After setting a slew of program records a year ago at the NCAA Championships, Nebraska heads into this year’s tournament positioned to earn a team trophy for the second year in a row.
Last season, Nebraska set a program record for points scored with 117 on the way to its program-best 2nd-place finish — behind Penn State’s NCAA record 177 points. For perspective, Nebraska’s 117 team points would have won them an NCAA team title in six of the past 25 seasons — in 2000, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014 and 2015,
Nebraska also set a program record with eight All-American finishers and tied their record with two NCAA Champions.
And they did all that with just nine of their ten starters as the Huskers didn’t qualify a wrestler at heavyweight.
This year, Nebraska is sending ten wrestlers to NCAAs for the first time since 2016 — although they qualified all ten in 2020 before the NCAA tournament was cancelled. Nebraska has some solid seeds this weekend with four wrestlers seeded in the top-4 and two more in the top-8. Those seeds are slightly better than last year’s program-best team that had three wrestlers seeded in the top-3 and one more in the top-8.
In fact, many of Nebraska’s podium finishers a year ago out-placed their seeds by a lot — most notably the 20-seed Camden McDanel placing 8th, the 12-seed Christopher Minto taking 4th place, and the 17-seed Jacob Van Dee finishing 7th.
Nebraska’s 2026 NCAA seeds
- 125- 25-seed Kael Lauridsen (R-Fr.)
- 133- 13-seed Jacob Van Dee (Jr.)
- 141- 3-seed Brock Hardy (Sr.)
- 149- 20-seed Chance Lamer (Sr.)
- 157- 2-seed Antrell Taylor (Jr.)
- 165- 6-seed LJ Araujo (R-Fr.)
- 174- 3-seed Christopher Minto (So.)
- 184- 8-seed Silas Allred (Sr.)
- 197- 11-seed Camden McDanel (So.)
- 285- 4-seed AJ Ferrari (Jr.)
Based on seeds, Nebraska is projected to finish in 4th place, the same place the Huskers were projected to finish last season. Here’s a graphic showing the projected team scores (not including potential bonus points).
After setting the NCAA record last year for the second season in a row (172.5 in 2024 and 177 last year), Penn State is expected to re-break the record yet again — the previous record was 170 by Dan Gable’s Iowa Hawkeyes in 1997. The Nittany Lions have seven of their ten wrestlers as the 1-seed at their respective weights — the most top seeds by one team in NCAA history.
For Penn State to not win its fifth team title in a row, it would be a monumental collapse that would rank among the worst collapses in sports history. So Oklahoma State, Ohio State and Nebraska will be the favorites to earn team trophies (given to the top-4 teams) — teams like Iowa State, Iowa, Virginia Tech and Cornell have lineups that are good enough they could make a trophy run as well but will likely find themselves on the outside looking in.
Below I’ll dive into each Husker’s seed and potential path(s) at this year’s NCAA Championships that start Thursday morning and end Saturday night. Here’s the full broadcast and streaming schedule.
As for these paths, I’m not going to go into every possibility, but I will walk you through my thinking after going through the brackets. It’s possible none of these come to fruition, and I just wasted a lot of time.
But that’s a chance I’m willing to take! Let’s dive in.
Weight-By-Weight Preview
125 pounds
25-seed Kael Lauridsen (16-11)
One of the surprises from the Big Ten Championships last week was the finish by Lauridsen — he placed seventh as the 11-seed and punched his ticket to the NCAA tournament this week.
Lauridsen went through a season-long competition with sophomore Alan Koehler and came out on top, securing the starting spot. Lauridsen took his lumps, but he seems to be on an upward trajectory.
Lauridsen’s first-round match will be against 8-seed Dean Peterson of Iowa — Peterson just beat Lauridsen 4-3 on the back side of the Big Ten tournament with a third-period takedown, so a Lauridsen win wouldn’t be a monumental upset in my opinion.
With a win, Lauridsen would face 9-seed Maximo Renteria of Oregon State — a Big 12 finalist with a 20-3 record on the year. He’s really skilled and could present a tougher test than Peterson, so Lauridsen will be a heavy underdog here. A win would set up a match with 1-seed Luke Lilledahl — the NCAA title favorite — in the quarters.
On the back side if Lauridsen loses to Peterson, he’ll likely see 24-seed Ayden Smith of Rutgers who Lauridsen just beat 6-3 at Big Tens in the 7th-place match. Smith is really good though and should not be overlooked here.
In the following consolation round, Lauridsen could face 7-seed Nico Provo of Stanford or 10-seed Marc-Anthony McGowan of Princeton. Both would be heavy favorites against Lauridsen. The next round would be someone seeded 15, 16 or 17, so Lauridsen would need to pull off three big upsets to find the podium with a first-round loss.
If Lauridsen beats Peterson but loses to Renteria, he’ll drop to a tough back-side match against 23-seed Nicolar Rivera of Wisconsin — Lauridsen fell to Renteria last year during his redshirt season 8-2. With a win there, Lauridsen would face 18-seed Spencer Moore of Illinois who pinned him in their dual match. Ironically, Lauridsen then could face Peterson again in the back side to get to the blood-round where he’d face either 3-seed Nic Bouzakis of Ohio State or 6-seed Jore Volk of Minnesota to earn All-American status.
To summarize, Lauridsen has a tough road ahead of him no matter how you slice it — he’ll need to pull off multiple upsets to even sniff the podium.
133 pounds
13-seed Jacob Van Dee (17-6)
An All-American last season, Van Dee again finds himself on the outside looking in, needing an upset or two to find the podium again. In a weight where the top five seeds are super-freshmen, Van Dee has a fairly decent draw from the 13-seed.
Van Dee has beaten his first-round opponent 20-seed Julian Farber of UNI the last four times they’ve wrestled, so I’m confident the Husker junior wins this one. In the second round, Van Dee will likely face one of those freshmen in 4-seed Aaron Seidel of Virginia Tech — Seidel is 18-1 on the year with his only loss a 10-9 decision to 1-seed Jax Forrest of Oklahoma State, another freshman phenom.
A tech-fall machine, Seidel is a pure point-scorer from the top position, so Van Dee will need to avoid going underneath the young Hokie if he wants to win this one.
If Van Dee can pull off the upset over Seidel, he’d face 5-seed Kyler Larkin of Arizona State — another freshman who is 18-2 on the year with his only loss to Forrest as well (his other loss was a medical forfeit). If Van Dee can get past Seidel, he can beat Larkin, setting him up for a match against top-seeded Forrest in the semifinals. That’s a really tough one for Van Dee because Forrest looks like a true generational talent who is destined for pure domination with his relentless pace and offensive prowess.
If Van Dee drops down after his Seidel match, he’d need to win two matches before potentially facing NCAA Champion 7-seed Lucas Byrd in the blood round just to All-American — not an ideal scenario.
If Van Dee falls to Larkin in the quarters, he’d drop to the blood round where he could face 15-seed Tyler Knox of Stanford who he beat 7-2 last year at NCAAs. With that win, Van Dee would secure All-American status and move on to potentially face 9-seed Dominic Serrano of Northern Colorado, a former Husker starter back in 2021-22. With a win there, Van Dee would move on to face either 2-seed Ben Davino of Ohio State or 3-seed Marcus Blaze of Penn State in the consolation semifinal round — both beat Van Dee this year. This all would set up Van Dee for a likely match for 5th-place with someone like Byrd, Larkin or two-time NCAA finalist Drake Ayala of Iowa.
Regardless, Van Dee will have to go through an absolute gauntlet if he wants to repeat as an All-American. That Seidel match in the round of 16 may be the most impactful match for him if he hopes to do so.
I do know that Van Dee is a fighter and not a guy you want to see, especially on the back side of the bracket. Last year, Van Dee lost his opening match before winning four straight to secure a spot on the podium.
He can get it done, but he’s going to need to beat either one of those uber-talented freshmen and/or a former NCAA Champion to do so.
141 pounds
3-seed Brock Hardy (20-5)
A fixture on the podium at NCAAs throughout his career, the three-time All-American Hardy wants to end his career on top of it. Hardy placed sixth as a freshman before taking third as a sophomore. Last year, he won a Big Ten Championship and made it to the NCAA final, placing second after losing to Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez.
Mendez is a senior as well and comes in as the 1-seed this weekend with a 22-0 record — he’s beaten Hardy three times this season, including in last weekend’s Big Ten final. Hardy is 1-6 against the Buckeye in his career. Hardy’s other two losses this year have come to 2-seed Sergio Vega of Oklahoma State. In last year’s NCAA final, Hardy jumped out to a 5-0 lead over Mendez before falling 12-9 by decision.
Despite the high seed, Hardy should breeze through Maryland’s 30-seed Dario Lemus in the opening round, but he has an interesting match in the second round. Hardy will face 14-seed Braeden Davis of Penn State here and these two have history — Davis jumped out to an early lead in the dual, but Hardy pinned him later in the match.
With a win, Hardy would then take on Cornell’s 6-seed Vince Cornella — who is 19-1 on the year — in the quarterfinal round. That is an incredibly tough match-up in the quarters. With a win over Cornella, Hardy would face freshman Vega in the semis — Vega is 19-0 on the year and still hasn’t given up his first collegiate takedown.
If Hardy can crack the puzzle that is Vega, he’d again face Mendez in the NCAA final — a fitting end to both their careers, win or lose.
Hardy is already 107-29 and tied for 22nd on Nebraska’s all-time wins list, but he could reach 111 or 112 wins and jump to either 17th or tied for 16th with Gary Albright and Aaron Studebaker on the Husker charts.
149 pounds
20-seed Chance Lamer (17-8)
Nebraska’s senior transfer has struggled at times this year, but he earned an at-large bid to NCAAs and go the 20-seed, setting him up with a winnable match against 13-seed Joe Zargo of Wisconsin in the first round. Last weekend at Big Tens, Lamer fell to Zargo 9-6 in the quarters.
With the minor upset over Zargo, Lamer would then take on 4-seed Collin Gaj of Virginia Tech. Gaj is certainly beatable with his 20-8 record coming in, so I could see the Husker senior take down the Hokie freshman here.
With a win over Gaj, Lamer would face 5-seed Koy Buesgens of NC State — Buesgens is 21-3 on the year and presents a major obstacle in this quarterfinal match. An upset win over Buesgens would set up Lamer for a semifinal match against 1-seed Shayne Van Ness of Penn State.
I do expect Lamer to hit the back side at some point, but it’s unclear where — I could see him either losing his opening match against Zargo or going on a quarterfinal or even semifinal run. Honestly, this weight class is really thin behind Van Ness, so we could see a high seed like Lamer make a deep run.
That lack of top talent at the weight means that a back-side run to the podium isn’t out of the realm of possibility for Lamer. A former top recruit who has been to NCAAs multiple times for both Michigan and Cal Poly and now Nebraska, Lamer could be destined to end his career as a first-time All-American.
157 pounds
2-seed Antrell Taylor (22-3)
The returning NCAA Champion at this weight, Taylor earned the 2-seed this weekend by making it to the Big Ten final, falling to 1-seed PJ Duke of Penn State 12-4 by major decision.
Taylor should roll through 31-seed Garrett McChesney of Edinboro in the opening round before taking on 15-seed Cam Catrabone of Michigan — Taylor beat Catrabone twice this year, once by tech and the other time 7-1 in the Big Ten semifinal.
Taylor will then likely see 7-seed Kannon Webster of Illinois in the quarters — Taylor beat Webster 4-2 on a late takedown in their dual match. Still, that’s a tough match for anyone in this bracket.
In the semis, Taylor will likely see 3-seed Meyer Shapiro of Cornell or 11-seed Ty Watters of West Virginia. Both are long and athletic and present very real but different sets of challenges — Shapiro is very technical and a former U20 World Champion, while Watters was ranked #1 earlier in the year and has an extremely long frame and incredible top game that could give Taylor fits. Last season, Taylor beat Shapiro 7-2 at NCAAs but has lost to him in freestyle in the past.
With a win there, Taylor will advance to likely face Duke again for the rubber match in the NCAA final. Taylor won the dual match in tiebreakers, but Duke majored him at Big Tens. If Taylor wants to win this rematch, he’ll need to figure out a way to slow down the Penn State freshman.
165 pounds
6-seed LJ Araujo (18-8)
After redshirting a year ago, Araujo hit the ground running this season down at 165 pounds. He had his ups and downs like any freshman, but he has battled the best in the country so far and been within striking distance against almost everyone.
Araujo will face a tough road to the podium this week. After a first-round match against 27-seed EJ Parco of Stanford that he should win, Araujo will take on 11-seed Ryder Downey of UNI — Downey beat Araujo 3-0 in sudden victory in their dual match. It’s a tough one to get back, but it’s winnable.
In the quarters, Araujo could see 3-seed Michael Caliendo of Iowa who also beat him this year — a 14-4 loss via major decision in the dual. If Araujo pulls the upset over Caliendo, he’d likely take on 2-seed Joey Blaze of Purdue who is 22-1 on the year. That’s a really tough matchup for Araujo who was behind 5-1 in their match at Big Tens before losing via injury forfeit with a knee injury — Blaze also beat Araujo 8-2 in their dual match.
With an upset over Blaze, Araujo would face 1-seed Mitchell Mesenbrink of Penn State in the final — Mesenbrink beat him 20-5 by tech fall in their dual match.
It’s more likely though that Araujo falls along the way to a guy like Downey, Caliendo or Blaze who all beat him previously this season. A guy with elite defense and top wrestling, Araujo is going to be a nightmare match-up for anyone on the back side, so I expect him to find the podium.
174 pounds
3-seed Christopher Minto (20-5)
After making the Big Ten final and taking 1-seed Levi Haines of Penn State to the wire for the second time this season, Minto has a fairly navigable path to Haines in the NCAA final this weekend. Minto placed 4th last year at 165 pounds as a redshirt freshman and is on a rapid trajectory.
Minto should dispatch of 30-seed Riley Davis of Wyoming pretty easily before likely facing 14-seed Moses Espinoza-Owens of SDSU in the round of 16 — Minto should win that match as well.
Minto’s quarterfinal match against 6-seed Matty Singleton of NC State will be a tough one, but it’s a match he should win. The ACC champion, Singleton is 16-3 on the year.
In the semifinal round, Minto could face 2-seed Simon Ruiz of Cornell (16-0), 7-seed Cam Steed of Missouri (15-5) or even 15-seed Danny Wask of Navy (22-4). All three could come out of that quad and would be tough opponents for Minto, especially Ruiz who has some nice wins this year but faced a schedule nothing like the one Minto has faced. Minto also beat Wask this year by major decision.
Minto should be favored to make it to the NCAA final out of the bottom half of the bracket to face 1-seed Haines. In the dual, Minto lost their match-up 8-6 after getting the first takedown. In the Big Ten final, Minto lost 2-1 on a questionable penalty point for a figure four on the head.
Both matches have been both razor-thin and controversial — Haines shoved Minto off the raised mat into the scorers table in their dual match. Can Minto figure out how to get his hand raised in their third meeting of the year?
184 pounds
8-seed Silas Allred (17-7)
An All-American last year, Allred was dealing with some injuries at Big Tens but still came out with a 6th-place finish and an NCAA qualification.
Allred will face 25-seed Malachi DuVall of George Mason in the first round, a match he should win with potential bonus points. Allred would then move to the second round against 9-seed Chris Moore of Illinois — Allred beat Moore 7-1 in their dual match this year.
With a win over Moore, Allred will take on 1-seed Rocco Welsh in the quarters. After losing to Welsh 14-5 by major decision, Allred will need to be at his best if he hopes to beat the NCAA title favorite. Welsh and Allred are two guys who don’t seem to mind going to sudden victory tied at 1-1, so there’s always a chance in that scenario. The major upset would match Allred up with 5-seed Brock Mantanona of Michigan in the semis, a very winnable match — Allred fell to Mantanona 10-8 at National Duals in November. He would then be a heavy underdog against whoever comes out of the bottom of the bracket.
If Allred drops that match to Welsh, he’ll drop to the blood round where he could face a guy like 11-seed Shane Cartagena-Walsh of Rutgers or 19-seed Jared McGill of Edinboro. Both are tough matches, but Allred is the favorite here and would land on the podium with a win.
Allred would then have to beat 4-seed James Conway of Franklin & Marshall if he wants to improve on last year’s 7th-place finish. With a lot of elite guys in the bracket, it’ll be really hard for Allred to place in the top-4, but another All-American finish is very attainable.
197 pounds
11-seed Camden McDanel (20-6)
A surprise All-American last year as a true freshman when he placed 8th as the 20-seed, McDanel has another tough road ahead of him this year.
McDanel shouldn’t be challenged in his opening match against 22-seed Devin Wasley of NDSU, but his second-round match is against either 6-seed Justin Rademacher of Oregon State or 27-seed Gabe Arnold of Iowa.
McDanel and Rademacher have a long history having met multiple times in freestyle — Rademacher beat McDanel in the U20 World Team Trials finals the past two seasons after McDanel beat Rademacher in 2023. McDanel went on to capture U20 World bronze in 2023 with Rademacher winning bronze at U20 Worlds in 2024 and gold in 2025. These two also met in college when Rademacher was redshirting and McDanel was spending his grayshirt at the Olympic Training Center — Rademacher won the match 8-5 in overtime.
In one of the toughest first-round matches, Rademacher will take on Iowa’s utility guy Arnold who has wrestled at 174, 184 and 197 pounds this year. He beat Allred in the dual at 184 this season and is a supremely talented wrestler — it’s just that he’s heavily undersized for the 197-pound weight class. I wouldn’t put it past him though to make a run this week. Arnold will likely be Iowa’s starter at his natural weight class 174 next season.
The Rademacher/Arnold match in the second round is a tough draw for the Husker sophomore, but he’s been solid all year against everyone not named Josh Barr.
If he wins that match, McDanel would face 3-seed Stephen Little of Little Rock in the quarterfinal round — Little is 15-2 on the year. Little is good, but he’s certainly not a lock against the Big Ten finalist McDanel.
McDanel could wrestle his way to the semifinal round where he’d face either 2-seed Rocky Elam of Missouri (18-0) or 7-seed Cody Merrill (17-4). McDanel has never faced Elam, an enormous 197-pounder with a giant frame and great length. McDanel wrestled Merrill twice this season, dropping both matches (2-1 in tiebreakers and 2-1 via decision) — with both matches being so close, I expect adjustments can be made to flip the script.
If McDanel can make the improbable finals run, he’ll face 1-seed Barr for the third time this year — Barr beat McDanel 21-9 by major decision in the dual and 19-4 by tech fall in the Big Ten final. I just don’t see a path to victory there.
Its more likely that McDanel stumbles along the way and drops to the back side, but I do project him to land in the middle of the podium somewhere.
285 pounds
4-seed AJ Ferrari (15-3)
The new guy on the block this year, the big transfer portal addition for the Huskers has had a solid season but is hoping to land on top of the podium up at heavyweight for the first time. Ferrari won an NCAA title at Oklahoma State as a true freshman at 197 pounds way back in 2021. He then placed third last season at 197 for Cal State Bakersfield before transferring to Nebraska where he moved up to heavyweight.
Ferrari fell short of winning a Big Ten title last weekend, but he’s more than capable of winning his second national title this week. An undersized heavy, Ferrari relies heavily on his quickness, athleticism, strength and riding ability in the top position to earn wins in this weight class.
In the first round, Ferrari will take on SDSU’s 29-seed Luke Rasmussen in a match where he could be looking for bonus. In the second round, he’ll face either 20-seed Dayton Pitzer of Pitt or 13-seed Spencer Lanosga — both are certainly winnable for Ferrari who has largely beaten everyone outside of the upper echelon of heavyweights.
In the quarters, Ferrari will take on 5-seed Nick Feldman of Ohio State for the fourth time this season. After losing their first two meetings, Ferrari cracked the code at Big Tens and beat Feldman 2-1 in the semis — I expect him to do the same here.
This would set up a match with 1-seed Yonger Bastida of Iowa State who is 25-0 on the year. A Cuban native, Bastida also used to wrestle at 197 pounds. Here’s an interesting piece of trivia you can use this week — Allred once pinned Bastida at 197 pounds back in November of 2021! Allred is now down at 184, while Bastida is one of the biggest and strongest wrestlers in the country.
Ferrari-Bastida could have been the NCAA final, but we’re getting it in the semis instead. I honestly don’t know how this match will go, but Ferrari did beat Bastida 5-2 back in 2021 down at 197.
With a win, Ferrari would likely take on Millard South alum 2-seed Isaac Trumble of NC State who is 16-0 this year. Both guys are undersized heavies who rely a lot on their abilities in the top position. It could be a match destined for tiebreakers that could determine team placement for the Huskers.
If Ferrari falls to either Feldman or Bastida, he’d likely have to beat 3-seed Tayle Ghadiali of Michigan — who beat Ferrari 5-2 in the Big Ten final — in the consolation semifinal match. With a semifinal loss, he’ll have to wrestle a guy like 6-seed Nathan Taylor of Lehigh — one of the biggest heavyweights in the country — in the consi semis. He’d then face a guy like Ghadiali or Feldman for 3rd place.
Ferrari just seems to know how to win matches, especially at tournament time. It’s possible.
