Rutgers wrestling to face Hofstra, UNC at Garden State Grapple
After sweeping their first two quad meets of the season, the Rutgers wrestling team will face its strongest test of the season this Saturday when the team squares off against Hofstra and UNC at the Garden State Grapple in Newark.
The toughest test of the night for the No. 15 Scarlet Knights (6-0, 0-0) will come from the Tar Heels (3-2, 0-0), who enter this meet ranked at No. 14 in the country. They’re entering this meet having lost to two ranked opponents this season, dropping their most recent ranked meet to No. 10 Nebraska 27-6 last Wednesday.
The meet saw UNC lose all but two of its matches, with the highlight coming from the 141-pound division where Kizhan Clarke upset No. 5 Chad Red Jr. in a 3-1 sudden victory decision. The other win came from Jaime Hernandez, who earned a 10-6 decision over No. 33 Alex Thomsen.
Despite an 0-2 start against ranked teams, the Tar Heels have a deep lineup. Five of their 10 starters against the Cornhuskers are ranked, with three top 10 wrestlers among them: Clarke, Zach Sherman at No. 10 in the 149-pound division and Austin O’Connor at No. 1 at 157 pounds.
For the Pride (0-0, 0-0), this is just their first meet of the season, having competed in the Clarion Open to start the year. Hofstra finished 17th at that event, with NCAA qualifier Charles Small finishing fourth to lead the team.
They followed up on that with a trip to the Journeymen Collegiate Classic two weeks ago, where both Justin Hoyle and Zachary Knighton-Ward finished first in their respective pools. Small earned second place in the A pool at 184 pounds.
Rutgers will enter this meet comfortably in the national team rankings, listed at No. 12 by Intermat, No. 15 by FloWrestling and No. 15 in the latest NWCA Coaches Poll.
Eight wrestlers are individually ranked, with No. 4 graduate student 141-pounder Sebastian Rivera and No. 5 freshman 184-pounder John Poznanski each finishing as a consensus top five finishers. Freshman 125-pounder Dylan Shawver entered the rankings at No. 24/23 following a 3-0 showing in the Davidson Quad meet.
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