InterMat Staff

Now, for the second past NCAA champion of the day to announce his transfer intentions! Earlier today, AJ Ferrari announced that he was moving from CSU Bakersfield to North Carolina - now Richie Figueroa will be transferring from Arizona State to Oklahoma State. Figueroa is coming off a junior season where he went 15-4 and finished third in the Big 12 at 125 lbs, before going 1-2 in Philadelphia at the NCAA Championships. He also missed almost two months in the middle of the season due to an injury. In 2024, Figueroa was Arizona State’s full-time starter for the first time and came out atop a 125 lb weight class that was as chaotic as any weight in recent memory. Figueroa won the Pac-12 Championship and was given the #8 seed at nationals. He proceeded to take out Patrick McKee, Braeden Davis, and Anthony Noto just to make the finals. For the national championship, Figueroa defeated Iowa’s Drake Ayala, 7-2. While splitting time with Brandon Courtney in 2022-23, Figueroa captured a Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational title and had a perfect 14-0 record. Figueroa came to Arizona State after being tabbed the #3 overall recruit in the high school Class of 2021. In 2018, Figueroa made the Cadet World finals - a year later, he made the team, but did not medal. In the summer of 2021, Figueroa competed at the U20 World Championships and finished 12th. With the presence of 2025 NCAA runner-up Troy Spratley in the Cowboy lineup, it is assumed that Figueroa intends on moving up to 133 lbs for the 2025-26 campaign. 133 lbs could have been the only spot in the Oklahoma State lineup without a clear-cut starter. Spratley and Figueroa clashed during a dual meet in the 2023-24 season and Spratley won via major decision. The transfer portal has been very kind to the Cowboys again in 2025. Last year, they netted three multi-time All-Americans - two of which went on to win national titles. This time, they’ve added Figueroa and fellow All-American Casey Swiderski. Coming over from Penn State are Alex Facundo and Zack Ryder; both multi-time age group world medalists, along with Gary Steen, who will add depth to the lightweights. It’s safe to say that we’ve never had a pair of returning national champions transfer on the same day. This portal/transfer season has been crazy already - I’m sure more is set to come.

One of the most notable names in the transfer portal is on the move as AJ Ferrari announced that he will transfer to North Carolina for the 2025-26 season. 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 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. Ferrari fits in well with the Tar Heels who did not have a national qualifier at 197 lbs in the 2024-25 season. UNC has six returning national qualifiers; however, two (Spencer Moore/125 and Lachlan McNeil/149) are currently in the transfer portal. Most observers thought that Ferrari would use the 2024-25 campaign to demonstrate that he is a changed person and not the lightning rod for controversy that he was earlier in his collegiate career, then perhaps transfer to a bigger program. That appears to be the case from everything Ferrari has said at the NCAA Tournament and a move to a North Carolina program that finished in the top 20 in every national tournament from 2018-23 represents a step up in competition. With Buchanan out of eligibility, Ferrari is the second-highest returning placewinner at 197 lbs (runner-up Josh Barr is the highest) and he should be one of the top contenders for a national title.

Pittsford

U17 Finals Matches 40 kg Maisie Elliott (WA) over Brooklyn Henry (PA) 7-2, 3-1 43 kg Madison Healey (PA) over Natalie Radecki (DE) 5-4, 5-4 46 kg Jaclyn Bouzakis (PA) over Hailey Delgado (TX) Fall 2:00, 8-1 49 kg Morgan Turner (IL) over Christina Estrada (CA) 11-2, 11-0 53 kg Espenesa Elison (CA) over Stevie Joyce Martin (CA) 15-4, 10-0 57 kg Emma Bacon (PA) over Zorina Johnson (OR) 12-1, 13-0 61 kg Taina Fernandez (MD) over Landri Von Gonten (TX) 10-0, 12-1 65 kg Violette Lasure (PA) over Riley Hanrahan (WI) 0-10, 11-9, 15-4 69 kg Cassandra Gonzales (MN) over Janiya Johnson (TN) InjDef, 5-1, 2-2 73 kg Ella Poalillo (NJ) over Matilda Hruby (CO) Fall 2:55, Fall 1:49 U20 Finals Matches 50 kg Audrey Jimenez (PA) over Heather Crull (IN) 10-0, 10-0 53kg Abbi Cooper (CA) over Alex Waitsman (CA) 2-11, 5-5, 13-2 55 kg Everest Leydecker (AZ) over Clare Booe (FL) 11-0, Fall :59 57 kg Lorianna Piestewa (NM) over Carissa Qureshi (CA) 10-6, 8-0 59 kg Aubre Krazer (PA) over Bella Williams (OK) 10-2, 9-0 62 kg Haylie Jaffe (PA) over Lilly Luft (IA) 3-0, 4-3 65 kg Daniella Nugent (MA) over Cadence Diduch (IL) 2-5, 2-2, 6-4 68 kg Jordyn Fouse (PA) over Zoey Lints (NY) Fall 1:49, 9-4, 7-4 72kg Jasmine Robinson (TX) over Piper Fowler (TN) 8-2, 6-1 76 kg Naomi Simon (IA) over Stella Stiegler (VA) 2:41, 2:58 U23 Finals Matches 50 kg Heather Crull (IN) over Ava Bayless (PA) 12-15, Fall 2:03, Fall 2:56 53 kg Elena Ivaldi (CA) over Sydney Petzinger (NJ) 10-7, 12-6 55 kg Cristelle Rodriguez (CA) over Amani Jones (GA) 12-6, 5-3 57 kg Cecilia Williams (MI) over Alyssa Mahan (DE) 6-6, 10-0 59 kg Alexis Janiak (IL) over Bella Williams (OK) 3-0, 5-0 62 kg Adaugo Nwachukwu (CO) over Katerina Lange (MN) 14-3, 7-5 65 kg Isabella Mir (NV) over Nina Makem (MN) 2-1, 2-2 68 kg Brooklyn Hays (MN) over Shannon Workinger (WA) Fall 4:32, 13-2 72 kg Jasmine Robinson (TX) over Elleni Johnson (UT) Fall 2:18, 12-0 76 kg Tristan Kelly (CO) over Kalila Shrive (CA) 12-1, Fall 3:54

Friday afternoon proved to be a busy time for a pair of notable names in the transfer portal! Dean Peterson and Zack Ryder both announced their transfer intentions today and both are heading to 2025 NCAA trophy-winning teams. The veteran, Peterson, will use his final year of eligibility wrestling for the University of Iowa. Peterson is a three-time NCAA qualifier at 125 lbs. In 2023 and 2025, Peterson advanced to the NCAA Round of 12 and came up a match shy of earning All-American honors. The latest time saw Peterson fall to Stevo Poulin (Northern Colorado), who had to mount a third-period comeback to get the 6-4 victory. In his three years starting for Rutgers, Peterson amassed a 61-28 record. During the regular season, Peterson handed the eventual NCAA third-place finisher, Luke Lilledahl (Penn State), his first career loss. Though Iowa saw Joey Cruz qualify for nationals at 125 lbs, most saw the weight as one that the Iowa staff might look to upgrade in the offseason. Cruz was the #29 seed in Philly and went 0-2. Peterson is the third notable transfer to commit to Iowa in less than two weeks since the NCAA Tournament. He joins Nasir Bailey and Jordan Williams as new additions to the Hawkeye lineup in 2025-26. With Peterson in the mix, Iowa should be able to redshirt their top recruit #8 overall Leo DeLuca (Blair Academy, NJ) this season. As many expected, Zack Ryder will reunite with his old club coach, David Taylor, who is now leading the Oklahoma State Cowboys. Ryder, the #6 overall recruit in the Class of 2024, entered the transfer portal shortly after 2024 NCAA finalist Rocco Welsh transferred in from Ohio State. A three-time age-group world medalist, Ryder redshirted in 2024-25 and went 8-0 with two open tournament titles. Half of his eight wins came over NCAA qualifiers - headlined by a fall over 2024 All-American TJ Stewart (Virginia Tech). Ryder will be another strong option at 184 lbs for the Cowboys in 2025-26. They will be looking to replace four-time All-American Dustin Plott who is now out of eligibility. Fellow top prospect, Brayden Thompson, was seen as the potential front-runner at 184 lbs for Oklahoma State. Once Ryder committed to Penn State, he moved to the State College, Pennsylvania area and trained with Taylor at his old M2 Training Center. Because of the familiarity, a reunion was highly anticipated after Ryder entered the portal. Ryder is one of three ex-Penn State wrestlers to declare transfer intentions to Oklahoma State this week. He’ll join Alex Facundo and Gary Steen on the way out west. Additionally, Oklahoma State has already added transfer Casey Swiderski to their lineup from Big 12 rival Iowa State. Though Taylor’s team loses six starters from their 2025 NCAA third-place team, they should be in the trophy hunt again after restocking through the portal.

Northwestern Lehigh

Westfield

Jackson

Marysville

DePaul

Franklin

Belgrade

Donna North

North Scott

Prior Lake

Clyde

Alexander

Providence Hall

Winnetonka

Jay M. Robinson

Lancaster

Sumter

Carteret

Lakeway Christian Academy

Marshall