No. 11 Wrestling Heads to Big Tens

No. 11 Rutgers wrestling competes at the 2026 Big Ten Wrestling Championships March 7-8 in State College, Pennsylvania. Big Ten Network and Big Ten Plus will provide complete coverage of all four sessions when wrestling begins on Saturday at the Bryce Jordan Center.

The Scarlet Knights bring one of their most experienced lineups to Big Tens in program history, with six starters competing as graduate students. The lineup has a combined 41 career wins at the conference tournament, which includes 2024 Big Ten Champion Dylan Shawver (133) and 2025 Big Ten runner-up Lenny Pinto (174).

RU is one of just two teams in the country with all 10 starters in both the final coaches' rank and RPI, as the program looks to send its full lineup to the NCAA Championships for the second time in school history and first time since it brought all 10 to the 2016 national tournament at Madison Square Garden.

What to Know

• Remy Cotton (197) earned the program's highest pre-seed, checking in at No. 3 ahead of this weekend's conference tournament. No. 4 seed Anthony White (157), No. 6 seed Ayden Smith (125), No. 7 seed Andrew Clark (149), No. 7 seed Andrew Barbosa (165), No. 7 seed Shane Cartagena-Walsh (184) and No. 8 seed Hunter Catka (HWT) all earned top eight pre-seeds.

• Shawver is set to compete in his program-record fifth Big Ten Championships. Clark, Pinto, White and Joseph Olivieri (141) will wrestle for the fourth time at the conference championships, while Cotton and Cartagena-Walsh will appear for the second time in their respective careers. Barbosa, Catka and Smith will make their Big Ten Championships debuts.

• Rutgers looks to secure seven or more NCAA qualifiers for the fifth consecutive season after it locked up five automatic bids and two at-large selections for the 2025 NCAA Championships in Philadelphia.

• The Scarlet Knights have had five or more placewinners at each of the past five Big Ten Championships.

• Nine out of 10 starters for Rutgers qualified the weight ahead of the NCAA Championships, while all 10 own a coaches' rank and RPI.

• At 15-0, Oliveri is one of 12 undefeated individuals in the Big Ten Championships field and one of 22 undefeated wrestlers in the country. Olivieri is one of four undefeated individuals in his weight class, along with No. 1 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State), No. 2 Sergio Vega (Oklahoma State) and No. 5 Luke Stanich (Lehigh).

• Shawver looks to become just the second two-time Big Ten Champion in program history after winning in 2024. Shawver will compete in his fifth Big Ten Championships this weekend, after wrestling in 2021 and 2022 at 125 pounds and 2024 and 2025 at 133 pounds.

• Pinto looks to secure his fourth top-eight finish at the championships and his first at Rutgers. Pinto finished second (2025), third (2024) and fifth (2023) competing at 174 and 184 pounds at Nebraska.

• Closing on a six-match win streak, Rutgers finished No. 11 in the final NWCA Coaches Poll of the regular season. The Scarlet Knights tallied a 14-5 dual record in 2025-26, which included a 5-3 record in conference action to help RU secure its highest regular season Big Ten finish (T3rd) in program history.

• Rutgers picked up a 23-15 win over No. 6 Minnesota this season, its first-ever win over the Golden Gophers in program history and seventh top 10 win under head coach Scott Goodale.