No. 23 Stanford is set to face California Baptist in Riverside this Saturday, with the meet scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. Pacific Time and available for viewing on FloWrestling and CBU’s YouTube channel.
The last meeting between these two teams took place on January 12, 2023, at Stanford, where the Cardinal secured a decisive 36-7 victory over the Lancers.
Stanford enters the contest ranked No. 23 in the NWCA Coaches Poll and features six wrestlers listed in the InterMat individual rankings. The team also holds the No. 12 spot in InterMat’s Tournament rankings and is ranked No. 20 in Dual rankings.
According to InterMat’s latest individual rankings: Nico Provo (125 pounds) is ranked #11; Tyler Knox (133) sits at #6; Aden Valencia (149) is #13; Daniel Cardenas (157) holds #6; Hunter Garvin (165) stands at #7; and Lorenzo Norman (174) rounds out at #16.
Redshirt freshman Aden Valencia was named ACC Wrestler of the Week on November 11 after defeating then-No. 2 Casey Swiderski of Oklahoma State by a score of 13-3 on November 7—marking his highest-ranked win so far. “It is the first weekly honor for Valencia and the fourth all-time for Stanford as a member of the ACC,” according to program officials.
Earlier this month, Daniel Cardenas and Hunter Garvin participated in the NWCA All-Star Classic held at Rutgers. Garvin claimed a victory against Lehigh’s Max Brignola at 165 pounds with a score of 4-1, while Cardenas lost in sudden victory to Ty Watters of West Virginia at 157 pounds by a score of 7-2.
Last season saw Stanford finish with two All-Americans and another top-20 placement at the NCAA Championships despite not fielding a wrestler at 125 pounds throughout the season. The Cardinal posted an overall record of 10-5 and went 2-4 in ACC dual meets during the campaign, finishing fifth at their first-ever ACC Championships hosted in Durham, North Carolina. Both Hunter Garvin (165) and Nick Stemmet (197) earned All-ACC honors for their performances, with Garvin winning his weight class to become Stanford’s first individual ACC champion.
Eight Cardinal wrestlers qualified for last year’s NCAA Championships in Philadelphia, leading to an eighteenth-place team finish—marking consecutive seasons with multiple All-Americans for just the fifth time over six years, bringing Stanford’s total number of such seasons to eleven overall.
Hunter Garvin entered as a No. 7 seed at NCAAs, reaching quarterfinals before placing sixth for a second straight year at his weight class—a result that made him only Stanford’s seventh multi-time NCAA All-American in history. Freshman Tyler Knox began as No.13 seed but battled through consolation rounds for an eighth-place finish—becoming only Stanford’s fourth freshman NCAA All-American alongside Joey McKenna (2016), Jaden Abas (2021), and Garvin himself from earlier this year—and becoming Stanford’s twenty-seventh individual All-American overall among thirty-nine total honors earned by Cardinal athletes thus far.
In addition, last season marked another milestone as Stanford captured its first Ken Kraft Midlands Championships team title by securing three individual crowns: Knox won at 133 pounds; Abas took gold at149; Norman triumphed at174—making them Stanford’s first Midlands champions since Ryan Mango achieved it back in2012.Knox was named Dan Gable Most Outstanding Wrestler while Norman received Jack Leese Champion of Champions recognition.
Stanford is led by Chris Ayres, who serves as The Matt Gentry Head Wrestling Coach and is now entering his third season with the program after spending seventeen years coaching Princeton University wrestling teams.”A four-time Ivy League Coach ofthe Year,” Ayres continues to guide Cardinal wrestling efforts into his twentieth collegiate head coaching campaign.
Saturday’s probable matchups are as follows:
125: Edwin Sierra or Adam Mattin vs Cooper Shore
133: Tyler Knox vs Richard Murrillo
141: Jack Consiglio vs Jesse Vasquez
149: Aden Valencia vs Paul Kelly
157: Daniel Cardenas vs Drayden Morton
165: Hunter Garvin vs Gabe Schumm
174: Collin Guffey vs Mason Espinoza
184: Abraham Wojcikiewicz vs Adonis Bonar
197: Angelo Posada or Brokton Borelli vs Eli Sheeran
285: Jackson Mankowski vs Tristan Kemp
