Opening a season at the Devaney Center for his 27th season, Nebraska Head Coach Mark Manning looks to have one of his best teams ever after a 28-9 win over #10 Wyoming on Sunday afternoon.
Nebraska had four wrestlers make their Husker debuts against the Cowboys — transfers Vincent Robinson, Anthony Echemendia and Meyer Shapiro were fairly dominant while true freshman Lincoln Sledzianowski got the nod at 141 and delivered in a big way. Also making his debut in the starting
lineup — outside of a couple duals last year while redshirting — was Cade Ziola at heavyweight, and he gave Husker fans a lot to be excited about as well.
Also getting wins for the Huskers were team leaders Antrell Taylor and Christopher Minto.
The Huskers also had a couple tough losses by Jacob Van Dee and Camden McDanel against really good opponents, but it was a fairly promising season opener overall.
Here’s how it all went down.
Match-By-Match Breakdown
125 pounds
Sporting a Husker singlet for the first time in competition, NC State transfer #4 Vincent Robinson took care of business against Wyoming’s Isaiah Harrison.
After some good attacks by Robinson and some equally good defense from Harrison for the majority of the first period, Robinson broke through for the takedown on a throw-by late in the period, riding the period out for the 3-0 lead.
Robinson scored an escape and a re-attack takedown to go up 7-0 before cutting his opponent, taking a 7-1 lead to the third. Robinson scored on a stalling call and gave up an escape in the third, giving him an 8-2 decision win in his Husker debut.
Next week, he’ll face Oklahoma State’s #6 Troy Spratley in the dual.
133 pounds
Taking on Wyoming’s #17 Luke Willochell, Nebraska’s #7 Jacob Van Dee led for almost the entire match before suffering a late takedown, dropping a 5-4 decision.
With Willochell in on a single leg in the first period, Van Dee turned him on the edge with his patented jonesy tilt and held him long enough for the takedown. Originally, it was scored near-fall for Van Dee, but it was wiped away.
Van Dee then scored an escape in the second period, taking his 4-1 lead to the third. In the final period, Van Dee again nearly scored on the jonesy, but the position was eventually stalemated as potentially dangerous. In the final 15 seconds, Van Dee shot in on a single leg, but Willochell locked through the crotch and lifted Van Dee before working for the takedown with just 10 seconds left. Willochell rode Van Dee out for the final 10 seconds for the win.
Things don’t get much easier for Van Dee as he’ll face #1 Jax Forrest of Oklahoma State — the returning NCAA champion — in Friday night’s dual.
141 pounds
With a three-way competition at this weight, Nebraska elected to send out true freshman Lincoln Sledzianowski at this weight, and he put on quite the performance.
Facing Wyoming’s Derek Barrows, Sledzianowski scored a takedown less than 20 seconds in and controlled the rest of the match. In the second, he scored another takedown and rode the period out, eclipsing two minutes of riding time.
In the third, Sledzianowski started in the top position and rolled Barrows back for a tilt and three near-fall points, eventually securing the 11-2 win via major decision.
Next week, Sledzianowski will likely take on Oklahoma State’s blue-chip true freshman #12 Jayden Raney.
149 pounds
Another Husker making his debut with the team, #6 Anthony Echemendia was dominant, but he seemed to take his foot off the gas late against Wyoming’s Austin Collins, earning the 17-4 major decision victory.
Echemendia scored three first-period takedowns before adding two more in the second, taking a 16-3 lead to the third period. After cutting Collins for an escape to start the period, Echemendia didn’t look for much offense when one more takedown would have secured the tech fall and an extra team point.
Manning said in his post-dual press conference that that’s something he wanted his team to work on — finishing matches and pushing for bonus points.
Despite all that, Echemendia looks dominant and strong for the first five minutes — I think 149 pounds really suits him well.
Next week, Echemendia will take on Oklahoma State’s #1 Sergio Vega — last year’s NCAA Champion at 141 pounds. Vega and Echemendia met twice last year at 141 with Vega winning a pair of close matches. This will be Echemendia’s chance to flip the script and hand Vega his first career loss.
157 pounds
The leader of this team, #3 Antrell Taylor took the mat against Wyoming’s Antonio Avila.
After initially defending Taylor’s body lock pretty well in the first period, Avila succumbed to the Husker’s bread and butter multiple times throughout the match. Twice in the second period, Taylor secured a body lock and bent Avila backwards like an old spoon.
With a 12-2 lead going into the third period, Taylor scored a takedown early but failed to secure the tech fall, settling for the 17-4 major decision.
This Friday, Taylor will take on Oklahoma State’s #1 Landon Robideau in a rematch of the 2026 NCAA final — Robideau won that match 4-2 over Taylor. Taylor earlier in the year beat Robideau in tiebreakers, handing him his first collegiate loss.
165 pounds
In the surprise of the day, Nebraska decided to go with Cornell transfer Meyer Shapiro here. A three-time All-American for the Big Red in Ithaca, Shapiro was planning to sit out this season and focus on training before returning next season at 157 pounds to replace Taylor.
But those plans abruptly changed after Nebraska’s 165-pound starter #6 LJ Araujo broke his hand at the U23 World Championships three weeks ago. Despite weighing in at under the 165-pound limit, Shapiro was dominant in this match, downing Manny Rojas 19-3 by tech fall. Shapiro scored five takedowns in the win.
A two-time age-level World Champion, Shapiro is elite as they come, so this result isn’t surprising.
This move from the Husker staff has really made this Friday’s dual at #2 Oklahoma State much more interesting — Shapiro will likely face #4 Casey Swiderski.
174 pounds
A returning NCAA finalist, #2 Christopher Minto won this match his way — a lot of scrambling and re-attacks.
Minto twice turned Wyoming’s Riley Davis’ shots into takedowns in the first period, taking a 6-2 lead to the second where he scored another takedown on a single-leg shot to go up 10-2.
Davis scored a pair of escapes to close the match out, but Minto held on for the 10-4 decision win. This was another match where Nebraska was so close to scoring more bonus points but appeared to ease up in the end.
Minto will take on Oklahoma State’s #14 Alex Facundo on Friday night — they split matches last season.
184 pounds
With Nebraska’s starter #15 Lucas Cochran off dominating an open tournament this weekend as he works his way back from a knee injury, the Huskers sent out backup Ethan DeLeon on Sunday.
DeLeon lit the Devaney on fire with a pair of first-period takedowns over #6 Eddie Neitenbach — a returning All-American — but the Cowboy quickly took the lead with a takedown and four near-fall points with a tilt. DeLeon trailed 8-6 going into the second.
After a DeLeon escape, Neitenbach added a takedown in the second period, but DeLeon escaped again in the final seconds, cutting the deficit to 11-8 going into the third.
DeLeon was unable to get any offense going in the third as Neitenbach cruised to the 13-8 decision win over the Husker junior.
I would expect to see Cochran against Oklahoma State after he went 4-0 with four bonus-point wins at the Dakota Wesleyan Open. On the way to the tournament title, Cochran racked up ten takedowns, gave up none, and scored 24 near-fall points — he had one win via pinfall, two by tech and another via major decision.
If he goes against Oklahoma State, he’ll likely face #10 Michael White — a very impressive true freshman.
197 pounds
Facing a familiar foe, Nebraska’s #5 Camden McDanel still hasn’t figured out the puzzle that is #4 Joey Novak. After losing to him three times a year ago, McDanel fell to him again via 4-1 decision.
Both guys exchanged escapes for the only scoring in the majority of the match. Despite the lack of scoring, there was plenty of action — generated almost exclusively by McDanel who was in deep on attacks multiple times, but he was unable to finish on those shots.
Late in the third period, McDanel took a fairly uncharacteristic double-leg shot from space, giving Novak the opportunity to hip in and secure the late takedown for the 4-1 win.
McDanel doesn’t have any time to waste as he turns his attention towards facing Oklahoma State’s returning NCAA finalist #2 Cody Merrill.
285 pounds
In one of the most anticipated starter debuts in Husker history, home-grown #9 Cade Ziola came in and delivered a standout performance.
Last season, the Omaha Skutt product redshirted, developing and wrestling largely behind the scenes. In the offseason, Ziola put on over 30 pounds of good weight, and on Sunday afternoon all that hard work and patience materialized into one hell of a debut anchoring the starting lineup.
Facing backup Winston McBride, Ziola wasted little time in dismantling his opponent. Ziola scored three takedowns in the first period before adding three more in the second for the 19-4 win via tech fall.
Ziola used his bread and butter to perfection — his ankle pick and his ability to cut the corner on his opponents’ shots, turning their offense into his scores. With this added size, Ziola is going to be a big problem for heavyweights around the country.
On Friday, we’ll finally see Ziola take on Oklahoma State’s Dreshaun Ross — an Iowa high school legend who is a true freshman for the Cowboys.
