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In late-August word out of Orem, Utah was that longtime head coach Greg Williams would step down as head coach at Utah Valley after the 2023-24 campaign. Williams has led the Utah Valley program since the 2006-07 season, when they were in the middle of a transition from junior college to DI status. During his tenure in Orem, Williams oversaw five wrestlers earning NCAA All-American honors for Utah Valley. All-American Demetrius Romero also became the first UVU wrestler to win a Big 12 championship. He first accomplished that feat in 2019, but earned a second in 2021. With Williams stepping down, the Utah Valley athletic department has moved swiftly to hire his replacement. InterMat has learned that UVU will hire NC State’s associate head coach, Adam Hall, as its next head coach. Hall is in the middle of his ninth season in Raleigh as a member of the Wolfpack coaching staff. He’s been in his current role since the 2019-20 season. While with NC State, Hall has assisted with a program that’s finished in the top-20 at the NCAA Championships on seven occasions, highlighted by a fourth-place tie in 2018. The Wolfpack have finished tenth in the nation in each of the last two years. NC State has also been the class of the ACC - winning six titles within Hall’s tenure. Before coming to NC State, Hall started his collegiate coaching career with four years at Columbia. As wrestler, Hall starred for the now-defunct Boise State program. In his final two seasons, Hall earned Pac-10 titles and a spot on the NCAA podium - finishing third as a junior and fifth as a senior. He was a top-ten seed at nationals during those final two years. Hall also finished fifth at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Trials. Hall has been regarded as one of the top recruiters in the country. As a leader in NC State’s recruiting efforts, Hall helped oversee classes that were ranked third in the nation in 2022 and fifth in 2021. Not only did Hall attend Boise State, he is an Idaho native. His knowledge and connections out west should prove vital to recruiting at Utah Valley. While NC State generally got talent up-and-down the eastern seaboard, under Hall’s watch, they did sign plenty of high-caliber recruits from all over the country. Hall will take over at Utah Valley at the conclusion of the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Week three of the ACC saw the first team upset of the conference season with UNC knocking off #19 Pitt at home. The Tar Heels picked up the first ACC dual victory in the Rob Koll era with an impressive performance at home and are looking to continue that momentum into a matchup on the road with Virginia this week. Virginia Tech shutout Duke and NC State beat UVA handily to wrap up the conference matches last week. We will have a full breakdown of the conference slate and the top-10 matchup between Cornell and NC State on Friday. Today, we are going to look at a wrestler from each ACC program that has stepped up for their team. These guys have either stepped into a full-time starting spot and made a big impression or they have stepped out of redshirt mid-season to help their team. Each of them has played a big role in the recent success of their team and will be a factor in the ACC Championships. Duke: Connor Barket Barket took over the starting spot at 285 after the departure of Jonah Niesenbaum and has had a solid season thus far. He is 1-2 in the ACC with decision losses to the Catka brothers but has been competitive in every bout. He placed eighth at the Southern Scuffle and has shown plenty of improvement. Tom Erikson continues to show that he is one of the preeminent heavyweight coaches in the country, and I’m excited to watch the continued growth of Barket. North Carolina: #17 Tyler Eischens Eischens was a mid-season addition for the Tar Heels, joining for his final year of eligibility after competing for Coach Koll at Stanford. He is 7-5 since entering the lineup with four ranked wins and three of those losses coming to top-10 ranked wrestlers. He is 2-1 in the ACC with wins over Alex Faison and Luca Augustine and a loss to Mekhi Lewis. Eischens faces Justin McCoy this Friday in a match that will likely decide who is the 2 seed at the ACC tournament. NC State: #12 Derek Fields Fields started the season in competition for the starting job at 165 with AJ Kovacs. Since earning the starting job he has impressed for the Wolfpack. He is 13-2 on the year and 3-0 in the ACC. He has made leaps in his technique and has been a critical part of the team success for NC State this year. Fields will face off with Connor Brady in the Virginia Tech dual with the top seed for the ACC tournament on the line. Pittsburgh: #29 Finn Solomon Solomon entered the Panther lineup after transferring from NC State this offseason and has made an immediate impact. He is 12-8 on the year and has wrestled an incredibly tough schedule - 5 of his losses are to top-12 ranked wrestlers - and is in arguably the toughest weight class in the ACC. I have been very impressed with his ability to step into the starting job and compete; he has been a major part of the dual success that the Panthers have had. He will face another very tough test this weekend in #2 Caleb Henson. Virginia: #28 Marlon Yarbrough Yarbrough has been one of my favorite wrestlers to follow this season. He came into Charlottesville with a lot of potential and has made major strides to show that ability this year. He is 10-6 on the year with two of those losses being medical forfeits; he was injured at Midlands and the Southeast Open but seems to finally be back to 100%. Yarbrough has shown the ability to wrestle with anyone in the country - he has a big win over Sam Latona in the dual against Virginia Tech and was going back and forth with Kai Orine before pinned going for a big move. If he is able to maintain his mental focus in big matches, he can make a big impact in the postseason. Virginia Tech: #4 Cooper Flynn Flynn technically fits both of the possible criteria for this list. He was in an Olympic Redshirt year prior to joining in the second semester after the injury of All-American Eddie Ventresca; this is also his first year as the full-time starter at 125. He has been one of the most impressive stories of the year. After coming out of redshirt, he has top-5 wins over Nico Provo and Noah Surtin along with three more ranked wins in his 12-2 start. He is 3-0 in the ACC with a big match with either Jakob Camacho or Jarrett Trombley at NC State to determine the top seed for the ACCs.

This morning the second installment of the NCAA Coaches Poll and first RPI rankings were released. The coaches' rankings are determined by a vote of 14 coaches in each weight class with two head coaches from each of the seven conferences. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. Wrestlers must have eight Division I matches in the weight class to be considered with at least one within the last 30 days. The RPI is a calculation that consists of three factors: winning percentage, opponent winning percentage (strength of schedule) and opponent's opponent winning percentage (opponent's strength of schedule). Only matches against Division I opponents at the designated weight class count towards the RPI and a wrestler needs to have wrestled 15 matches to be ranked. Click here to view the full list.

We're now at the penultimate week for dual competition in the collegiate wrestling season but still have a busy schedule of DI duals this week. A total of 53 duals will be contested. Since it can be difficult to figure out where and when to watch all of these events, InterMat has put together a list of all of the live-streamed events occurring this week. Below are the dates/times and how to watch each match (with links). All times listed are Eastern. Thursday, February 15: Appalachian State at Presbyterian 1:00 PM Appalachian State at Davidson 7:00 PM FloWrestling Friday, February 16: Clarion at Rider 12:00 PM ESPN+ Harvard at Columbia 3:00 PM ESPN+ LIU at Drexel 6:00 PM FloWrestling The Citadel at Gardner-Webb 6:00 PM ESPN+ Central Michigan at Kent State 7:00 PM Cleveland State at Lock Haven 7:00 PM PSAC Digital Network Indiana at Michigan 7:00 PM B1G+ Ohio State at Michigan State 7:00 PM Big Ten Network Franklin & Marshall at Millersville 7:00 PM Ville Sports Network Cornell at NC State 7:00 PM ACC Network Extra Virginia Tech at Pittsburgh 7:00 PM ACC Network Extra Illinois at Purdue 7:00 PM B1G+ Maryland at Rutgers 7:00 PM B1G+ Davidson at VMI 7:00 PM ESPN+ Army West Point at Navy 7:30 PM ESPN+ Missouri at North Dakota State 8:00 PM NDSU All-Access Binghamton at Northwestern 8:00 PM B1G+ North Carolina at Virginia 8:30 PM ACC Network Cal Poly at California Baptist 9:00 PM FloWrestling Wisconsin at Minnesota 9:00 PM Big Ten Network Saturday, February 17: Penn at Princeton 12:00 PM ESPN+ Cleveland State at Bloomsburg 1:00 PM FloWrestling Brown at Bucknell 2:00 PM Bucknell Athletics YouTube Chattanooga at Campbell 2:00 PM Stanford at Arizona State 3:00 PM Pac-12 Arizona Hofstra vs. CSU Bakersfield at California Baptist 6:00 PM Franklin & Marshall at Drexel 6:00 PM FloWrestling Lock Haven at Edinboro 7:00 PM FloWrestling Princeton at Lehigh 7:00 PM FloWrestling SIU Edwardsville at Ohio 7:00 PM ESPN+ CSU Bakersfield at California Baptist 7:30 PM FloWrestling Hofstra at California Baptist 9:00 PM FloWrestling Sunday, February 18: Bellarmine at Appalachian State 11:30 AM AppStateSports YouTube Queens at American 1:00 PM ESPN+ Brown at Columbia 1:00 PM ESPN+ Lindenwood at George Mason 1:00 PM ESPN+ Indiana at Northwestern 1:00 PM B1G+ Cornell at Appalachian State 1:30 PM AppStateSports YouTube Central Michigan at Clarion 2:00 PM FloWrestling NC State at Duke 2:00 PM ACC Network Extra VMI at Gardner-Webb 2:00 PM ESPN+ Wisconsin at Iowa 2:00 PM Big Ten Network Campbell at Presbyterian 2:00 PM ESPN+ Glenville State at West Virginia 2:00 PM ESPN+ Lindenwood at American 3:00 PM ESPN+ Illinois at Northwestern 3:00 PM B1G+ Oklahoma at Oklahoma State 3:00 PM ESPN+ Missouri at South Dakota State 3:00 PM FloWrestling Northern Colorado at Air Force 4:00 PM FloWrestling Nebraska at Penn State 4:00 PM Big Ten Network Oregon State at Stanford 5:00 PM Pac-12 BayArea Utah Valley, Wyoming at Cowboy Shootout, hosted by Wyoming