Heading into the first dual of the season we were ranked #10 by Flowrestling and hopes were sky high. We were returning many of the starters from the year before and, I’m not sure if this has ever happened in Stanford’s history, but we had three former All Americans in the lineup. Add Nico Provo to that mix and we had the makings of a trophy team at the NCAA Championships.
As we rolled into Orem, Utah for our first dual meet, expectations were high. Cardenas and Garvin were not with us because they were competing in the prestigious NWCA All Star Classic, and we were down a couple more starters due to injury, but we were confident in the guys we had. The wrestlers filling in were good. After all, they were Stanford wrestlers, and the expectation was that we would get the job done.
We didn’t.
The scoreboard read 19-12 in favor of Utah Valley and the simple fact is that Utah Valley outwrestled us. No excuses about some of our leaders being out. Plain and simple, we got beat.
In sport it is all about how you respond, and with #3 Oklahoma State next on the schedule we needed to figure things out, and we needed to figure them out quickly.
After a loss or setback an organization’s true culture is exposed. It is the real test of whether the words written on the walls are actually lived. Are the things you say you stand for truly what your team believes?
When we got back to training there was no finger pointing. There was no questioning. We just needed to get better and that is what they got to work on. Attitude was solid. Discipline grew. They were committed to growth. They were committed to each other.
In one of the best wrestling environments our team has ever competed in we faced a hot #3 Oklahoma State team in Stillwater in front of 7,600 hostile fans. When Pistol Pete shot his last shot (IYKYK) the scoreboard read 33-7. On paper it was a solid beat down. But the score did not tell the full story. We wrestled better than we did in Utah and that was progress. Nowhere near our potential, but we were better.
From there that was the story of the dual meet season.
Every weekend we wrestled a dual, took the information we learned from it, and tried to get a little bit better. We were sharpening our axe with every competition.
At the same time something else was happening. We were coming together as a collective unit. Individuality will always exist, and needs to exist, on a wrestling team, but this group began wrestling more for each other and for Stanford. We were becoming stronger as a group.
Interestingly, the same thing is happening across Stanford Athletics under the leadership of John Donahoe and his team. The department is becoming a more cohesive unit and the pride for Stanford athletics, not just for the team you are part of, is the strongest it has been since I arrived and it continues to grow. There is a clear vision and strategy that people believe in.
The rising tide lifts all ships, and when you feel that across multiple areas the progress becomes exponential. And so the dual season moved along, with Stanford improving each time we stepped on the mat.
Win over Cal Baptist 29-12, moving our record 1-2.
Win over North Dakota State 25-15, 2-2.
Loss to #1 Penn State 42-0, 2-3.
Loss to #4 Iowa State 20-18, which came down to the final match, 2-4.
Win over Duke 35-10, 3-4.
Loss to #8 NC State 21-20, again decided in the final match, 3-5.
Loss to #6 Virginia Tech 22-14, another dual that came down to the last match, 3-6.
Win over Virginia 31-9, 4-6.
Win over Cal Poly 43-3, 5-6.
Win over #12 Pitt 21-12, 6-6.
The 2025-2026 dual meet season started with a ton of uncertainty, but as the final whistle blew in our last dual meet of the season, a 28-12 win over the then #13 ranked UNC, we had certainty in a lot of areas.
Certainty in who our ten starters are.
Certainty that those ten starters believe in each other.
Certainty that we can compete with anyone.
Certainty that the system is working.
Certainty that we are ready for the postseason.
For those keeping count, five of our six losses were to teams ranked in the top ten (1, 3, 4, 8, and 6), and two of our wins came against top fifteen teams. The schedule was tough and this team handled it well. It has prepared us for March.
We ended the dual season ranked #13 by both Flowrestling and InterMat, and #18 in the NWCA Coaches Poll, interestingly behind both Pitt and UNC.
More evidence that you should never have coaches doing rankings.
But rankings are just numbers.
What I care more about is what this team has become over the last four months.
They have grown tougher, more connected, and more confident in each other. They have learned how to wrestle through adversity, how to respond to setbacks, and how to keep improving even when the path is not perfectly smooth. They persevered.
But this team has not done it alone.
There is a team around the team that has had a real impact on this season. Our donors, alumni, parents, and the Bay Area wrestling community have rallied around this program in a way that is being felt every time we compete.
This year we averaged 996 fans for our dual meets, essentially a thousand people in the building every time we stepped on the mat. Although we didn’t track attendance, I would say we easily doubled the attendance from last season. That energy matters. Our athletes feel it when they walk out. It reminds them that they represent something bigger than themselves.
Programs grow when the athletes, the staff, and the community all move in the same direction.
A rising tide lifts all boats.
That is starting to happen here.
The dual season tested this group and helped shape who they are becoming. Now we turn our attention to March, and we are excited to see what this team can do when the lights get brightest, because, at the end of the day, we still have a team that can win a trophy at NCAA’s; it just looks a little different than the one we envisioned at the beginning of the year.
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ACC Preview
The ACC Championship is at Virginia Tech this Sunday, March 8.
The Seeds:
125: Provo #2
133: Knox #2
141: Consiglio #1
149: Valencia #2
157: Cardenas #1
165: Parco #2
174: Guffey #7
184: Wojcikiewicz #2
197: Posada #1
285: Duthie #7
Brackets and all other information pertaining to the championship can be found here: https://theacc.com/feature/wrestling-championship
