Wrestling Begins Dual Season on the Road

Friday, November 14

University Park, PA | Bryce Jordan Center

5 PM

University of Oklahoma

Penn State

Wrestling Begins Dual Season on the Road

November 13, 2025 | Wrestling

Watch (Penn State)Live Stats (Penn State)Watch (Bucknell)Live Stats (Bucknell)Match Notes

By: OU Athletics Communications

OKLAHOMA LINEUP (WITH INTERMAT RANKING)
Weight	Wrestler
125	Conrad Hendriksen (4-1) OR Sebastian Degennaro (3-1)
133	Tyson Charmoli (0-0)
141	Tyler Wells (2-1) OR Alex Braun (2-2)
149	Layton Schneider (2-2)
157	Landyn Sommer (0-2)
165	Owen Eck (4-2)
174	No. 33 Carter Schubert (2-1)
184	No. 13 Brian Soldano (2-1) OR Anders Thompson (2-3)
197	No. 8 DJ Parker (3-0)
285	No. 24 Juan Mora (3-0)

NORMAN – The No. 18 Oklahoma wrestling team begins its dual slate this weekend with matchups against No. 1 Penn State and Bucknell. The Sooners open against the four-time defending national champion Nittany Lions on Friday (Nov. 14) at 5 p.m. CT at the Bryce Jordan Center, followed by a Saturday (Nov. 15) dual against the Bison at 7 p.m. CT at Davis Gym. Friday's contest will air on Big Ten Network, while Saturday's dual will stream on ESPN+. Live stats for both events will be available on Trackwrestling.

Tiger Style Recap

Oklahoma opened its 2025-26 campaign with 15 placers at the Tiger Style Invite (Nov. 9) in Columbia, Mo. DJ Parker (197) and Juan Mora (285) captured individual titles to lead the Sooners to a second-place team finish with 122.5 points, trailing only host Missouri (132.5). South Dakota State (116.5), Purdue (99) and Little Rock (30) rounded out the field.

Year 3 of the Kish Era

Roger Kish was named the 16th head coach of the Oklahoma wrestling program on May 2, 2023, following a successful 12-year tenure at North Dakota State.

Now entering his third season at the helm, Kish has quickly established a foundation of competitiveness and culture in Norman. The Sooners have made steady progress in dual competition and recruiting alike, positioning the program for sustained success at the national level.

In In 2024–25, Oklahoma posted an 8-4 dual record, while its 4-4 Big 12 mark represented the program's first .500 or better conference finish since 2019. Five Sooners qualified for the NCAA Championships, matching the highest total in the Kish era.

In his debut season (2023–24), Kish led Oklahoma to a 23rd-place finish at the NCAA Championships — the program's best in eight years — and coached Stephen Buchanan to his third All-America honor. Buchanan went 27-3 and placed third nationally at 197 pounds, marking OU's top individual NCAA finish since 2016.

Before arriving in Norman, Kish spent 12 seasons at North Dakota State, a Big 12 affiliate, where he compiled a 108-70 (.607) career dual record and guided the Bison to five straight winning seasons (48-20 combined). His teams produced a 50-30 (.625) mark in conference duals (33-26 in the Big 12, 17-4 in the Western Wrestling Conference) and closed his tenure with a .706 overall winning percentage and 21-7 dual record over his final two seasons.

Welcome to Norman

Head coach Roger Kish added 12 newcomers to the roster ahead of the 2025–26 season, highlighted by 2024 All-American Peyten Kellar (Ohio). Kellar was joined by four former NCAA qualifiers — Rafael Hipolito Jr. (Virginia Tech), Tyler Wells (Minnesota), Jack Gioffre (Virginia) and Brian Soldano (Rutgers) — along with redshirt freshman Tyson Charmoli (Wyoming) to round out the Sooners' transfer additions.

The incoming group also features four freshmen ranked in MatScouts' Senior Big Board, which lists the top 250 high school prospects nationally. Oklahoma's 2025 recruiting class was ranked as high as No. 10 nationally by FloWrestling — marking back-to-back top-10 classes for head coach Roger Kish, who also signed the nation's No. 3 class in 2024.

OU's freshman class includes Bryce Burkett (Watertown, Minn.), Sebastian Degennaro (Port Lucie, Fla.), Anthony Harris Jr. (Sparta, N.J.), Trae Rios (Oklahoma City, Okla.) and Cory and Miles Velasquez (Tulsa, Okla.). Burkett, the 2024 Minnesota 174-pound state champion, finished his junior season 54-0 and was a Fargo double finalist in 2022. Degennaro is a three-time Florida state champion and 2023 NHSCA national champion, ranked No. 92 overall by MatScouts. Harris Jr., the No. 34 overall recruit nationally, captured a Super 32 title and was a Fargo freestyle runner-up in 2024. Rios, a two-time Oklahoma state placewinner, won the 2023 KC Stampede as one of the state's top 6A wrestlers.

Series Histories

In a series that dates back to 1968, Oklahoma is 11-14-1 all-time against Penn State. Friday's dual will mark the 26th meeting between two storied programs, which rank among the top five nationally in all-time team NCAA titles. The Sooners last faced the Nittany Lions on Jan. 9, 2010, at the Virginia Duals in Hampton, Va., earning a 22-15 victory.

Oklahoma holds a 4-0 advantage in the all-time series against Bucknell, with the most recent matchup coming in 2021, when the Sooners claimed a 29-9 win at the WVU Coliseum in Morgantown. In four career meetings, OU has outscored the Bison 111-49.

Hall Returns to Happy Valley

Oklahoma director of operations Mark Hall II will make his return to Penn State, where he was a 2017 NCAA champion and four-time All-American during his collegiate career (2016–20). Hall joined the Oklahoma wrestling program in May 2024 after three seasons as an assistant coach at Penn, overseeing the Sooners' logistics, recruiting operations and program administration. He also assumed on-mat coaching responsibilities following the departure of former OU assistant coach and two-time national champion Teyon Ware ('06), who was named head coach at Northern Colorado on July 1, 2025.

As a competitor, Hall compiled a 115-6 career record for the Nittany Lions, winning the 2017 NCAA title at 174 pounds, three Big Ten championships, and reaching the NCAA finals three times. A six-time Minnesota state champion and two-time Junior World Champion, Hall also captured U.S. Open Freestyle titles in 2021 and 2022 and Pan American gold in 2018.

Sooners in the Rankings

Oklahoma enters its first duals of the season ranked No. 18 nationally by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA). The Sooners, ranked in the NWCA preseason top 25 for the third consecutive year, earned their highest starting position since 2021.

Eight Sooners appeared in the latest individual rankings (Nov. 11) from InterMat, FloWrestling and Open Mat: Beric Jordan (125), Jack Gioffre (149), Rafael Hipolito Jr. (157), Peyten Kellar (165), Carter Schubert (174), Brian Soldano (184), DJ Parker (197) and Juan Mora (285).

For updates and more information on Oklahoma wrestling, follow the Sooners on Twitter and Instagram (@OU_W restling) and like Oklahoma W restling on Facebook.