It’s hard to believe that the 2023-24 Rutgers Wrestling season is fast approaching, but here we are, just a week or so shy of Labor Day and the wrestling content is finally heating up.
On Tuesday, our first set of rankings from the always reliable Intermat Wrestling guys came out and the Scarlet Knights were well represented as each weight class featured a ranked Rutgers wrestler for the first time in a long time.
On top of that, Coach Goodale’s squad features three wrestlers that will begin the season ranked in the top-ten: Dean Peterson, No. 6 at 125lbs, No. 10 Brian Soldano at 184lbs, and a new face on the banks, No. 6 Yaraslau Slavikouski at Heavyweight.
Along with John Poznanski coming in at No. 12 at 197lbs, the Scarlet Knights figure to have multiple All-American contenders once again, a staple of Goodale’s tenure as the skipper of Rutgers Wrestling.
As a team, the Scarlet Knights come in as the No. 14 ranked dual team as well as the No. 13 ranked tournament team in the country. The tournament ranking specifically stands out here as it might be the highest preseason ranking Rutgers has had since the 2018-19 season that featured future NCAA Champions in Anthony Ashnault and Nick Suriano.
In addition to the ranking news, the 2023-24 schedule continues to slowly leak out as we now have confirmed home matches with ranked opponents including the No. 4 ranked Hokies of Virginia Tech and Big Ten foes No. 7 Ohio State, No. 16 Minnesota, No. 22 Maryland (this should be a doozy), and No. 29 Indiana. The home schedule will also feature unranked, out of conference opponents in Princeton and Buffalo.
I believe there are still two more home duals that have yet to be announced but the team has confirmed the following away Big Ten dual opponents including perennial No. 1 Penn State, No. 9 Michigan, Michigan State, and Purdue. I would imagine the team will also add some non-conference opponents to their away slate, but the full schedule is still TBD as of this publishing.
Be on the lookout for our weight class previews that will start to trickle out in the coming weeks as well as a full dual meet breakdown when the Big Ten finally gets around to finalizing their TV schedule.
If you haven’t bought your season tickets yet, the value this year is pretty great with nine anticipated home duals (after just four last year!) and there are some rumblings that when Minnesota comes to town, there may be an Olympic Gold Medalist at heavyweight for them once again, which should be appointment viewing for all fans of wrestling.
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