by other schools will provide enough dilution of talent at the top to provide for someone not named Penn St to win a title.

Champion at 70kg in the German team trials.

Just looked to confirm that Clark is no longer listed as part of the Tar Heel Wrestling Club/Regional Training Center, though he had been until recently I believe. I remember he announced a break to study for the Bar Exam, though it looks like he did wrestling in the German team trials obviously.

While on the site I noticed that Lipp, and Sibomana are already listed as THWC athletes, suggesting that these incoming freshmen may already be on campus. Maybe not, however, as a couple of high school junior that have committed to UNC are also listed on the site included Moylan (CA) and Ziola (NE). Moylan is currently ranked in the top 20 by Flo, and wrestled 92kg in the USAWrestling Open a while back. Ziola, whose brother is a heavyweight at Nebraska, is listed at 74kg on the THWC site.

Very interesting. Shapiro is a 3X AA, with a best finish at 3rd in 2024. Transferring from Cornell, as Ivy League school don’t allow redshirting. If he is redshirting next year, maybe he or Root will look to bump up to 165 when Hepner finishes next year. This would give us AA plug and play potential AA to replace Hepner. May be tough to beat out Nebraska, state, etc. to get him, but it could be a good pickup for Koll if he can pull it off.

I think they may allow it in specific situations, but you probably have to jump through certain hoops. Just sitting out a year to get a 5th year is not allowed. They also may have to sit out of a semester or so before starting a graduate program Vs. transferring and starting the academic and athletic programs immediately. Their argument is the emphasis should be on the education over competing at the highest athletic levels. To get around the redshirt limitations they sometimes recruit kids to grey shirt or take a gap year, while they work out with the training center.

The bottom line is if you already have an Ivy League degree, why not test the waters with another program? This is basically what Lachlan McNeal did in graduating from UNC (not an Ivy degree, but an excellent degree to have) and joining the Michigan team for a graduate year.

Hope this link works. Some good programs coming for the first ever Tar Heel Duals on Saturday. If you are close to Chapel Hill it might be worth taking in.

The link didn’t work, but it is freestyle dual meet event with 8 teams. Not a complete listing, but Tioga, Lake Highlands, Great Neck, Harrisburgh, Triangle, Union Pines, Raleigh Area, and VATeam Predator wrestling clubs.

Also, Ethan Ramos is wrestling in the Grand Prix event in Spain.

If you can follow this link, the guy has a few good wrestling stories. This one is about wrestling farmer Steve.