No. 17 Wrestling Sends Contingent to Midlands Championships

Monday, December 29

Evanston, Ill.

All Day

Rutgers University

Midlands Championships

Photo by: Cos Lymperopoulos

No. 17 Wrestling Sends Contingent to Midlands Championships

Dec 27 | Wrestling

Live Mat Feeds (Big Ten Plus)

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 17 Rutgers wrestling sends several competitors at the 2025 Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, held Monday and Tuesday in Evanston, Illinois. Action from Ryan Fieldhouse begins at 10:30 a.m. ET, with all matches streamed on Big Ten Plus.

Projected Lineup

Attached
165:Ryan Ford
165: 32/NR Andrew Barbosa
184: 15/18 Shane Cartagena-Walsh
197: 18/16 Remy Cotton
197:PJ Casale
HWT: 25/24 Hunter Catka

Unattached
133: 20/14 Dylan Shawver
149: 27/24 Andrew Clark
157:Conner Harer
174:Jordan Chapman
*rankings Intermat/FloWrestling

Last Time Out

Rutgers defeated Drexel, 28-12, on Dec. 14 in front of 2,940 fans at Jersey Mike's Arena. Down 12-6 at intermission, the Scarlet Knights won their final five bouts to secure their sixth dual victory of the season.
RU muscled a 7-3 match split with Drexel, as No. 9 Lenny Pinto (174) pinned No. 18 Jasiah Queen and No. 18 Remy Cotton worked a ranked major decision over No. 31 Ibrahim Ameer. No. 15 Shane Cartagena-Walsh (184) and No. 22 Hunter Catka (HWT) added bonus points, while No. 29 Ayden Smith (125), No. 27 Andrew Clark (149) and Andrew Barbosa (165) contributed decisions.

In the Rankings

Rutgers moved up to No. 17 in this week's NWCA Coaches Poll. The Scarlet Knights are one of 10 Big Ten Conference programs ranked this week, including No. 1 Penn State, No. 2 Ohio State, No. 4 Iowa, No. 6 Nebraska, No. 10 Illinois, No. 11 Minnesota, No. 12 Michigan, No. 19 Wisconsin and No. 25 Indiana.
Ten Scarlet Knights are ranked in at least one national poll, with all 10 weights ranked by Intermat.
Joseph Olivieri (141) and Lenny Pinto (174) are the program's highest-ranked wrestlers heading into the new year, pegged No. 6 and No. 9 in their respective weight classes by Intermat.

Last Time at Midlands

Behind an individual title from No. 18 Dean Peterson (125) and a program-record nine placewinners, No. 16 Rutgers wrestling finished second at the 2024 Ken Kraft Midlands Championships.
Peterson was one of four individual finalists at Midlands, along with No. 16 Dylan Shawver (133), No. 20 Joseph Olivieri (141) and No. 29 Shane Cartagena-Walsh (184). No. 5 Yaraslau Slavikouski (HWT) wrestled back to a bronze medal, while No. 33 Andrew Clark (149) and Brian Soldano (184) both finished fourth. No. 22 Jackson Turley (174) placed fifth, and No. 14 John Poznanski (197) finished sixth.
With their nine placewinners and 147 team points, the Scarlet Knights finished only behind Stanford, who claimed the team trophy with 157 points. Penn finished third with 131. It marked the most team points scored at the championships in school history and matched its best team result recorded in 2017.