Cornell sits atop first NWCA Mid-Major Top 20, with North Dakota State at No. 2

Manheim, Pennsylvania – Cornell, fresh off a pair of top-ten wins last week sits atop of the first Mid-Major Top 20 ranking released by the National Wrestling Coaches Association on Friday.


Cornell is one of three Ivy League teams in the Top 20. The conference alignment is based around school’s all-sports structure, and not any affiliate relationships with conferences that bear the names of the five “power conferences” (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, SEC and Pac-12).

North Dakota State, Northern Iowa and South Dakota State, affiliate members of the Big 12, come in ranked behind Cornell. North Dakota State and South Dakota State are all-sports members of the Summit League. Northern Iowa is a member of the Missouri Valley Conference. Lehigh, from the Patriot League, rounds out the top five. Patriot League schools, like the Ivy, compete within the 17-team Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association, the country’s oldest wrestling conference.

Methodology: The NWCA Division I Wrestling Mid-Major Coaches Poll is voted on by one coache from Division I wrestling conferences with mid-major representation. Each first-place vote is worth 20 points, 19 points for a second-place vote, 18 for a third-place vote and so on through to one point for a 20th-place vote. The poll is based on dual meet results.

NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll

January 13, 2023


Rank/Team/(First)/Record/Points/Conf./All-Sports Conf.

1 Cornell (5) (4-2) 100 EIWA Ivy League

2 North Dakota State (4-2) 92 Big 12 Summit

3 Northern Iowa (3-2) 91 Big 12 Missouri Valley

4 South Dakota State (3-2) 83 Big 12 Summit

5 Lehigh (4-5) 79 EIWA Patriot

6 Appalachian State (4-1) 74 SoCon Sun Belt

7 Cal Poly (3-4) 71 Pac-12 Big West

8 Penn (2-3) 68 EIWA Ivy League

9 Northern Colorado (7-1) 61 Big 12 Big Sky

10 Campbell (6-5) 48 SoCon Big South

11 Army West Point (2-3) 39 EIWA Patriot

12 Air Force (2-0) 30 Big 12 Mountain West

13 Princeton (0-4) 28 EIWA Ivy League

14 Binghamton (2-7) 24 EIWA America East

15 Little Rock (2-4) 19 Pac-12 Ohio Valley

16 Northern Illinois (5-3) 17 MAC MAC

17 Utah Valley (1-3) 14 Big 12 WAC

18 George Mason (8-2) 13 SoCon Atlantic 10

19 (tie) Clarion (4-3) 12 MAC PSAC

19 (tie) Drexel (2-4) 12 EIWA Colonial

Others Receiving Votes: Chattanooga 11, Columbia 10, Rider 10, Navy 9, Buffalo 8, Ohio 7, Harvard 5, Lock Haven 5, Bucknell 4, Cleveland State 3, Hofstra 2, SIU Edwardsville 1.