Ty Watters, a redshirt sophomore from West Virginia University, advanced to the quarterfinals at the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships on March 19. The event is being held at Rocket Arena in Cleveland.
Watters, seeded No. 11 at 157 pounds, secured two victories to reach his second career quarterfinals appearance. In the opening round, he defeated Colton Washleski of Virginia by fall. He then faced Jude Swisher of Penn, the No. 6 seed, and won by decision with a score of 7-1.
With this result, West Virginia has now sent at least one wrestler to the quarterfinals for five consecutive seasons. Three Mountaineers won their first matches during Thursday’s competition. Graduate student Jett Strickenberger, seeded No. 17 at 125 pounds, avenged previous losses against Ezekiel Witt of North Dakota State with a major decision win of 13-5 in the first round but was later defeated by Penn State’s Luke Lilledahl.
Redshirt freshman Rune Lawrence made his NCAA Championships debut and achieved an upset victory over Ohio State’s Luke Geog in overtime before losing to Joey Novak of Wyoming in the next round. Out of six qualifiers from West Virginia University, five remain in contention as Ian Bush was eliminated after two losses.
The championships continue Friday with quarterfinal and consolation matches scheduled for noon Eastern Time on ESPNU and semifinals later that evening on ESPN2.