PISCATAWAY, N.J. – No. 14 Rutgers wrestling sends eight student-athletes to the 2024 NCAA Wrestling Championships, held March 21-23 in Kansas City, Missouri.
Dean Peterson (125),
Dylan Shawver (133),
Mitch Moore (141),
Michael Cetta (149),
Jackson Turley (174),
Brian Soldano (184),
John Poznanski (197) and
Yaraslau Slavikouski (HWT) will all compete during the three-day tournament, as the Scarlet Knights look to secure multiple All-Americans for the eighth time in nine seasons under head coach
Scott Goodale.
ESPN will once again cover every match of the 2024 NCAA Championships, which includes streamed individual mat feeds of every session. ESPN's coverage schedule can be found below.
| TIME (ET) |
SESSION |
COVERAGE (TV/STREAM) |
| Noon |
Session I |
ESPNU/ESPN+ |
| 7 p.m. |
Session II |
ESPN/ESPN+ |
| TIME (ET) |
SESSION |
COVERAGE (TV/STREAM) |
| Noon |
Session III |
ESPNU/ESPN+ |
| 8 p.m. |
Session IV |
ESPN/ESPN+ |
| TIME (ET) |
SESSION |
COVERAGE (TV/STREAM) |
| 11 a.m. |
Session V |
ESPNU/ESPN+ |
| 7 p.m. |
Session VI |
ESPN/ESPN+ |
- RU brings eight starters to nationals, its most NCAA qualifiers since all 10 starters competed at Madison Square Garden in 2016. Rutgers has had five or more nationals qualifiers each season since 2015 and has qualified seven or more in three consecutive seasons.
- RU is one of 17 programs with eight or more starters at this year's NCAA Championships and one of just seven from the Big Ten.
- All 10 Starters (7): Cornell, Minnesota, Missouri, NC State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Virginia Tech
- Nine Starters (5): Iowa, Iowa State, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio State
- Eight Starters (5): Arizona State, Lehigh, Penn, RUTGERS, South Dakota State
- Rutgers enters NCAAs after it finished sixth with seven placewinners at the 2024 Big Ten Wrestling Championships from March 9-10 in College Park, Maryland. Shawver became the program's first conference champion since Anthony Ashnault and Nick Suriano both won in 2019.
- The Scarlet Knights finished with 87.5 team points – their best result at Big Tens since they placed fifth in 2016 with 106.5 points in Iowa City.
- RU's seven Big Ten placewinners were also its most since all 10 starters earned podium positions during the 2016 installment of the championships.
- Shawver enters NCAAs as the No. 4 seed at 133 pounds. Shawver is the highest-seed wrestler from Rutgers since Sebastian Rivera earned the No. 3 seed at 141 pounds at the 2022 Championships in Detroit. RU has had one top-four seed in four of the past six seasons.
- During Goodale's tenure, there have been 102 NCAA qualifiers, 17 All-Americans, six conference champions (five Big Ten, one EIWA) and two individual national champions.
- Mitch Moore (141) has qualified for NCAAs five times and will make his fourth career appearance at nationals. Moore wrestled at nationals for Virginia in 2019 and for Oklahoma in 2021 and 2023. Moore also qualified for NCAAs at Virginia in 2020 before the tournament was cancelled due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Moore has wrestled in 11 NCAA Championship matches, which includes three wins by fall.
- Jackson Turley (174) and John Poznanski (197) return for their third career NCAA Championships after both wrestled to All-America status at the 2021 NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis. Poznanski finished fourth that season competing at 184 pounds, while Turley wrestled back for an eighth-place result.
- Dean Peterson (125), Dylan Shawver (133), Brian Soldano (184) and Yaraslau Slavikouski (HWT) return to nationals for a second time in their careers. Peterson and Slavikouski both appeared in the Blood Round last season in Tulsa. Soldano will compete in his second consecutive championships, while Shawver returns after he competed in 2022 wrestling at 125 pounds.
- Michael Cetta (149) will make his NCAA Championships debut after he earned an at-large bid to nationals. Cetta finished the season with 14 wins and two over wrestlers in the field, most notably over No. 11 seed Quinn Kinner (Rider) and No. 14 seed Dylan D'Emilio (Ohio State).
