The first semester is officially over as we turn our calendars over to 2026 — Nebraska is 6-3 in duals, won another title at the Navy Classic and placed fourth at the National Duals Invitational.
The 6th-ranked
Huskers have dropped duals to #2 Ohio State (33-3) and twice to #5 Oklahoma State (33-6 and 22-12). They have ranked wins over #12 Michigan (24-14), #13 North Carolina (27-9), #18 Missouri (27-10) and #22 Lehigh (35-7).
Nebraska is back on the mat Saturday night against #16 UNI at 6 p.m., but the Panthers are just the beginning of a challenging 2026 slate of duals — Nebraska enters Big Ten Play the following weekend. The Huskers will face ranked teams #1 Penn State, #2 Ohio State, #4 Iowa, #10 Illinois, #11 Minnesota and #25 Indiana.
“These are big matches coming up, and we have plenty of them,” Nebraska Head Coach Mark Manning told me last week. “It’s what we work for in the offseason for — moments like this coming up.”
Weight-By-Weight Preview
125 pounds
This weight class has been Nebraska’s only real hole in its lineup through the first two months of the season. The Huskers have used both redshirt freshman Kael Lauridsen and sophomore Alan Koehler here — Lauridsen is 6-5 on the year and Koehler is 9-8 — both are 1-4 in dual meets.
This weekend, whoever takes the mat for the Huskers will face #21 Trever Anderson — a junior who made the blood round of the NCAA tournament a year ago. Anderson also beat Nebraska’s two-time All-American Caleb Smith 5-2 last year in this dual, so you know he’s good. It’ll be a tough match for either Lauridsen or Koehler.
After UNI and a dual against Purdue to start Big Ten play, things get much harder at 125 with matches coming up against #6 Jore Volk of Minnesota, #7 Dean Peterson of Iowa, #5 Nic Bouzakis of Ohio State, and #2 Luke Lilledahl of Penn State — all in a row. After that, the opponents aren’t as elite, but the final four duals still feature guys that are ranked nationally.
Nebraska does have true freshman Abdi Unle as well — he’s currently in redshirt and has used just one of his five dates when he went 2-3 at the Bison Open. I wonder if the Nebraska staff feels the Omaha Bryan (two-time) state champion is ready to get in for a dual or if they try to get him in some open tournaments going forward.
133 pounds
Arguably Nebraska’s top wrestler this season, #8 Jacob Van Dee missed some time at National Duals with a shoulder injury but is currently 9-1 on the year. His only loss came at the Navy Classic when he was up late in a match against America’s #24 Raymond Lopez but got caught in a cement mixer and got pinned — it was the only takedown Van Dee has given up this season (he’s recorded 22 takedowns of his own).
Van Dee has since recorded wins over #11 Ethan Berginc (8-1), #23 Kade Moore (9-5), #21 Ethan Oakley (5-1) and #19 Ronnie Ramirez (4-1).
Against UNI, Van Dee will face #20 Julian Farber, a senior. Van Dee is 3-2 in his career against Farber, winning the last three matches, including a 4-2 decision at the NCAA tournament and a 5-0 decision in their dual matchup last season. During Van Dee’s redshirt freshman year, he fell to Farber twice (9-5 and 8-1).
After Farber and an unranked matchup against Purdue, Van Dee will face a gauntlet that could make or break his season — he’ll take on #4 Drake Ayala of Iowa, #2 Ben Davino of Ohio State, #6 Marcus Blaze of Penn State, and #1 Lucas Byrd of Illinois. Van Dee fell to Ayala 4-2 last season and has never faced the senior Byrd, the redshirt freshman Davino or the true freshman Blaze.
A two-time NCAA finalist, Ayala has struggled a bit with his 4-3 record on the year, but he’ll be an incredibly tough out. Byrd is undefeated at 9-0 on the year after winning an NCAA title last season. Davino has been dominant this season and is 13-0, while the two-time age-level World Champion Blaze is a perfect 10-0 to start his career with all ten wins coming with bonus points.
“He knows he’s going to wrestle some top guys – obviously Byrd is back and Ayala is back,” Manning said. “There’s a lot of other good guys, so he just needs to continue to stay locked in on what he’s doing well and add to it.”
141 pounds
Nebraska’s #3 Brock Hardy, a three-time All-American and an NCAA finalist this past season, has been solid this year but has fallen to the top two guys #1 Jesse Mendez of Ohio State and #2 Sergio Vega of Oklahoma State (twice).
Hardy is 10-3 to start this season and will have another Top-10 matchup this weekend against UNI’s #9 Cory Land. Land is 9-1 on the year with his only loss a 4-3 decision to #8 Ryan Jack of NC State. He also has a 9-8 win over #10 Vance Vombaur of Minnesota this season.
All ten of Hardy’s potential matchups coming up are against ranked opponents — most notably against #1 Mendez, #10 Vombaur and #11 Nasir Bailey of Iowa. Hardy is 1-4 in his career against Mendez, dropping their match this year at National Duals 4-1 on a late takedown — he also fell to the Buckeye 12-9 in the NCAA final last season after beating him 9-8 at Big Tens.
Hardy tends to roll up guys he should but sometimes struggles against elite guys like Mendez and Vega, so I expect him to take care of business elsewhere.
Notably, Nebraska has true freshman Jake Hockaday here. As a senior in high school, Hockaday won his fourth Indiana state title on a torn up knee — ironically he was the first wrestler to win four titles in Indiana since Mendez won his fourth in 2022.
Hockaday is apparently healthy and ready to go, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him get some action here to spell Hardy for the stretch run of his senior year.
149 pounds
Nebraska saw the debut of #14 Chance Lamer in its home dual against Oklahoma State — despite making his debut in a Husker singlet, Lamer’s offense was not there in a 7-2 loss to #13 Casey Swiderski. Before that, he was 10-0 in open tournaments with a pin, two technical falls, and five major decisions.
On Saturday, Lamer will have the chance to get right against UNI’s #19 Caleb Rathjen — a former Iowa Hawkeye who transferred this summer. Rathjen has struggled this season to a 1-3 record so far. It’s also possible that Lamer will see Ethan Basile, a senior who is 4-4 this season but 0-2 in duals.
Lamer will have a tough stretch during the second half of January with matches against #7 Ryder Block of Iowa, #5 Ethan Stiles of Ohio State, and #1 Shayne Van Ness of Penn State. He’ll also face Utah Valley’s #11 David Evans, a Penn State transfer this past summer.
True freshman Nikade Zinkin filled in admirably while Lamer was ineligible — he went 2-3 while using up three of his five available dates. I would expect this Husker staff to use his remaining two dates — whether that’s in duals or open tournaments. Me personally, I’d send him to a couple tournaments to get more matches because Lamer will need all the big dual matches he can get to prepare for the postseason.
157 pounds
Nebraska’s #4 Antrell Taylor — the returning NCAA champion at this weight — took a couple losses at National Duals, but he’s rebounded nicely. Taylor is 10-2 on the year now after beating #5 Landon Robideau in tiebreakers last time out, handing the true freshman his first career loss.
Against UNI, Taylor will face Robert Weston, an unranked senior with a 9-6 record on the year. In his first year starting down from 165, Weston is 2-3 in duals.
After that, things get much tougher for Taylor who has matches coming up against #10 Jordan Williams of Iowa, #1 Brandon Cannon of Ohio State, #3 PJ Duke of Penn State, and #9 Kannon Webster of Illinois. Taylor has some history with most of those guys, having lost to Cannon 16-4 at National Duals in November — he’s also lost to both Duke and Webster in freestyle.
If Taylor wants to repeat this season, he needs to flip the script in those upcoming matches.
165 pounds
The story of this season so far for Nebraska may be the performance of #7 LJ Araujo — the redshirt freshman is 9-2 on the year with multiple ranked wins to his credit — most notably a pinfall win over #9 Max Brignola of Lehigh and a 2-0 win over #14 Bryce Hepner of North Carolina. His only losses have come to#2 LaDarion Lockett of Oklahoma State and #13 Paddy Gallagher of Ohio State.
Against UNI, Araujo will face a really tough test against #11 Ryder Downey in what is the matchup of the dual to me. A two-time NCAA qualifier at 157, Downey beat Taylor last season 5-2 in sudden victory in their dual matchup. He’ll be a tough matchup for Araujo.
After Downey, Araujo will take on a number of top wrestlers from the Big Ten — guys such as #1 Mitchell Mesenbrink of Penn State, #3 Michael Caliendo of Iowa, #4 Joey Blaze of Purdue, and #8 Braeden Scoles of Illinois. He’ll also get another shot at Gallagher after losing their first meeting on two bum hamstrings.
Mesenbrink won his first NCAA title last year as a sophomore after losing his only career match in the NCAA final as a redshirt freshman. Caliendo fell to Mesenbrink in that NCAA final last season 8-2, but he’s now a three-time All-American. Blaze is up from 157 where he fell to Taylor in the NCAA final last season.
For a first-year starter, those types of matches afford a big opportunity to cement his name nationally.
174 pounds
After placing fourth at NCAAs last year at 165 pounds as a redshirt freshman, #6 Christopher Minto has been impressive this year — he’s 10-2 with his only losses coming to #4 Carson Kharchla of Ohio State and #7 Alex Facundo of Oklahoma State.
Minto went on to beat Facundo 4-1 in Lincoln a month later. He also has wins this year over #9 Danny Wask of Navy, #12 Beau Mantanona of Michigan, and #15 Myles Takats of Bucknell. Minto beat Wask 11-3 by major decision in the final of the Navy Classic.
In Big Ten duals, Minto has a tough stretch in late January against Iowa, Ohio State and Penn State — he’ll face #3 Patrick Kennedy, #4 Kharchla and #1 Levi Haines. Those are three very tough matchups, but they do provide an equally big opportunity.
184 pounds
An All-American last year, #9 Silas Allred is in his final season and has looked as good as ever — he’s 9-3 on the year with a pair of wins over Oklahoma State’s #10 Zack Ryder. His three losses have come against #2 Aeoden Sinclair of Missouri, #6 Dylan Fishback of Ohio State, and #8 Brock Mantanona of Michigan — all decisions.
“He really showed his savvyness and his experience from being in big matches,” Manning said. “He really wants it – he’s got all the elements within him to be on top of the podium – he’s tough and a high-character guy who does things right.”
Against UNI, Allred will face #26 CJ Walrath — a sophomore with a 3-4 record this season. Allred should be able to handle him fairly easily.
After that, Allred will have an incredibly tough January slate with matches against #3 Max McEnelly of Minnesota, #1 Angelo Ferrari of Iowa, #6 Fishback and #4 Rocco Welsh of Penn State in consecutive duals. Allred is 0-1 against McEnelly, 1-1 against Fishback, and he has not faced the redshirt freshman Ferrari or the former NCAA finalist Welsh in his career.
Nebraska also has true freshman Ty Eise here — a 174-pounder who has filled in once for Allred up at 184 in the dual against North Carolina. Eise fell to #24 Jake Dailey 8-4 in that match. Considering Eise has only used two of his five dates, I would expect him to get in the lineup again to give either Allred or Minto a rest. I think we could see him in either this UNI dual or the following week against Purdue before Allred hits that tough stretch.
197 pounds
An All-American a year ago as a true freshman, #15 Camden McDanel has been solid this year despite a few hiccups — he’s 9-4 with losses to #8 Cody Merrill of Oklahoma State (twice), #9 Mac Stout of Pitt, and #14 Evan Bates of Missouri.
Against UNI, McDanel will take on either senior Kaleb Runyon or junior John Gunderson — Runyon is 2-1 this year, while Gunderson is 3-4 overall and 0-3 in duals. Consider McDanel a big favorite over either guy.
In Big Ten action, McDanel will face #4 Massoma Endene of Iowa, #10 Luke Geog of Ohio State, #1 Josh Barr of Penn State, and #13 Gabe Sollars of Indiana. Endene was a three-time Division III champion for Wartburg before transferring to Iowa City, while Barr was an NCAA finalist last season as a redshirt freshman. McDanel lost to Barr twice last season via tech fall.
Still a young guy, McDanel has improved from last year, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see him knock off a guy like Endene or Geog in a dual for a signature win.
285 pounds
Nebraska has #4 AJ Ferrari here, but he hasn’t always been available, so true freshman Cade Ziola has filled in a couple times. Ferrari is 5-1 on the year with wins over #6 Taye Ghadiali of Michigan and #9 Konner Doucet of Oklahoma State, but he fell to #3 Nick Feldman of Ohio State 5-4 at National Duals.
Ziola is 4-2 on the year after using up three of his five dates — he scored two techs in duals against Missouri and Brown before falling to Doucet 2-1 in their dual matchup. He also beat #10 Koy Hopke of Minnesota 8-7 at the Bison Open. An impressive freshman, Ziola will need to put on more size and work on getting up from bottom before taking over the weight next season.
Against UNI, Nebraska’s heavyweight will take on #11 Wyatt Voelker who is 7-1 this season. A two-time NCAA qualifier, Voelker fell to Hopke 9-5 this season but also has an 8-5 win over #13 Luke Luffman of Illinois. I could see this as another good opportunity to get Ziola on the mat in a big dual against a quality opponent.
In Big Ten duals, Ferrari will most notably face #10 Hopke, #5 Ben Kueter of Iowa, and #3 Feldman. The Feldman match looms large as Ferrari likely wants to get that one back before the postseason.
Another option for Nebraska if it wants to spell Ferrari after Ziola has used up his five dates would be Harley Andrews. Last year’s starter, Andrews is 3-1 this year.
