NWCA | February 16, 2021

College wrestling rankings: Penn State, Arizona State climb in latest top 25

College Wrestling Legends

MANHEIM, Pa – While there were no new teams in the NWCA Division I Coaches Poll released on Tuesday, there were slight shifts of teams within the Top 25.

There’s a new No. 2 as Penn State (4-0) beat Michigan 18-13 on Sunday morning to move the Nittany Lions behind No. 1 Iowa (5-0). Michigan slid to fourth after the loss. Virginia Tech closed out a perfect regular season at 9-0 after a 27-12 win over No. 16 Pittsburgh to claim the ACC regular season title.

Seventh-ranked NC State topped Duke 37-6, while Minnesota opened up the weekend with a brunch time 27-7 win over then-No. 19 Wisconsin. The Badgers were also upended by unranked Northwestern and dropped six spots to No. 25 this week.

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From a dual meet perspective, the top event on the weekend saw Arizona State beat a pair of ranked teams in Iowa. The Sun Devils moved back into the Top 10 after a 20-15 win over No. 13 Iowa State and a 24-10 win over Northern Iowa. Earlier in the week, ASU beat Cal Poly 34-6 in Pac-12 action. Also in the tri-meet, Iowa State topped Northern Iowa 23-17.

In the ACC, No. 15 North Carolina beat then-No. 21 Virginia 25-9 in Chapel Hill. The only other matchup between ranked teams came in the Big Ten as No. 17 Purdue bested then-No. 22 Michigan State 21-12.

Navy moved up to No. 18 this week and snapped its four-dual losing streak to rival Army West Point 20-13. Rider topped Drexel 20-16.

Methodology: 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. The poll is based on dual meet results. Teams who are not competing this season are not included in the voting process.

Rankings through Feb. 16, 2021.

Rank	Team (First)	Record	Points	Previous
1	Iowa (14)	(5-0)	350	1
2	Penn State	(4-0)	335	3
3	Virginia Tech	(9-0)	310	4
4	Michigan	(4-1)	308	2
5	Missouri	(10-0)	298	5
6	Oklahoma State	(9-0)	282	6
7	NC State	(6-1)	259	7
8	Nebraska	(6-1)	253	8
9	Minnesota	(6-2)	233	9
10	Arizona State	(6-0)	226	11
11	Illinois	(5-2)	210	10
12	Ohio State	(5-3)	201	12
13	Iowa State	(9-3)	182	13
14	North Carolina	(5-2)	173	14
15	Northern Iowa	(4-4)	148	15
16	Pittsburgh	(3-4)	121	16
17	Purdue	(3-5)	109	17
18	Navy	(5-1)	97	20
19	Oklahoma	(5-4)	88	18
20	Virginia	(3-3)	85	21
21	Central Michigan	(5-2)	51	24
22	Campbell	(8-1)	40	23
23	Michigan State	(2-4)	36	22
24	Rider	(4-1)	28	25
25	Wisconsin	(1-6)	27	19

Others Receiving Votes: Rutgers 21, Northwestern 19, Wyoming 17, Binghamton 9, Appalachian State 8, West Virginia 7, Hofstra 5, Lehigh 4, Northern Colorado 4, Stanford, 3, North Dakota State 2, Army West Point 1.

Dropped Out: None.

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