This Week in ACC Wrestling
Five Teams Ranked in the first NWCA Division I Coaches Poll
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – The Atlantic Coast Conference kicks off the 2024-25 wrestling season with a new look, as long-time Pac-12 member Stanford joins the mix, giving the league seven schools that sponsor wrestling.
The ACC begins the season with five schools ranked in the top 25. Rivals Virginia Tech and NC State are ranked No. 7 and No. 8, respectively. Newcomer Stanford enters the conference at No. 21, while North Carolina and Pitt are ranked No. 24 and No. 25, respectively.
All seven ACC teams will be in action this weekend, beginning on Friday, November 1, with Virginia hosting North Dakota State at 4 p.m. ET and No. 7 Virginia Tech taking on Chattanooga in Salem, Virginia, at 6 p.m. ET. Stanford will hit the mat for the first time as a member of the ACC with a pair of dual matches versus Utah Valley (8 p.m. ET) and CSU Bakersfield (10 p.m. ET) with both matches airing on ACCNX.
On Saturday, November 2, No. 25 Pitt will host Navy at 2 p.m. ET on ACCNX, while the Hokies, No. 24 North Carolina and Virginia will have individuals compete at the 2024 Southeast Open. On Sunday, November 3, No. 8 NC State and Duke will open up their seasons at the Battle at The Citadel in Charleston, South Carolina, while Pitt will return to the mat to compete at the Clarion Open in Clarion, Pennsylvania. … more at … https://theacc.com/news/2024/10/31/this-week-in-acc-wrestling.aspx
Lanham Announces 2024-25 Wrestling Slate
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke wrestling head coach Glen Lanham officially announced the 2024-25 wrestling schedule Monday, which kicks off in less than two weeks. Lanham, who enters his 13th campaign in Durham with the Blue Devils, welcomes back seven starters and brought in 14 newcomers for the upcoming season.
Duke is set to open the 2024 season at the Battle at The Citadel in Charleston, S.C., on Nov. 3. The Blue Devils will then compete against Long Island and Rutgers in WrangleMania, which will be contested at Nov. 9 at Liberty High School in Bethlehem, Pa., and then compete in the Journeymen Collegiate Classic at Freedom High School on Nov. 10.
The Blue Devils face Hofstra and Sacred Heart Nov. 16 in Hempstead, N.Y., before featuring the first match in Durham on Nov. 22 against Michigan. The contest will be played at Jordan High School at 7 p.m.
Duke will then host a quad match on Nov. 23 with American, Utah Valley and Presbyterian in Durham at a site yet to be determined. The Blue Devils close the fall slate with Davidson (Dec. 6) and VMU (Dec. 22) at home. To open the 2025 portion of the schedule, Duke travels to the Southern Scuffle Jan. 4-5 in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The dual match schedule features four home matches in 2025 – Gardner-Webb (Jan. 14), North Carolina (Jan. 17), Virginia Tech (Jan. 24) and Stanford (Feb. 16). Away matches include NC State (Jan. 10), Appalachian State (Jan. 20), Pittsburgh (Feb. 1) and Virginia (Feb. 7).
Duke is set to host the ACC Championship in Cameron Indoor Stadium March 9. … more at … https://goduke.com/news/2024/10/21/lanham-announces-2024-25-wrestling-slate.aspx?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
2024-25 Conference Movement Primer
The world of college athletics is changing by the year – actually, maybe not that slow, maybe by the month or week. It seems like late spring and summer are the times to monitor which schools are changing conferences and which conferences are raiding other smaller leagues.
This offseason proved to be one of the most impactful in college athletics with the Big Ten expanding to the West Coast and a pair of Big 8/12 mainstays heading to the SEC.
Some of these moves don’t directly impact wrestling – others have. There are a few wrestling conferences that have undergone major facelifts and will look much different during the 2024-25 season and beyond. Since it can be difficult to follow all of these changes, we’ve gone conference by conference to see how each has evolved for the 2024-25 season.
ACC: The ACC comes out a winner in this game of musical chairs as they add a very talented Stanford team. Sure, the geography of Stanford being in the Atlantic Coast Conference doesn’t add up, but we’ve had time to come to terms with the fact that these conferences don’t make much sense.
On the mat, Stanford brings a team that will likely enter the season in the top-15 in tournament and dual rankings. The Cardinal boasts a lineup that features three All-Americans, finished 16th in the nation in 2024, and has inked three top-eight recruiting classes in a row.
After years of claiming the ACC is on the rise, the 2025 conference tournament will now feature seven teams and gets that much tougher.
Big Ten: The Big Ten added four schools (Oregon, Southern California, UCLA, and Washington) and none of them currently field a wrestling team. The initial reaction is “Great, maybe one of them will add wrestling,” however, will all of the new financial changes coming to college athletics, you might start to worry whether one or more Big Ten schools will drop in the near future. … more at … https://intermatwrestle.com/articles.html/college/2024-25-conference-movement-primer-r99569/
New Faces in the ACC for 2024-25
Another season ushers in another wave of new ACC wrestlers and coaches. We’ve already seen breakdowns of the recruiting classes, let’s take a look at the new coaching hires and transfers that join the ACC this fall.
Duke
Erkin Tadzhimetov joins the coaching staff in Durham after a long tenure at his alma mater Utah Valley. He will work with the lightweights, marking a big change in the staffing in the Lanham era. Coach Lanham has had an upper-weight heavy coaching staff over the past decade and the addition of a lightweight coach could pay dividends for the Blue Devils.
Tyler O’Boyle (285) Franklin and Marshall
Spencer Von Savoye (141/149) California Baptist
North Carolina
Vincenzo Joseph will join the Tar Heels staff in the role of Recruiting Coordinator. The two-time NCAA Champion for the Nittany Lions will be reuniting with Coach Koll having served on staff under him at Stanford. For the new position, Joseph will “assist the program in team travel, on-campus recruiting, match day planning, and operations, donor relations, and all program-related events”. In his short time in the college coaching ranks, Joseph has shown that he can be a valuable asset to the Tar Heel staff.
Nolan Neves (285) – Columbia
Ethan Oakley (133) – Appalachian State – SOCON Champ 2x NCAA Qualifier
Josh Ogunsanya (174) – North Carolina? – EIWA Runner-Up 2x NCAA Qualifier
North Carolina State
Zack Esposito steps into the Associate Head Coach position after the departure of Adam Hall to Utah Valley. Espo brings a wealth of experience on the folkstyle and freestyle side. He was the RTC coach at Oklahoma State prior to taking the Associate Head Coach role, where he served for seven years. Most recently he was in Colorado Springs as the Freestyle Developmental and Resident Coach for USA Wrestling.
Pittsburgh
Lou Rosselli joins the Panthers, adding another experienced and successful coach to the staff. … more at … https://intermatwrestle.com/articles.html/college/acc/new-faces-in-the-acc-for-2024-25-r99551/
TDR blog
After 20 seasons of publicizing wrestling The TakeDown Report’s (TDR) focus has changed to the collecting of college coaching records from North America since 1903. We will continue to recognize and reward successful wrestlers in eastern North Carolina (east of Raleigh & Fayetteville), assist with schools in starting or re-starting a team and this blog. Join us on our FaceBook Page – “The TakeDown Report” for photos and news. Please send results, stories, links and news to pass along. E-mail us at takedownreport@gmail.com
Martin Fleming, Editor
Takedown Report
Takedown Report 