UNC Wrestling 2025-2026

[NYHeel92]

The squad for Southeast Open on Sunday was announced today. 28 guys wrestling. The 8 not wrestling are: Guanajuato (133), Hepner (165), Hickey - FR (125/133), Nugent (157), O'Boyle (174), Ogunsanya (174), Schlett (184), Terukina (125)

I think it's pretty common for upperclassmen to skip this event, especially if there is even a minor injury...so not too surprised that Hepner, Ogunsanya, Terukina not wrestling

Areas of interest for me:
We'll see 6 of the 7 true frosh wrestle (all except for Hickey). And all of the RS-Frosh except for Schlett. We'll start to see more of what we have for the future. Particularly interested in Younger after he beat O'Neill in Blue / White.

Only 3 of our 28 will be wrestling in the Freshman / Soph division (Botello, Sipes, Levy). In years past, there was bigger proportion in the lower division which probably speaks to our confidence in the last two recruiting classes.

Weight clarity: Scott listed at 141, same as last year. Wonder if they would consider moving him or Simcox up to 149 if they are clearly part of our "best 10". Daracott is listed at 165...M1 had logically speculated he could move down to 157 to avoid competing with Hepner for starting spot at 165.

Finally, interested in our 5 guys at 184 to see if anyone can separate themselves from the crowd. Similar with the 3 at 149. And finally, most interested in Platt and Simcox results, in terms of the 2nd year wrestlers.

 

[81Heel/M1]

I will start out with AOC news, with a link below for the Intermat article. AOC has signed up for the RAF (Real American Freestyle) event in Chicago, and will be wrestling against Austin Gomez. To my knowledge this will be the first wrestling event that AOC has participated in since finishing his career at UNC.

With thanks to NYH92 for a couple of huge social media finds today, I predictably have some additional thoughts.

Hate that any of our wrestlers will miss this event, but better now than later. With Terukina and Hickey out at 125, Stinson will be the lone representative at 125 this weekend. Don't remember for sure that they keep a team score, but if so Cam is it here. Other weights there may be some question as to who you would designate for the team points, but only 1 choice here. Hate that Guantajauto is out of the tournament, because I think he should be ready to make his presence known. Oakley should be good in this event, but he needs to work on aggressive offense to go with his usually sound defensive style.

I assume that this will be part of the wrestle off between Scott vs. Simcox to see who gets the 141 spot. Presumably the loser here will go up against O'Neill for the 149 spot, though with 2 true freshmen at this weight one could redshirt this year and the other next if they are good enough to earn the spot.

I still haven't completely given up on Darracott dropping to 157 if he is able, especially if there is an expectation that Hepner will be out for at least a few weeks and we need someone to fill that slot. That said for the time being the competition this weekend is between Alvarez, Root, and Showalter. An argument could be made for each having a shot here, and I could see at least 2 of them getting chances in the starting lineup over the next few weeks. Darracott at 165 has the feel of holding a spot for Hepner to come back, but you never know. With the preseason to prepare, vs joining the team mid season last year, he may be ready to compete. Just getting a win in competition will have to feel good for him if he can have a good weekend.

Hate missing both Ogunsanya and O'Boyle at 174, but it gives a chance for Portella or Tenold to make their case for opportunities to wrestle. At 184 the field is wide open, and I could see multiple matches between UNC wrestlers at this weight. I could easily see a rematch of the Fea vs Dailey match from last week, and maybe the tournament atmosphere would be good for Fea. If he is not focused on a specific match, maybe the stress that Coach Koll talked about will not be as bad.

I am looking forward to seeing how Platt does, as he like Simcox carries a lot of expectations. Calcogno apparently wrestled well last weekend, so he too may have a chance to demonstrate his value to the team. At heavyweight I am hoping Neves comes out aggressively. Last year was kind of the proof of concept, and this year he should be ready to make some noise.

Not sure what criteria they used to decide that only 3 would compete in the freshmen/sophomore tournament, but each of the 3, Botello, Sipes, and Levy, should be capable of winning matches in this sub-tournament.

Good luck to the Heels this weekend, and to AOC in Chicago. Go Heels.

 

[Princemyshkin]

Ready for some action!

 

[81Heel/M1]

Intermat has posted that the Bickerton twins committed to UNC. Brandon is ranked #10 at 113, and Austin is #16 at 120. They are junior so the class f 2027.

 

[81Heel/M1]

Intermat added the third commitment, Nadav Nafshi, a senior at LakeHighland Prep. He is ranked #14 by Flo and #6 by SIat 165.

 

[NYHeel92]

Great recruiting news! And very cool about AOC wrestling Austin Gomez at RAF. Intermat pitched it as two greater Chicago guys who wrestled each other from a young age but never in college.

 

[Princemyshkin]

Recruiting news is nice, he keeps signing better guys. Let’s hope they start to come through. Definitely has program getting better.

 

[Jriv23]

Do we have any assistant coaches yet?

 

[81Heel/M1]

Do we have any assistant coaches yet?

I am not aware of any replacement assistant coaches being hired and have not found any indication of any hires on goheels, THWC or other wrestling sites. Keep in mind that there are still 2 assistants, plus Coach Shriner and 2 support staff members of the THWC that both wrestled in college, Charles Small and Fredy Stroker. In addition there are the resident athletes in the THWC that may be able to assist within the compliance guidelines, noting that Ethan Ramos is still an assistant at dook as far as I know.

I am hoping the University hiring process is slowing down an announcement of something in the works. Ideally it would be a home run hire that will be announced soon. This is probably not likely, but this team could use any help it can get. Dual team rankings for this team are around #20, and with key freshmen in the lineup they could vary either way. Additional coaches for this team could be Important In order to reach its full potential (Individually for the wrestlers, and as a team).

 

[Princemyshkin]

Someone with an emphasis on the higher weights?

 

[81Heel/M1]

Before I attempt a summary of the Southeast Open, I noted that McNeil (#2) lost to Swiderski (#5) in the NWCA All Star Classic by a score of 4-2. Hoping Michigan can help him get over the hump, but it sounds like Swiderski was simply more aggressive than he was. This weight might get interesting as Henson from VT is electing to use his redshirt this season.

For this summary I have only reviewed the brackets, and so have very little more than wins and losses. Also note that the format is not the normal format, as wrestlers making it to the semi-finals in the championship bracket don't go to the consolation brackets for full wrestle offs. Winners in the semi-finals wrestle for the title (1/2) and losers in the semis wrestle for third (3/4). With this anomaly, the top 6 places are awarded, so the consolation semi-final losers are considered a top 8 finish with no defined 7th place winner. Hope this makes sense.
125 - Stinson finished in 6th place, after losing a close match early (5-6 score in the early loss). As previously noted Terukina and Hickey did not wrestle today.
133 - Oakley lost (4-5) to Hohman from state in the quarters, then wrestled back to a top 8 finish. Tocci finished in the top 12 at the weight.
141 - Scott and Navida both won 2 matches before losing in the quarters, then Scott did not wrestle due to a medical default, and Navida defaulted during his consolation match. Both finished top 12, but the big story is Simcox placed 2nd to Vombaur from Minn (#8 nationally, and the #1 seed). Simcox was the highest place among the UNC wrestlers in the open division.
149 - Askew was the main story for this weight, finishing top 8 with a 4-2 win over Younger to end his day in the top 12.
157 - Root and Showalter made it to the 5th place match, and the brackets show that Showalter was awarded 5th, though the score they show is 0-0.It does not look like they actually wrestled. Note that Kane finished a respectable top 12.
165 - Darracott was the only wrestler entered at this weight, and he finished top 8. As previously noted Hepner did not wrestle, and Darracott may be our guy until he is ready to go.
174 - Portella, top 8, and Tenold, top 12 represented UNC here with Ogunsanya and O'Boyle bot sitting this one out.
184 - With Fea not wrestling, Dailey beat Murabito to take 5th place. Carrigan lost to Murabito to finish top 8, and the other Tenold twin finished top 12.
197 - Platt finished 6th after losing a match in the 2nd round that he maybe should have won.
285 - Neves finished 4th behind Mullen from VT in the 3rd place match. The top 2 spots at this weight were from Minnesota, and I believe they have some really good history with this weight class in recent years.

In the Freshman/Sophomore division we had 3 wrestlers. Botello lost his first match, 1-4, before wrestling back to take 5th at 133. Sipes lost in the semis, before winning the 3rd place match at 165. Though this was the lesser tournament, Levy won the championship at heavyweight. Well done by these 3 true freshmen.

Not a ton of information gained compared to what I was hoping, or maybe I was hoping some wrestlers would do a little better. Its early and there are a lot of young wrestlers, so results may vary throughout the year. Next week is Northern Colorado, and their only tough weight according to WS is 133. Right now I would guess Simcox is at 141, and if both Scott and Navida are not ready to go I would guess Askew gets the call at 149. It is possible it would still be O'Neill in order to hold the redshirts for Askew and Younger, but he does not appear to have claimed the spot so far. Don't know if there was an injury issue at 157, or if they just decided teammates didn't need to wrestle that match. Either way it seems Root and Showalter are fairly evenly matched. With Dailey taking the slight lead in the 184 competition, it seems possible that Murabito or Carrigan could drop back down and challenge for 174 if Ogunsanya and/or O'Boyle are not able to go. Terukina, Oakley, Platt, and Neves seem to be solidly in control for their weights, though Guantajuato could conceivably challenge when he is healthy (just assuming health was the reason he did not travel for this event).
Just my thoughts after a good start to wrestling, but I will note that I hope more of these young wrestlers are challenging for championships in this tournament down the road.

 

[NYHeel92]

It's always hard to sort through SE Open results. So many wrestlers. Here are a couple thoughts:

The big news was Simcox at 141. Whether he would wrestle up to his high school ranking was the biggest uncertainty on the season for me and this weekend was definitely positive. There were 4 ranked wrestlers in this bracket, including Jayden Scott. Simcox beat #20 Tom Crook from Va Tech, then beat a guy from Maryland who had beaten #29 Titus from W Va. He lost to #9 Vombaur from Minn in the Final but he was in the match.

RS Frosh other than Simcox did well. Specifically Root, Dailey, Navida, Platt, Carrigan. Root had a loss to Citadel that maybe he should have won but was pretty dominant in other matches. He probably has inside track on 157, with Showalter also in the mix. Both of them lost to Citadel wrestlers in the second round...then in Consi's, Root beat the guy who Showalter lost to and Showalter beat the guy who Root lost too. Shrug.

At 184, there were 4 ranked wrestlers and they all made the Semi's. Dailey lost 7-6 to #22 from Va Tech on a takedown with 1 second left. Then was dominant in the Consi's until he beat UNC's Murabito 7-6 in the final. Great showing by Dailey.

True Freshmen: Levy was in the Fresh / Soph division but was dominant with 2 pins, 2 majors, and a 7-0 win in the final. Askew had a good tournament, picking up some wins. All the rest also had wins and look fairly promising although maybe no one that looks ready to contribute.

Great to see Darracott pick up some wins. Neves did OK. Good win against Ferrell, the backup at VT. Lost to #25 Tabor from Minn in a close match and then got smoked by VT's starter, who I think Neves beat last year. A little revenge, I guess.

Overall, encouraged by the young guys. We'll have a good dual team this year and it will be fun to watch guys develop. Looking forward to see how the initial lineup will shake out and whether we will start to see guys like Terukina, Ogunsanya, Hepner.

 

[81Heel/M1]

The link is not showing up on my tablet, but Intermat new rankings have 125-Terukina #20, 133-Oakley #20, 141-Simcox #19, 165-Hepner #19, 174-Ogunsanya #15, 197-Platt #32, and 285-Neves #25.

UNC Wrestling (@uncwrestling) on Threads

Fresh rankings heading into the home opener 🗣️

www.threads.com

 

[NYHeel92]

Oakley and Platt dropped a bit. Simcox replaced Scott in the rankings at 141, at a higher ranking.

 

[81Heel/M1]

Looks like Sunday’s match is available on ACC NX, and I’m stuck with YouTube as my tv provider. May have to work on that.

 

[heelwrestler07]

Looks like Sunday’s match is available on ACC NX, and I’m stuck with YouTube as my tv provider. May have to work on that.

Don't think YouTubeTV is prepared for impact of the subscribers they will lose due to not having access to UNC wrestling matches

 

[NYHeel92]

That’s true! It will be measured in at least the dozens of dollars!

 

[81Heel/M1]

Goheels has its article up on the match with U of Northern Colorado (see link below). They list the probable starting lineup with:
125 - Terukina
133 - Oakley
141 - Simcox
149 - Askew or O'Neill
157 - Showalter or Root
165 - Hepner or Darracott
174 - Ogunsanya
184 - Dailey
197 - Platt
285 - Neves or Levy

Good to see a few of the starters listed that were not apparently able to go last week. Listing Askew or O'Neill at 149 suggests that Scott is not able to go this week, after Medical forfeiting out of last week's tournament. The only one of the 'or' situations that is puzzling to me is at heavyweight. It is hard to know how they will play this, noting that this should be an easy win overall. They could either go ahead and use the freshmen where they have earned it, knowing we should win the match anyway, or give them some early match experience using them against a hopefully lesser team.

Anyone watching the match should be thinking about looking for evidence of a potential coach that may not have fully cleared the UNC hiring process.

No. 23 Wrestling Hosts Northern Colorado Sunday In Home Opener - University of North Carolina Athletics

Action between the Tar Heels and Bears gets underway at Noon, Sunday inside Carmichael Arena.

goheels.com

 

[NYHeel92]

Very cool to see this first starting lineup of the year. Excellent to see the key guys who sat out SE Open on the list (Terukina, Hepner, Ogunsanya). No real holes where the opposition is going to get free points. Definitely some question marks on what we'll get from 149 / 157 / 184 / 197, but there is good talent there just low experience.

Could easily see our best lineup being 5 upper-classmen transfers (Terukina, Oakley, Hepner, Ogunsanya, Neves) and 5 redshirt freshmen (Simcox, O'Neill, Root, Dailey, Platt). This isn't a great tournament points team but I think a very good dual team.

 

[81Heel/M1]

Interesting that WS ranks us the #22 dual team, but has us in a 28 way tie at #51 for tournament teams. We are lumped in with dook, but using WS individual rankings we would score around 4-5 points at the ncaat vs dook would score 0 points at ncaat. Their highest ranked wrestler is #31, which would get him to the tournament but predicts he would lose his first 2 matches and score 0 points. Last year 4-5 points would have placed a team around 45th, while 0 points put you at 60th.

A couple of weeks back we were a little higher in the dual team rankings, and around #31 in the tournament rankings. Frankly the only way we finish in the top 31 at ncaat is if we have multiple wrestlers exceed expectations. Certainly possible, but I expect a return to the top 25 or so to be at least a year away. Hope they can prove me wrong. Last year we had 17 points, and 3/4 of those points were earned by McNeal. 20.5 points would have gotten us top 20 last year.

For Sunday’s match with the other UNC, they predict we win 31-3. Oakley is the only wrestler from the predicted starting lineups that is expected to lose, so he has the best chance to improve his ranking. The rest of the team can only move up in the rankings, theoretically, is to take care of business and hope someone ranked above them slips up.

 

[81Heel/M1]

Match day, and I have moved my few dozen dollars away from YouTubeTV to Hulu so I can see it. Oakley needs to be ready to go today, and I am looking forward to seeing new transfers Terukina and Hepner (if he is healthy) along with the freshmen stepping into starting spots.

 

[Jriv23]

Thanks for sharing. I glad that I already have Hulu. Go Heels!

 

[81Heel/M1]

Missed the first 4 matches, but got to see Ogunsanya win. Saving 133 for the finale apparently.

 

[81Heel/M1]

Having seen the entire match now, I have a few observations. They didn’t show the bench area much, but I saw no evidence of any new coaches hanging around. There were 3 tech falls, 2 from R-Fr (Simcox and Platt) and 1 from R-So (Neves). Root had the only major decisions, and 5 matches were simple decisions, before Oakley finished the match with a much anticipated match that turned into a medical forfeit. Final score 40-0. Terukina and Hepner wrestled their first match as a Tar Heel, and Ogunsanya his first match of the season as well. A little rusty, but you can’t complain about a solid win.

 

[heelwrestler07]

Wasn't able to catch it live, I am going to go back and catch a replay of it, but thanks for the rundown, sounds like things went well. How much wrestling happened in the 133 match before the medical forfeit?

 

[81Heel/M1]

Wasn't able to catch it live, I am going to go back and catch a replay of it, but thanks for the rundown, sounds like things went well. How much wrestling happened in the 133 match before the medical forfeit?

None. Oakley just walked out and they raised his hand. Also of note that a true freshman started at 149, though I expect Scott to take that spot if Simcox has won the 141 spot.

 

[HONKYTONKTARASSOCIATION]

had the match cut on
a complete obliteration

 

[UNCAlum83]

No. 23 Wrestling Blanks Northern Colorado, 40-0 - University of North Carolina Athletics

Up next, the Tar Heels host Navy on Saturday at 3 PM inside Carmichael Arena.

goheels.com

 

[3397char]

Northern Colorado has multiple unis like any other team that they could wear to our house. They decided to bust out the "UNC" ones. I am glad we beat them 40-0

 

[heelwrestler07]

Northern Colorado has multiple unis like any other team that they could wear to our house. They decided to bust out the "UNC" ones. I am glad we beat them 40-0

 

[81Heel/M1]

Great post to highlight 3397Char's point.

Haven't fully looked ahead yet, but I will add a few more comments before moving on the Navy soon. I thought Terukina moved well, but its always awkward wrestling a tall skinny kid. Bet he doesn't stay at 125 long after this year. Simcox was dominant on the mat, but did not seem very aggressive on his feet. I thought Askew looked good for a true freshman, but I am still hoping he can redshirt. Root looked to be very good at defending shots, but I am afraid that works better against weaker competition than with better wrestlers. Still he had some pretty impressive recoveries from shots. Hepner took care of business, with nothing fancy. Likewise Ogunsanya just got it done. Both were wrestling their first matches of the season. Dailey and Platt were both very solid, though Dailey's win was a little close for comfort with a R-Fr that hasn't proven over and over again they can win the close ones (think AOC his last year). I thought Neves looked aggressive on his feet, and showed some pretty good shots. It will be interesting to see how he does against higher level competition.

WS shows Navy winning at 149, 174, 197, and heavyweight. At 149 they flip the script if Scott is the starter, and either way they show it as a close match. At 174 and heavyweight they have top 10 wrestlers (#4 at 174, and #9 at heavyweight). A chance for Ogunsanya and Neves to improve their ranking, if they can pull off an upset. At 197 they have simply projected an upset win for Navy, and Platt should take that personally. That's all for now.

 

[NYHeel92]

Very funny about N Colorado making a mistake in wearing their UNC singlets! Wonder how many times this UNC vs UNC matchup has happened in any sport. Can’t recall any off the top of my head.

N Colorado wrestled State the day before, so a chance to make some comparisons. State’s lineup was consistent with the Wrestle Stat projected starting lineup (except for 285 where the State starter didn’t wrestle). Suriano from N Colo won at 133 against State and forfeited against us.

If we ignore those two weights, UNC outscored N Colo 74-19 (+55) in aggregate. State outscored them 67-25 (+42). We had 2 techs and a major, State had 3 majors. We performed a bit better. Doesn’t mean anything but interesting to me.

There were 3 weights where our wrestlers outperformed State pretty meaningfully.

141: Simcox won 15-0. Ryan Jack (ranked 16) won 13-5.

157: Root won 14-4. Jackson Arrington (ranked 4) won 6-4. Root looked great on scrambles like M1 mentioned.

197: Platt won 17-2. State’s Cason Howle (ranked 75) won 4-3. Platt scored mostly on “throw-by’s” which hard to know how that translates against better wrestlers.

The only weight where State outperformed us meaningfully was 149 where Askew won 4-2 and Buesgens from State (ranked 18) won 11-2.

Can’t take much from one match but results were encouraging overall.

 

[Princemyshkin]

Navy will be a much better team, we will find out more about our team. Will be interesting to see how we stack up.

 

[TAHeel]

 

[heelwrestler07]

That explains some things, hopefully he has a complete recovery from whatever his injury is and is ready to go next season

 

[3397char]

Tough loss. Godspeed on your recovery, Jayden!

 

[Princemyshkin]

Hopefully not a career threatening injury. Godspeed!!!

 

[81Heel/M1]

It’s a shame he will have to redshirt because he will miss the reminder of the season, but I am glad not being reminded to wrestle qualifies him to redshirt. Sorry, but my wife likes to point out such mistakes, and I guess I am finally getting conditioned to do the same.

Wish Jayden a quick recovery, whatever the injury.

Obviously Askew was the short-term fit for that spot, but will he hold down the spot for the season? Navida (141), Younger, and O’Neill are the other clear options to fill in this spot. Out of this group Askew may be the best option, though I believe Younger lost to Askew by a single point. Other options could come from one of Root, Showalter, or Kane if they can drop the weight to get down to 149.

 

[heelwrestler07]

While this is obviously not a great thing for this season, it might work out for saving Jayden for a season we are better prepared for team success as all the young guys develop over the course of this season. Trying to look on the bright side here.

 

[81Heel/M1]

Had 5 freshmen in the lineup - nerve wracking taste of thee future.