The most notable name in the transfer portal is on the move as AJ Ferrari announced that he will transfer to Nebraska for the 2025-26 season. Ferrari is expected to compete at 285 lbs for the Cornhuskers. 
Earlier this offseason, Ferrari announced his transfer to North Carolina. Just over a week ago, news trickled out of Chapel Hill that Ferrari had been denied admission to UNC and would be on the market once again. 
Ferrari is a two-time NCAA All-American and two-time conference champion. He won a national title in 2021 as a true freshman for Oklahoma State and amassed a 19-1 record. Since then, Ferrari had a long road back to the NCAA Tournament. He was injured in a car accident in January of 2022 and was unable to compete in the postseason. Later that year, Ferrari was dismissed from the Cowboy team and did not compete in college until the 2024-25 season. 
Ferrari returned to the collegiate wrestling world this past season for CSU Bakersfield. He entered the NCAA Tournament with a perfect 17-0 record after defeating returning All-American Stephen Little (Little Rock) to claim a Pac-12 title. 
At the 2025 NCAA Championships, Ferrari showed off his stingy defense and low-risk offensive strategy in defeating his first three opponents by a 15-2 margin. That set the stage for a semifinal contest with Iowa’s Stephen Buchanan. Ferrari spent some time during the 2023-24 season training with the Hawkeye Wrestling Club at the University of Iowa, but never enrolled at the school. His younger brother, Angelo, is a freshman 184 lber at Iowa. 
Buchanan was able to give Ferrari a dose of his own medicine in a 3-0 win. After the Buchanan loss, Ferrari responded with back-to-back wins over Joey Novak (Wyoming) and Jacob Cardenas (Michigan) to claim third place. Cardenas entered the tournament as the top seed and was the Big Ten champion. He and Ferrari were briefly high school teammates at New Jersey’s Bergen Catholic High School. 
The win over Cardenas and the third-place finish gave Ferrari a 22-1 season record and ran his collegiate record to 51-2. 
The fit at heavyweight for Ferrari and the Cornhuskers could be a good one. 285 lbs was the only weight which Nebraska did not send to Philadelphia for nationals. Without counting Ferrari, Nebraska will return six All-Americans for the 2025-26 season. They’ll be in prime position to claim an NCAA team trophy for a second straight year.

It’s about that time! In the past couple of weeks, we’ve spent time loosely discussing Final X; however, it’s time to start talking about the individual matches themselves. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll break down all 20 Final X matchups - leading into the event itself on June 14th, from Newark, New Jersey. 
Our next preview is in women’s freestyle at 65 kg. There will be a lot of familiarity in this series between two-time Senior world medalist Macey Kilty and US Open champion Aine Drury. The pair have met multiple times in high-stakes matches within the last year. They’ll do it again in Newark. The previous matchups have leaned heavily toward Kilty, so will Drury be able to close the gap?
Prior Previews
57 kg men’s freestyle
61 kg men's freestyle
65 kg men's freestyle
70 kg men's freestyle
74 kg men's freestyle
79 kg men's freestyle
86 kg men's freestyle
50 kg women’s freestyle
53 kg women's freestyle
55 kg women's freestyle
57 kg women's freestyle
59 kg women's freestyle
62 kg women’s freestyle
 
65 kg women’s freestyle
Macey Kilty vs. Aine Drury
This is one of two women’s freestyle series where there was a returning World/Olympic medalist that automatically advanced to Final X. That wrestler is Macey Kilty who has grabbed a hold of this 65 kg weight class. Kilty has made the world team in each of the last two years at this weight and came away with hardware in each of those two trips (silver and bronze). 
After training at North Carolina, since her high school career concluded, Kilty moved to finish college at the University of Iowa last school year. Her individual title helped contribute to a national team title for the Hawkeyes. The Senior World medals are just the next step in the progression for Kilty, who has won at every level. She has seven age-group world medals including a Cadet world championship from 2018. 
Aine Drury was a California state champion who stayed at home and went undefeated while winning a California Community College title for Cerritos College. Drury then transferred to King University where she made the national finals in 2024 and finished fifth at the NCWWC National Tournament in 2025. Her first loss on the championship side of the bracket in 2025 came to Kilty, who won via tech. 
 
How They Got Here
Kilty: At the 2024 non-Olympic weight World Championships, Kilty suffered a quarterfinal loss to Romania’s Kateryna Zelenykh in the quarterfinals, but won a match in repechage before teching Russian Valeriia Dondupova Suvorova to claim a bronze medal. It was her second medal at the Senior level and allowed her to automatically advance to Final X. 
Drury: A runner-up finish at the 2024 World Team Trials helped Drury obtain the second seed in a pretty strong US Open weight class. Drury advanced to the finals after an impressive showing against world medalist Jennifer Page in the semifinals. She was up 10-2 at the time of a first-period fall over Page. In the finals, Drury got out to a big leave and survived a late rally from Isabella Mir to take the title and move on to Final X. 
 
Recent Form
Kilty: Kilty’s only international event of 2025 has been the Pan-American Championships an event she won with two techs and a fall. The gold medal was her second from the continental championship at the Senior level for Kilty. She also won in 2024. In addition to her Senior world medal last year, Kilty also was a silver medalist at U23 World’s. 
Drury: Drury’s only competitions this year were on the collegiate front and the US Open. 
 
Prior History
There’s plenty of recent history between these two. As we’ve already discussed the pair met in the semifinals of the NCWWC National Championships earlier this year. In 2024, Kilty also swept Drury in the World Team Trials finals to make the Senior World Team. Both of those matches resulted in techs. Kilty’s career advantage over Drury is 4-0 with a win at the 2023 US Open factored in. 
 
Keys to Victory
Kilty: Stick with what works. Kilty has dominated the previous matchups with Drury - with little scoring from Drury, so why change? She has a sweep single that’s difficult to stop and works well with snap-downs and from the front headlock position. Her turns tend to work, too. Get to those attacks until proven otherwise. 
Drury: Impose her will. Drury likes to get to an underhook and work from there, whether it is looking for a trip or controlling the head for a variety of potential moves. She’s able to do this against just about everyone not named Kilty. She should try and get to her best positions while being cognizant of the fact that Kilty might disappear for a sweep single. Again, against the rest of the country, Drury is rather stout defensively but has trouble stopping Kilty.

It’s about that time! In the past couple of weeks, we’ve spent time loosely discussing Final X; however, it’s time to start talking about the individual matches themselves. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll break down all 20 Final X matchups - leading into the event itself on June 14th, from Newark, New Jersey. 
Our next preview is in men’s freestyle at 86 kg. A pair of Senior world medalists clashing, the only time it will happen in men’s freestyle this year in Final X. Zahid Valencia versus Kyle Dake has the potential to be a classic Final X series. It’s also the only men’s series that we’ve seen before in Final X. That being said, their 2018 meeting is practically ancient history at this point and Valencia took their 2025 meeting at the US Open. With fewer mainstays of the men’s freestyle team participating in this event, could a Valencia win be another signal of a new era? Or an eighth straight team for Dake?
Prior Previews
57 kg men’s freestyle
61 kg men's freestyle
65 kg men's freestyle
70 kg men's freestyle
74 kg men's freestyle
79 kg men's freestyle
50 kg women’s freestyle
53 kg women's freestyle
55 kg women's freestyle
57 kg women's freestyle
59 kg women's freestyle
62 kg women’s freestyle
 
86 kg men’s freestyle
Zahid Valencia vs. Kyle Dake
This has to be one of the most anticipated series of Final X. The US Open saw Valencia knock off Dake and forced the four-time world champion to win the World Team Trials to get a rematch and potentially make another world team. 
Valencia was a 2023 world team member at 92 kg and came away with a bronze medal in that appearance. To date, it’s been his only Senior world team. Valencia has made three Junior world teams and claimed a silver medal in the final of those three trips. In 2024, Valencia went down to this weight for the Olympic Trials and ended up losing a very controversial match to the eventual Olympic bronze medalist, Aaron Brooks. While Valencia has had success at 92 kg, he’s proven this year that 86 kg is probably the best weight for him. This is the first full year in which he’s been at Oklahoma State’s Cowboy RTC. You have to wonder how the mentorship of David Taylor impacts this series. Taylor has been a longtime competitor, friend, and teammate of Dake. 
Dake is seeking to make his eighth straight world/Olympic team; however, this is the first time since 2016 that he’s trying to do so at 86 kg. After the international weights shifted in 2018, Dake won the first two world titles at 79 kg, before dropping to 74 kg for the 2020 Olympics. He’s been at that weight ever since. Now it’s time for a new challenge. During his run on the world/Olympic team, Dake has been incredibly consistent with a medal in every one of those seven tournaments. 
 
How They Got Here
Valencia: Not only did Valencia have to defeat Dake to win the 2025 US Open, but he also had to get by a second world team member, Chance Marsteller, in the semifinals. Valencia took a commanding lead over Dake with a picturesque duckunder followed by a high gut for a total of four points. Valencia extended his lead to 5-1 at the break. In the second, Dake battled back but came up short, 8-4. 
Dake: Since he fell in the Open finals, Dake had to head to Louisville and the Trials to advance to Final X. In the Trials finals, Dake squared off with fellow Nittany Lion Wrestling Club teammate Carter Starocci. The match was extremely tight and featured a close sequence that went Dake’s way. He’d prevail 3-3 on criteria. 
 
Recent Form
Valencia: Valencia has been red-hot this year with the Open title and three gold medals in all three of his international tournaments. He started the year by winning the Dan Kolov/Nikola Petrov and then few weeks later, grabbed gold at the Zagreb Open Rankings Series event. After winning the Open, Valencia went on to win the Pan-American Championships. 
Dake: The US Open and World Team Trials are the only competitions for Dake since the 2024 Olympic Games. Someone of his age and experience is probably better off only competing in a couple events a year, anyway, so he should be fine. 
 
Prior History
Obviously, we remember the Open finals matchup, but these two also clashed in the very first Final X, which was held in State College, Pennsylvania in 2018. In that series, Dake won 4-3 and 4-0. Obviously, that doesn’t have much impact on the 2025 rematch. This will be the only men’s freestyle series that has taken place before in Final X. 
 
Keys to Victory
I’m not sure what to think about this rematch. Dake has long been one of the best at crafting and executing a game plan to beat high-scoring wrestlers like Jordan Burroughs and David Taylor. Now, will he be able to adjust and defeat Valencia? As mentioned earlier, has Taylor been the secret sauce for Valencia to beat Dake? One win again the legend is tough, but can Valencia pull off two more? 
That’s a long way to say that the winner will be the wrestler who can make adjustments and wrestle a different match than the one we saw in Vegas.