ICYMI: Virginia Tech Climbs NWCA Coaches Poll
by Christopher Miller
Image and Release courtesy of National Wrestling Coaches Association.
Manheim, Pennsylvania – With over a third of Division I teams in action this past weekend at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, there wasn’t a ton of dual meet action to impact the rankings last week, but there was one major outcome that reconfigured the top five as the most recent NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll was released on Tuesday.
Virginia Tech (3-1) went to Columbia, Missouri and trounced then-No. 17 Northern Iowa 39-3 and then upended then-No. 3 Missouri 18-16. The Hokies moved up two spots to No. 8, while Missouri (4-1) dropped seven spots to No. 10. The loss broke Missouri’s dual meet win streak at 16.
Top-ranked Iowa won its annual Cy-Hawk dual with Iowa State in front of a spirited crowd of nearly 10,000 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. Iowa improved to 3-0 after the 22-11 victory. Penn State remained unbeaten, but it wasn’t pretty as illness has kept a number of highly ranked Nittany Lions out of the lineup. Penn State beat host Penn 20-16 in Philadelphia before returning home and fending off then-No. 22 Lehigh 23-16.
The only other dual action involving ranked programs saw NC State improve to 2-0 after it won all 10 bouts in a dual against Gardner-Webb. Rutgers leads Division I in dual meet victories in the first month of the season. The Scarlet Knights improved to 9-0 after beating American 41-3 last week.
This week: With many schools hitting the end of their semester or taking first semester finals, action is again limited this coming week. Rutgers hosts Army West Point on Friday, while No. 23 Illinois will see its first dual action of the season as the Fighting Illini face Chattanooga and host SIUE on Saturday. Sunday will have two ranked matchups as No. 22 Pittsburgh will hit the road to take on No. 6 Ohio State and Bedlam gets underway in Norman as the fourth-ranked Oklahoma State Cowboys will take on No. 17 Oklahoma. No. 5 NC State will head to Boone to take on always pesky Appalachian State.
Methodology: The NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll is voted on by two coaches from each Division I wrestling conference. Each first-place vote is worth 25 points, 24 points for a second-place vote, 23 for a third-place vote and so on through to one point for a 25th-place vote. The poll is based on dual meet results.
NWCA Division I Wrestling Coaches Poll
December 7, 2021
| Rank | Team (First) | Record | Points | Conference | Previous |
| 1 | Iowa (14) | (3-0) | 350 | Big Ten | 1 |
| 2 | Penn State | (5-0) | 336 | Big Ten | 2 |
| 3 | Michigan | (3-0) | 315 | Big Ten | 4 |
| 4 | Oklahoma State | (3-0) | 310 | Big 12 | 5 |
| 5 | NC State | (2-0) | 294 | ACC | 6 |
| 6 | Arizona State | (1-0) | 274 | Pac-12 | 7 |
| 7 | Ohio State | (3-0) | 273 | Big Ten | 8 |
| 8 | Virginia Tech | (3-1) | 251 | ACC | 10 |
| 9 | Nebraska | (3-0) | 235 | Big Ten | 9 |
| 10 | Missouri | (4-1) | 220 | Big 12 | 3 |
| 11 | Cornell | (1-0) | 206 | EIWA | 11 |
| 12 | Rutgers | (9-0) | 191 | Big Ten | 14 |
| 13 | Iowa State | (2-1) | 179 | Big 12 | 13 |
| 14 | Minnesota | (1-1) | 176 | Big Ten | 12 |
| 15 | Purdue | (6-0) | 139 | Big Ten | 15 |
| 16 | Wisconsin | (4-0) | 126 | Big Ten | 16 |
| 17 | Oklahoma | (2-1) | 124 | Big 12 | 18 |
| 18 | Lehigh | (3-2) | 107 | EIWA | 22 |
| 19 | North Carolina | (3-4) | 86 | ACC | 19 |
| 20 | Northern Iowa | (0-2) | 69 | Big 12 | 17 |
| 21 | Princeton | (0-1) | 67 | EIWA | 20 |
| 22 | Pittsburgh | (3-1) | 54 | ACC | 23 |
| 23 | Illinois | (0-0) | 45 | Big Ten | 21 |
| 24 | Northwestern | (0-0) | 36 | Big Ten | 24 |
| 25 | Wyoming | (0-0) | 34 | Big 12 | NR |
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