TULSA, Okla. – No. 8 Lehigh wrestling will compete in the national Duals Invitational in Tulsa, Oklahoma, beginning Friday. The Mountain Hawks earned an invitation to the 16-team tournament based on their 15th-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championships.
lehigh will open the invitational against No. 2 Nebraska at 12 p.m. ET/11 a.m. CT. A potential second dual against either Arizona State or Michigan is scheduled for either 3 p.m. or 5 p.m. CT, depending on the outcome of the first round.
The National Duals Invitational features a $1 million purse, with the winning team receiving $200,000. Other first-round matchups include No. 1 Iowa vs. Missouri, Illinois vs. Little Rock, Northern Iowa vs. NC State,No. 4 Oklahoma State vs. Cornell, No. 3 Ohio State vs. Wyoming, adn Virginia Tech vs. Minnesota.
freshmen Logan Wadle and Mason Ziegler both secured their first career dual meet victories in recent competition, bumping up to the 133-pound weight class.
Nebraska enters the tournament ranked second nationally and is the No. 2 seed. The Cornhuskers finished second at the 2024 NCAA Tournament, producing two NCAA champions and eight All-Americans. Returning NCAA champion Antrell Taylor (157) leads a team featuring six returning All-Americans. Nebraska also added All-American and 2021 NCAA Champion AJ Ferrari, who will wrestle at heavyweight. Nine Cornhuskers are currently ranked by InterMat, led by Taylor at No. 1 in the 157-pound class, followed by Brock Hardy (141) and Ferrari (285) at No.2. Mark Manning is in his 26th season as Nebraska’s head coach.
The series between Lehigh and Nebraska is tied 4-4, with Saturday’s dual marking the first meeting since November 2015. Five of the eight previous meetings have been held at neutral sites.
Following the National Duals invitational,Lehigh will be off from competition for two weekends before hosting Pittsburgh on Dec. 5 in its home opener at Leeman-turner arena at Grace hall. The Mountain Hawks will then travel to face top-ranked Penn State on Dec. 7 in the 113th meeting of the two programs’ long-standing rivalry.
