No. 11 Wrestling Set for 2026 NCAA Championships

Thursday, March 19

Cleveland, Ohio

Noon

Rutgers University

NCAA Championships - Session I

Photo by: Sarah Snyder

No. 11 Wrestling Set for 2026 NCAA Championships

Mar 18 | Wrestling

ESPN+Live Results NCAA Championships Notes Brackets

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 11 Rutgers wrestling competes at the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships from March 19-21 at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.

The Scarlet Knights are one of just eight programs with nine or more starters at this year's NCAA Championships. The nine participants are the second most for the program at a single national tournament in program history, only trailing the full 10 RU brought to Madison Square Garden in 2016.

NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS LINEUP

WEIGHT	(SEED) NAME	RECORD
125	(24) Ayden Smith	16-11
133	(26) Dylan Shawver****	20-11
141	(9) Joseph Olivieri***	18-2
149	(24) Andrew Clark***	16-10
165	(14) Andrew Barbosa	18-8
174	(21) Lenny Pinto****!	13-10
184	(11) Shane Cartagena-Walsh**	24-8
197	(15) Remy Cotton**^	17-7
HWT	(27) Hunter Catka****&	20-9

*denotes total NCAA Championships qualifications
! qualified from 2023-25 at Nebraska
^ qualified in 2025 at Michigan State
& qualified 2021; 2023-24 at Virginia Tech

ESPN will once again cover every match of the 2026 NCAA Championships, which includes streamed individual mat feeds of every session. ESPN's coverage schedule can be found below.

Thursday, March 19

TIME (ET)	SESSION	COVERAGE (TV/STREAM)
Noon	Session I	ESPN2/ESPN+
7 p.m.	Session II	ESPN/ESPN+

Friday, March 20

TIME (ET)	SESSION	COVERAGE (TV/STREAM)
Noon	Session III	ESPNU/ESPN+
8 p.m.	Session IV	ESPN2/ESPN+

Saturday, March 21

TIME (ET)	SESSION	COVERAGE (TV/STREAM)
11 a.m.	Session V	ESPNU/ESPN+
6:30 p.m.	Session VI	ESPN/ESPN+

OPENING ROUND MATCHUPS

125: No. 24 seed Ayden Smith vs. No. 9 Maximo Renteria (Oregon State)
133: No. 26 seed Dylan Shawver vs. No. 7 seed Lucas Byrd (Illinois)
141: No. 9 seed Joseph Olivieri vs. No. 24 seed Nash Singleton (Oregon State)
149: No. 24 seed Andrew Clark vs. No. 9 seed David Evans (Utah Valley)
165: No. 14 seed Andrew Barbosa vs. No. 19 seed Noah Mulvaney (Bucknell)
174: No. 21 seed Lenny Pinto vs. No. 12 seed Carter Schubert (Oklahoma)
184: No. 11 seed Shane Cartagena-Walsh vs. No. 22 seed Zack Ryder (Oklahoma State)
197: No. 15 seed Remy Cotton vs. No. 18 seed Andrew Reall (Brown)
HWT: No. 27 seed Hunter Catka vs. No. 6 seed Nathan Taylor (Lehigh)

WHAT TO KNOW

Rutgers looks to secure multiple All-Americans for the ninth time in 11 seasons under head coach Scott Goodale. Thirteen individuals have combined for 19 All-America laurels under Goodale, which includes the program's first two individual NCAA Champions in Anthony Ashnault and Nick Suriano in 2019. Dylan Shawver (133) and Yaraslau Slavikouski earned the program's last All-America finishes in 2024 in Kansas City.
Rutgers brings one of its most experienced lineups in program history to Cleveland. The group has appeared in a combined 15 NCAA Championships, owns 28 combined wins at the national tournament and has advanced to six 'Blood Rounds'. Three individuals - Shawver, Lenny Pinto (174) and Hunter Catka (HWT) - all make their fourth career appearance at NCAAs this weekend.
With his at-large selection, Shawver became just the fourth four-time NCAA qualifier in program history.
Joseph Olivieri (141) and Andrew Clark (149) make their third career appearances at NCAAs. Olivieri produced three wins and wrestled in the 'Blood Round' last March in Philadelphia.
Shane Cartagena-Walsh (184) and Remy Cotton (197) return to NCAAs for the second consecutive season. Cartagena-Walsh produced two wins last year, while Cotton went 0-2 competing for Michigan State.
Ayden Smith (125) and Andrew Barbosa (165) compete for the first time after securing automatic bids at Big Tens earlier this month.
This year marks just the fourth time in program history RU will have eight or more participants at the NCAA Championships, joining the cohorts from 2024 (8), 2016 (10) and 2011 (8).
Rutgers is one of eight programs in the country with nine or more participants heading to Cleveland, joining No. 1 Penn State (10), No. 2 Ohio State (10), No. 3 Oklahoma State (10), No. 4 Iowa State (10), No. 5 Nebraska (10), No. 6 Virginia Tech (10) and No. 7 Iowa (9).
With Shawver earning an at-large selection, the Scarlet Knights have secured at least one at-large selection to NCAAs in three consecutive seasons.
Rutgers has qualified five or more student-athletes for the national tournament in 12 consecutive seasons and have sent seven or more to nationals in each of the past five campaigns dating back to 2021-22.
The Scarlet Knights enjoyed one of their best postseason performances the last time NCAAs were held in Cleveland in 2018. Nick Suriano became the program's first national finalist, finishing as a runner-up at 125 pounds, while Scott DelVecchioo placed sixth at 133 pounds. With John VanBrill (157) and Richie Lewis (165) both advancing to the "Blood Round", RU finished 11th with 42.5 team points for its second-highest team result at the NCAA Championships in program history.