The Season Has Begun!
Hopefully this video got you fired up as you tuned into the action all day at Princeton and East Stroudsburg
2025-26 PRESEASON HIGHLIGHT #GOARMY
Before I get rolling- here are the brackets for Princeton.
And here are the results from ESU.
NCAA Rules prohibit me from commenting on the performance of our USMAPS wrestlers, or any of our recruits, but as you can see they had a great day in Stroudsburg with 3 champs and several podium finishes.
Old Grad Watch
A couple of alumni rolled up in Jersey to cheer on the squad. It was awesome to see Army Hall of Famer Maurice Worthy there with his whole squad, and always a pleasure to have the support of Dr Eric Bantz.
Women's Recap
In addition to Clare Booe, who is on our roster- we had 6 female cadets compete at Princeton through the DCA Club that is new this year. Awesome to see Army West Point represented on the women's side as well.
Clare won the event- with all 4 of here bouts ending in tech fall in a combined time of 3 minutes and 48 seconds. She will compete at the prestigious Bill Farrell on Friday.
Men's Recap
125 Chuck wrestled his way to a 4th place finish. He has a ton of room to improve on this event, and he had similar results last year. Having Oregon State at the event was good for our guys, as it raised the level of competition for us. Chuck is not happy with this finish, and he is typically the guy who will do something about that.
133 Ethan dropped a tight one in the finals to Matt Lopes from Lehigh. If you remember the matches between these two last year you know everyone is going to be close. Ethan had some solid, gritty wins to make the finals and will round into form as we competeShout out to plebe Jake Crapps for going 5-1 on the day to place.
141 Braden made his way back to the mats after a long lay off due to injury, and made the finals as well. He had some signature Basile wins, and I saw sparks of that kid who had such a great run as a plebe. Excited to see more of that.
149 Good roster battle here. Mason Barvitskie placed 4th, narrowly missing a finals appearance. Ryan Franco went deep into the event, with a major decision over nationally ranked CJ Hamblin. Captain Shane Percelay went 3-2. A lot of solid options here.
157 Always good when you have two plebes in finals of an open. Congrats to Joey Antonio on winning the event in his first time in Army Black. Kellen Smith had some strong OT wins on the other side before falling to Joey in the finals. This bracket had a Greco World Champion, NCAA qualifiers, and several other experienced NCAA starters in it, so no doubt the efforts of these two plebes was awesome, and bodes well for our future in the middle weights
165 Gunner went back to back with a great win over Princeton's nationally ranked Ty Whalen in the finals. The Superball was back in action with a ton of spring in his step. He looked as good as ever. Dakota Morris also made the podium with a 4th place finish.
174 Some mixed results here- Andrew Christie led the way by placing 4th. Cooper Haase had a great upset over nationally ranked Avery Bassett from LHU.
184 No athletes made the podium here. We do have a good group of guys who can compete here, and look forward to seeing them in action over next few weeks.
197 Wolfgang Frable looked great, placing 3rd with his only loss to reigning World Champ Justin Rademacher from Oregon State. Frable is consistent and we are thrilled to have him up top for his Firstie season. Jackson Van Kley turned in a 6th place performance.
HWT Brady Colbert took home the title. He didn't have his best event, but was asked to come from behind in a few bouts, which he would not have been able to do last year. Good title. Austin Kohlhofer was 3rd, and Brenton Russell was 4th.
Short turnaround for us as we head to Nebraska to take in the Huskers on Friday evening! We will also be in Bethlehem for some individual round robin action at the Journeymen event. Again, a solid weekend back on the mats, but we aren't satisfied. As Shane says in the video- "We are just getting started"