Wrestling Unveils Full 2023-24 Schedule

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Rutgers wrestling unveiled its entire 2023-24 competition schedule. The slate includes nine home duals, seven matchups with ranked opponents and four home dates against Big Ten Conference foes.

Season tickets can be purchased here. Times and television designations for all matches will be announced in the coming weeks.

RU opens the season out west with duals against Cal Poly and Duke on Friday, November 3 in San Luis Obispo, California, before it returns to Piscataway to host No. 4 Virginia Tech on Friday, November 17 at Jersey Mike’s Arena. Rutgers closes the month with a trip to West Point to compete in the Black Knight Invitational on Sunday, November 19.

The Scarlet Knights wrestle at Edinboro on Friday, December 1 before they host back-to-back home duals against Princeton (Friday, December 8) and Buffalo (Sunday, December 10). Though not an official date on the schedule, RU will send several student-athletes to compete attached at the 2023 Midlands Championships at the end of the month.

Rutgers opens the new year with a road matchup against No. 19 Penn on Saturday, January 6 in Philadelphia and follows with a home dual against Rider on Sunday, January 7. Five consecutive Big Ten duals follow, which include home dates against Indiana (Friday, January 12) and No. 16 Minnesota (Saturday, January 27) and road matches at Purdue (Sunday, January 14), Michigan State (Friday, January 19) and Michigan (Sunday, January 21).

Three of RU’s final four duals of the season take place in Piscataway, which begins with No. 7 Ohio State on Sunday, February 4. Rutgers wrestles at No. 1 Penn State on Monday, February 12 before it closes its dual season with matches against No. 22 Maryland (Friday, February 16) and Bloomsburg (Wednesday, February 21) at Jersey Mike’s Arena.

The 2023 Big Ten Wrestling Championships take place March 9-10 in College Park, Maryland. The 2023 NCAA Wrestling Championships are March 21-23 in Kansas City.

Ranked No. 14 in the 2023-24 preseason dual rankings by Intermat, the Scarlet Knights are one of just seven programs with student-athletes ranked at all 10 weights by the publication, which includes top-12 ranked wrestlers No. 6 Dean Peterson (125), No. 6 Yaraslau Slavikouski (HWT), No. 10 Brian Soldano (184) and No. 12 John Poznanski (197).

Rutgers finished No. 22 in the final 2022-23 NWCA Coaches Poll, the 10th final top-25 finish for the Scarlet Knights under head coach Scott Goodale. RU produced seven NCAA qualifiers for the second consecutive season and qualified five or more student-athletes to the national tournament for the ninth consecutive season. Rutgers finished fourth in the country in home attendance average with 5,018 fans per home match at Jersey Mike’s Arena this past season. Its 7,848 fans in attendance against No. 1 Penn State on Feb. 10 marked the second-largest home crowd for a wrestling match at the arena in school history.

RU returns nine NCAA qualifiers and two All-Americans – Poznanski and Jackson Turley – this season. Rutgers has also added three student-athletes – Slavikouski (Harvard), Jacob Butler (Oklahoma) and Mitch Moore (Oklahoma) – with NCAA Championships experience. Moore and Slavikouski competed at last year’s NCAA Championships, with Slavikouski advancing to the Round of 12 at heavyweight for the Crimson.

2023-24 Schedule