LITTLE ROCK - The Little Rock wrestling team has broken into the NWCA Division I Men's Wrestling Coaches Poll, as announced by the National Wrestling Coaches Association on Tuesday. It is the first time that any Trojan team in department history has entered the top 25 of a national coaches poll. Read the
full NWCA release here.
It's also the quickest a Division I men's start-up program has hit the Coaches Poll since the poll was first published by Amateur Wrestling News in 1960. The NCAA's divisional structure began in 1973-74. The Little Rock wrestling team began competition in the fall of 2019 under head coach
Neil Erisman and associate head coach
Javier Maldonado.
The recognition comes after
the Trojans took down a top-25 ranked team for the first time last weekend in their conference opener. Little Rock defeated formerly #24 Arizona State 18-15 at home. The program also
gave nationally ranked Pittsburgh a scare in December, as Pitt won by third criteria, 22-21. Wrestling goes to criteria when the results of the dual are tied after the final bout to ensure that there is an overall team winner.
Little Rock wrestling also is highlighted in several national media polls. The team is 25th on FloWrestling's Dual team rankings and 29th on their Tournament team rankings. Little Rock also checks in at 30th on InterMat's Dual team rankings and 24th on The Open Mat's Dual team rankings, while sitting 23rd within WIN Magazine's Dual team rankings and 25th on their Tournament team rankings.
Seven Trojans also landed in the first NCAA Coaches Rankings, announced on Monday. Before this year, the most that Little Rock wrestling had placed in one of the three NCAA Coaches Rankings every season was two.
Read more about Little Rock wrestling's development and rise to where they are today here.
For the latest information on Little Rock Wrestling, make sure to check out
LRTrojans.com. You can also find the team on social media at @LittleRockWRES on
Facebook,
Instagram, and
Twitter.
#LittleRocksTeam
