New NWCA D-I Coaches Poll: No. 2 Oklahoma State, No. 3 Iowa, No. 4 Michigan

Joe Smith of Oklahoma State goes for the pin in the dual meet against Iowa State. Photo courtesy of OKState.com

Manheim, Pennsylvania - Michigan’s 19-17 win over rival Ohio State over the weekend elevated the 9-0 Wolverines to No. 4 in the most recent NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll released on Tuesday.

Michigan will face top-ranked and unbeaten Penn State on Friday, February 1 at Penn State’s Bryce Jordan Center in one of the biggest duals of the season. The Nittany Lions, winners of 54 duals in a row, earned road wins against Purdue and Indiana to improve to 9-0.

Oklahoma State (10-0) moved up one spot to No. 2 after a 22-15 conference win over visiting Iowa State on Sunday. Iowa moved up one spot to No. 3 and improved to 10-0 with road wins over then-No. 20 Illinois 31-8 and Northwestern 32-7. Missouri finished out its Mid-American Conference portion of the schedule with a 40-6 win over Northern Illinois. The Tigers improved to 14-0 and have won 34 duals in a row.

Ohio State (7-1) slid four spots to No. 6 with the loss. Penn State, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri and unranked Campbell are the lone unbeaten teams left in Division I.

No. 7 Minnesota (11-2) topped then-No. 14 Wisconsin 27-13, NC State stayed No. 8 with a 30-12 win over Duke. No. 9 Nebraska beat Illinois 30-9, while 10th-ranked Cornell won its 85th and 86th Ivy League duals in a row with victories over Brown and Harvard. Cornell’s Rob Koll also surpassed the 300-win mark as a head coach.

No. 12 Virginia Tech improved to 7-2 with a pair of ranked wins. The Hokies topped ACC foe Pittsburgh 27-6 on Friday before heading to Pennsylvania to top surging Lehigh 23-9. The loss snapped Lehigh’s six match win streak. The Mountain Hawks rebounded with a win Sunday against Arizona State (4-8), which fell out of the Top 25 after losses to Lehigh and Lock Haven, which returned to the Top 25 at No. 24.

Lock Haven drew over 2,700 fans at Red Lion High School in York, Pennsylvania and came away with a 23-14 win over Arizona State. The dual was highlighted by Josh Shields’ tiebreaker win over local product Chance Marsteller at 165 pounds.

No. 15 Iowa State topped Oklahoma 25-6. Also in the Big 12, No. 16 Northern Iowa opened the weekend with a win over Northern Colorado 38-6 before it was their turn to beat Oklahoma 28-9. No. 17 North Carolina beat then-No. 25 Virginia 22-13 in the ACC, while Rutgers edged Michigan State 22-20. Stanford opened the weekend with a win over Cal Baptist, but CSU Bakersfield stopped Stanford’s win streak with a 20-13 win on Sunday. Stanford slid three spots to No. 25.

The NWCA Division I 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.

NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll – January 29, 2019

Rank	Team (First)	Record	Points	Conference	Previous
1	Penn State (16)	9-0	400	Big Ten	1
2	Oklahoma State	10-0	382	Big 12	3
3	Iowa	10-0	357	Big Ten	4
4	Michigan	9-0	354	Big Ten	6
5	Missouri	14-0	332	MAC	5
6	Ohio State	7-1	331	Big Ten	2
7	Minnesota	11-2	303	Big Ten	7
8	NC State	13-2	284	ACC	8
9	Nebraska	9-3	272	Big Ten	9
10	Cornell	8-2	254	EIWA	10
11	Wyoming	12-3	241	Big 12	11
12	Virginia Tech	7-2	227	ACC	12
13	Pittsburgh	8-2	194	ACC	13
14	Iowa State	7-2	193	Big 12	15
15	Wisconsin	6-5	185	Big Ten	14
16	Northern Iowa	5-4	161	Big 12	16
17	North Carolina	8-5	143	ACC	17
18	Rutgers	8-4	132	Big Ten	18
19	Purdue	5-6	92	Big Ten	19
20	Princeton	4-4	88	EIWA	21
21	Illinois	2-5	71	Big Ten	20
22	Lehigh	6-8	64	EIWA	24
23	Virginia	11-7	49	ACC	25
24	Lock Haven	5-2	34	EWL	NR
25	Stanford	6-1	31	Pac-12	22

Others Receiving Votes: Arizona State 9, Oklahoma 6, Campbell 5, Army West Point 3, Utah Valley 3
Dropped Out: No. 23 Arizona State