No. 8 Lehigh University’s wrestling team will compete in the inaugural National Duals Invitational, presented by Paycom, on November 15-16 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The event features 16 teams vying for a total prize pool of over $1 million, with $200,000 awarded to the winning team.
Lehigh began its dual meet season with victories over Duke and Virginia during Journeymen WrangleMania at Liberty High School. Additionally, six Lehigh wrestlers participated in the Journeymen Collegiate Classic at Freedom High School. Sophomore Matty Lopes won the Hammer Award after taking first place in the top black bracket at 133 pounds, while first-year Anthony Evanitsky also secured a bracket win. Five out of six Lehigh entrants finished either first or second in their brackets.
In its opening match at the National Duals Invitational, Lehigh will face No. 2 seed Nebraska, which is ranked second nationally following a strong performance last season that included two NCAA champions and eight All-Americans. Nebraska’s lineup features returning NCAA Champion Antrell Taylor (157), All-American AJ Ferrari (heavyweight), Brock Hardy (141), and is led by head coach Mark Manning in his 26th season.
Depending on results from their first match against Nebraska, Lehigh will next compete against either Michigan or Arizona State later that day. Other participating teams include Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Little Rock, Northern Iowa, NC State, Oklahoma State, Cornell, Ohio State, Wyoming, Virginia Tech and Minnesota.
The Mountain Hawks earned their invitation to this tournament based on their 15th-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championships. The opening round match between Lehigh and Nebraska is scheduled for noon Eastern Time on Saturday.
Streaming coverage of most matches will be available via FloWrestling.org; Sunday night’s championship finals will air nationally on ESPN2.
Following this tournament weekend in Tulsa, Lehigh will take a break from competition before hosting Pittsburgh on December 5 for its home opener at Grace Hall. On December 7 they are set to travel to Penn State for what will be the 113th meeting between these programs.
The upcoming wrestling season for Lehigh is presented by Historic Hotel Bethlehem.
For ongoing updates throughout the season fans can follow Lehigh Men’s Wrestling on X/Twitter and Instagram as well as Facebook.