Penn State goes wire-to-wire atop NWCA Div. I Coaches Poll, ends dual season 12-0

Penn State was No. 1 wire-to-wire in the NWCA Div. I Coaches Poll, ending with 12-0 record. The top five in final poll are No. 2 Iowa, No. 3 Nebraska, No. 4 Oklahoma State, No. 5 Iowa State.

With 639 duals involving Division I men’s wrestling teams in 2023-24 now complete, Penn State closed the regular as the only unbeaten and a wire-to-wire unanimous No. 1 as the final NWCA Division I Men’s Wrestling Coaches Poll of the season was released on Tuesday.

Penn State (12-0) finished out the regular season with a 55-0 home win over Edinboro to run its dual meet win streak to 54 in a row. The Nittany Lions will start next season with the fourth-longest win streak in major college wrestling history.

Iowa returned to No. 2 after heading to Stillwater, Oklahoma and taming then-No. 2 Oklahoma State 22-9 in front of over 13,000 fans at Gallagher-Iba Arena in the third-largest dual meet crowd in school history. Oklahoma State dropped back to fourth this week.

Nebraska closed out its season ranked third, finishing a 12-2 season with a road win at then-No. 19 Arizona State. Iowa State (13-2) closed out its regular season with a 41-3 drubbing of reserve-laden Missouri, which came in ranked seventh.

Missouri, which also fell to then-No. 16 Northern Iowa 31-6, dropped three spots to No. 10. NC State closed the regular season with a 16-2 mark after a 20-12 win No. 13 Virginia Tech, giving the Wolfpack the regular-season ACC championship.

Cornell beat Binghamton 33-6 and Michigan shutout Central Michigan 39-0 to end those respective school’s dual-meet seasons.

The only other ranked matchup in the season’s final week saw Arizona State top then-No. 15 Lehigh 24-14 in Tempe. The Sun Devils finished 7-6 and jumped to No. 16 in the final regular-season poll.

The final poll of the season comes out later this week with the final NWCA Division I Men’s Wrestling Mid-Major Poll.

Methodology: The NWCA Division I Men’s Wrestling Coaches Poll is voted on by two coaches from each Division I wrestling conference. Each first-place vote is worth 25 points, 24 points for a second-place vote, 23 for a third-place vote and so on through to one point for a 25th-place vote. The poll is based on dual meet results. Teams who are not competing this season are not included in the voting process.

NWCA Division I Men's Wrestling Coaches Poll

February 27, 2024

Rank/Team (First)/Record/Points/Conf./Previous

1 Penn State (14) (12-0) 350 Big Ten 1

2 Iowa (12-2) 327 Big Ten 4

3 Nebraska (12-2) 326 Big Ten 3

4 Oklahoma State (14-1) 309 Big 12 2

5 Iowa State (13-2) 292 Big 12 5

6 Ohio State (15-2) 278 Big Ten 6

7 NC State (16-2) 259 ACC 8

8 Cornell (12-4) 243 EIWA 9

9 Michigan (8-4) 234 Big Ten 10

10 Missouri (10-4) 221 Big 12 7

11 South Dakota State (13-4) 218 Big 12 11

12 Minnesota (11-2) 201 Big Ten 12

13 Virginia Tech (9-4) 183 ACC 13

14 Rutgers (12-5) 169 Big Ten 14

15 Northern Iowa (8-6) 151 Big 12 16

16 Arizona State (7-6) 127 Pac-12 19

17 Lehigh (7-4) 124 EIWA 15

18 Little Rock (15-5) 117 Pac-12 17

19 West Virginia (10-5) 91 Big 12 18

20 Stanford (10-4) 79 Pac-12 20

21 Oregon State (7-5) 63 Pac-12 21

22 Campbell (14-3) 52 SoCon 22

23 Pittsburgh (10-8) 44 ACC 23

24 Appalachian State (10-3) 31 SoCon 24

25 Penn (6-5) 17 EIWA NR

Others Receiving Votes: Oklahoma 12, Cal Poly 10, Indiana 10, Northern Illinois 7, North Carolina 4, Army West Point 1.

Dropped out: No. 25 Oklahoma (5-7).