On Tuesday, Little Rock released its schedule for the 2025-26 season. Since we don’t have many as of yet, it’s an exciting prospect in the middle of the August lull. With that in mind, we’ve looked through the Trojan schedule to highlight some of the marquee events, big duals, and potential matchups.
We’ll start with the actual schedule itself. Rather than reposting it in order, we’ve broken it into three parts. The non-conference duals, conference duals, and special events.
Non-Conference
November 2nd - Central Oklahoma (Home)
December 4th - Minnesota (at Mequon, Wisconsin)
December 7th - Indiana (Home)
January 10th - Edinboro, SIU Edwardsville (at Edwardsville, Illinois)
January 31st - Missouri (Home)
February 6th - Oklahoma State (Away)
 
Conference
January 23rd - Oregon State (Away)
February 8th - CSU Bakersfield (Home)
February 14th - Cal Poly (Home)
March 5th - Pac-12 Championships (No location given)
 
Special Events
November 9th - TigerStyle Invite (Columbia, Missouri)
November 15th - Paycom National Duals Invitational (Tulsa, Oklahoma)
December 21st - Collegiate Duals: Cornell, Ohio State (Nashville, Tennessee)
January 3rd/4th - Southern Scuffle (Chattanooga, Tennessee)

 
Number of top-20 teams from the 2025 NCAA Championships: (5) #3 Oklahoma State, #5(tie) Minnesota, #5(tie) Ohio State, #7 Cornell, #14 Missouri
 
This is quite the challenging schedule for Erisman’s team. A new face on the Little Rock schedule is Minnesota, who features a squad with four returning All-Americans and no significant holes. The Trojans will see Missouri a couple of times, as they’ll host the Tigers after traveling to Columbia for the early-season TigerStyle Invite. Last year, the teams clashed at the Collegiate Duals - now it’s a regular dual between the schools. Indiana is also a new addition. The Hoosiers may not be a superstar-laden team, but they’ll be very solid and it will be quite competitive. One of the highlights of the dual schedule is a trip to Erisman’s alma mater, Oklahoma State. Last year, Little Rock hosted and put up a good fight before falling 25-13. We’ll have to see how the lineup figures itself out for the Cowboys, but suffice it to say, they’ll be one of the top teams in the nation.
Looking at the Pac-12, Oregon State should provide the most significant challenge from a dual standpoint. They could unveil a lineup with seven returning national qualifiers. Cal Poly isn’t quite as deep, but should have some good matchups.
For the special events, it works out rather well logistically for Little Rock. They’ll get to participate in four elite events with excellent competition and each is less than 400 miles away from home.
As for the events themselves, the Collegiate Duals are the only event where we know Little Rock’s competition. Both Cornell and Ohio State should be in the top ten by the time late-December rolls around. It will certainly be a difficult task for Little Rock, taking on both of those schools, but this is always a scrappy team that puts up a fight.
Little Rock has become a regular at the TigerStyle Invite. We don’t have a full list of entrants, as of yet, but it is typically a small individual tournament that has quality over quantity.
The headline event is the National Duals Invitational. Aside from Penn State, it will be a who’s who of collegiate powers. There are sure to be some fun matchups that develop at this event. Some of the high-quality programs already on Little Rock’s schedule will be in attendance (Oklahoma State, Minnesota, Cornell, Missouri, Ohio State), along with plenty of others.
The Southern Scuffle is the final special event on the calendar. Last year’s tournament was moved away from January 1st and 2nd and seemed to get tougher from the recent incarnations of the event. I’d expect this to be similar to 2025’s tournament.
 
Notable Potential Matches for Little Rock’s All-Americans
Matt Bianchi (157)
December 4th: Charlie Millard (Minnesota)
December 21st: Brandon Cannon (Ohio State)
December 21st: Meyer Shapiro (Cornell)
January 10th: Ryan Burgos (Edinboro)
January 23rd: CJ Hamblin (Oregon State)
January 30th: J Conway (Missouri)
February 6th: Teague Travis (Oklahoma State)
 
Stephen Little (197)
December 4th: Gavin Nelson (Minnesota)
December 7th: Gabe Sollars (Indiana)
December 21st: Seth Shumate (Ohio State)
January 23rd: Justin Rademacher (Oregon State)
January 30th: Evan Bates (Missouri)
February 6th: Cody Merrill (Oklahoma State)
 
We can’t take into account potential matches at the National Duals Invitationals, but I’d imagine Little Rock’s studs will see two or three ranked opponents each at that event. Without even potential teams for the TigerStyle Invite and the Southern Scuffle, we can’t even begin to project matches at this point. 
Of the events have details for, the Collegiate Duals will provide a significant test for Bianchi. He'll have a two-time All-American (Shapiro) and a Big Ten finalist and Round of 12 finisher (Cannon). 

With under a month until the debut of Real American Freestyle’s RAF 01 event, their card appears to be finalized with the release of their tenth bout this afternoon. 2025 NCAA champion and world team member, Wyatt Hendrickson, will take on Egyptian Olympian Mostafa Elders at the unlimited weight class.
Hendrickson is fresh off a two-match sweep over Trent Hillger in Final X. Despite the two-straight wins for Hendrickson, their second match proved to be one of the most entertaining of the entire event. The pair combined for 34 points as Hendrickson downed Hillger, 20-14.
Hendrickson turned the wrestling world upside down in Philadelphia at the 2025 NCAA Championships when he knocked off two-time national champion and Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson to capture his national title. Hendrickson earned All-American honors twice (both third place) for the Air Force Academy before using his final year of eligibility at Oklahoma State. Hendrickson was one of two national champions for the Cowboys, who finished third in the nation in David Taylor’s first season as head coach.
In addition to his Final X berth and the US Open title that preceded it, Hendrickson has had plenty of success in the freestyle wrestling world. He was fifth at the U20 World Championships in 2021 and captured a U23 world title two years later.
His opponent, Elders, is a two-time Senior African champion in freestyle. He competed in the 2024 Olympic Games and dropped a close bout to Kazakhstan’s Alisher Yergali in the Round of 16.
Both are also expected to compete at the 2025 Senior World Championships, a couple weeks after the RAF 01 event.
With this match announcement, the RAF 01 card looks like this:
Matt Ramos vs. Nathan Tomasello  (135 lbs) Real Woods vs. Darrion Caldwell  (145 lbs) Austin Gomez vs. Lance Palmer (155 lbs) Wyatt Hendrickson vs. Mostafa Elders (285 lbs) Sarah Hildebrandt vs. Zeltzin Hernandez Guerra  (120 lbs) Kennedy Blades vs. Alejandra Rivera Arriaga  (150 lbs) Kyle Dake vs. Aeoden Sinclair (190 lbs) Evan Wick vs. Jason Nolf (175 lbs) Bo Nickal vs. Jacob Cardenas  (205 lbs) Yianni Diakomihalis vs. Bajrang Punia  (155 lbs)

The University of Pennsylvania announced this afternoon that 2024 NCAA All-American Lennox Wolak has been added to the Quaker coaching staff. Wolak will join Darian Cruz on Matt Valenti’s first coaching staff as the program’s head coach. Roger Reina is the head coach emeritus.
Wolak is a familiar face for followers of the Ivy League as he spent four years wrestling for rival Columbia. While at Columbia, Wolak qualified for the NCAA Tournament twice. In 2024, Wolak captured an EIWA championship, which led to the #7 seed at nationals. Wolak advanced to the NCAA semifinals before settling for sixth place.
After graduating from Columbia, Wolak transferred to Virginia Tech to use his final year of eligibility. In Blacksburg, Wolak battled through injuries to amass a 15-12 record. Despite a fourth-place finish at the ACC Championships, Wolak had a good run at nationals and came up a match shy of getting back on the NCAA podium.
Wolak’s final collegiate record sits at 78-47 with three NCAA berths to his credit at 174 lbs.
Penn will have a bit of a new look in Wolak’s weight range. Longtime starters at 174 and 184 lbs, Nick Incontrera and Max Hale, wrapped up their careers in 2025. Wolak will have to groom their replacements on the fly.
Penn is coming off a 10-6 season that saw the Quakers finish second in the Ivy League Championships. They sent seven wrestlers to the NCAA Tournament. Four will return for the 2025-26 campaign.