No. 22 Stanford’s men’s wrestling team will travel to face No. 12 Virginia Tech on Friday and Virginia on Saturday, with both dual meets streamed live on ACCNX.
Last season, Stanford secured a decisive win over Virginia, 34-9, marking its first conference victory as a member of the ACC. The Cardinal claimed eight out of nine contested bouts in that matchup. In contrast, Stanford lost to Virginia Tech at home, 30-13, during their first meeting as ACC opponents.
Stanford currently has seven wrestlers featured in the InterMat individual rankings: Nico Provo (#12 at 125 pounds), Tyler Knox (#7 at 133), Jack Consiglio (#18 at 141), Aden Valencia (#9 at 149), Daniel Cardenas (#10 at 157), Abraham Wojcikiewicz (#33 at 184), and Angelo Posada (#17 at 197). The team holds the No. 22 spot in InterMat’s Tournament rankings and is ranked No. 24 in both the Dual rankings by InterMat and the NWCA Coaches Poll.
In its most recent outing, Stanford narrowly lost to No. 6 NC State by a score of 21-20; each team won five bouts. Redshirt junior Nico Provo defeated defending NCAA champion Vincent Robinson, earning him recognition as ACC Wrestler of the Week for his performance. Freshman Angelo Posada recorded his sixth fall this season, while redshirt junior Daniel Cardenas achieved his seventh technical fall—both are among the top ten nationally.
Earlier this season, Stanford finished third as a team at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (Dec. 5-6) with five podium finishes: third place for Provo (125), Consiglio (141), and Cardenas (157); fifth place for Valencia (149) and Posada (197). At the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships (Dec. 29-30) in Evanston, Illinois, Stanford placed sixteenth overall with three individual podium finishers: freshman Brokton Borelli (fourth at 197 pounds), redshirt sophomore Abraham Wojcikiewicz (fifth at 184 pounds), and redshirt sophomore Zach Hanson (sixth at 165 pounds).
Aden Valencia was named ACC Wrestler of the Week on November 11 after defeating then-No.2 Casey Swiderski of Oklahoma State earlier that month—a career-best win for him so far. Jack Consiglio also received conference honors following his performance at CKLV where he beat three ranked opponents and outscored them by a combined margin of more than two-to-one; these were first-time weekly awards for both wrestlers.
Daniel Cardenas and Hunter Garvin represented Stanford at the NWCA All-Star Classic held November 1st; Garvin won his match against Max Brignola from Lehigh while Cardenas fell to Ty Watters from West Virginia.
Last year, Stanford produced two All-Americans en route to another top-20 finish at the NCAA Championships—the Cardinal went ten-and-five overall with two wins in six ACC duals despite not fielding a competitor in the lowest weight class all season long. The program finished fifth in its debut appearance at the ACC Championships held in Durham; Garvin captured an individual title becoming Stanford’s first-ever ACC champion wrestler.
The Cardinal qualified eight athletes for last year’s NCAA Championships hosted in Philadelphia—placing eighteenth as a team—and had multiple All-Americans for consecutive seasons; it marked only their fifth such achievement within six years.
Hunter Garvin reached back-to-back quarterfinals finishing sixth nationally again while Tyler Knox climbed from thirteenth seed status to eighth place as just one of four freshmen All-Americans ever produced by Stanford Wrestling history—a milestone adding up to thirty-nine total All-America honors for individuals from The Farm since inception.
Stanford made program history last year winning its first Ken Kraft Midlands Championships team title behind three individual crowns earned by Knox (133 lbs.), Abas (149 lbs.), and Norman (174 lbs.). Knox was voted Dan Gable Most Outstanding Wrestler while Norman took home Champion of Champions honors.
Chris Ayres leads this year’s squad into his third campaign as head coach after joining from Princeton where he spent seventeen seasons amassing four Ivy League Coach-of-the-Year awards before taking charge ahead of last season.
