2022-23 Season Preview

This year’s slate features six home duels, seven road duels and three in-season tournaments for a total of 16 contests, including six matchups with programs in FloWrestling’s preseason top-25 dual rankings “i think this year’s schedule is really challenging,” fifth-year coach Tim Flynn said “We have a couple opens where we will see a lot of different teams right away in the first couple weeks. Our Big 12 schedule is very challenging, and we are going to hit a big tournament in the middle of year at Midlands, so i think between the dual meets and the tournaments, we will hit most of the better kids leading up to the postseason ” Here’s what you need to know heading into the new campaign: • West Virginia returns seven starters from a season ago and will begin the 2022-23 season with five Mountaineers ranked nationally at their respective weight classes, including 2022 Big 12 champion

and 2021 All-American Killian Cardinale and 2022 All-American Peyton Hall • Hall ranks No 8 in both FloWrestling and interMat publications after earning

All-America honors to cap off last year’s

NCAA Championship run He clinched his spot on the podium by defeating No 19-seed Justin McCoy of Virginia He closed his second postseason appearance with an eighth place showing at 165 pounds • The Chester, West Virginia, native joined

Jimmie Cox, Mike Mason, Sam Kline, Brandon Rader, and Noah Adams as the sixth WVU Wrestler from the state of

West Virginia to be named an All-

American in addition, Hall became the first WVU grappler to take home the

All-American honor at 165 pounds since the weight classes were realigned in 1999 • At 125 pounds, Cardinale ranks as high as

No 8 by interMat and appears at No 9 according to FloWrestling He comes off a

2021-22 campaign that saw him claim an 8-3 decision over 2021 Big 12 Champion and third-seeded Brody Teske of Northern Iowa to capture the third Big 12 title in program history and the first individual conference crown since 2020 • Heavyweight grappler Michael Wolfgram joins Cardinale and Hall in the rankings, coming in at No 16 on FloWrestling’s list and No 20 on interMat’s rankings • Last season, the York, Pennsylvania native claimed a 20-win season on the way to making his debut at nationals in Detroit,

Michigan • redshirt junior Anthony Carman sealed one of nine honorable mention spots in

FloWrestling’s rankings at 184 pounds following his 17-win 2021-22 season • Junior newcomer Sam Hillegas rounded out the group at No 30 in the 149-weight class via interMat Hillegas comes to

Morgantown after competing at 141 pounds for Virginia Tech

• Three members of the West Virginia University wrestling team finished in the top eight in their respective weight classes to claim All-America status at the 2022 U23/U20 World Team Trails in Geneva, Ohio, back in June.

• Hall led the way with a second place showing in U23 Men’s Freestyle at 163 pounds, while redshirt sophomore Austin Cooley posted a 5-2 record to take fifth at 202 pounds. Senior Scott Joll finished sixth at 191 pounds at the U23 Grecoroman tournament • For the third straight year, WVU has signed one of the nation’s top prospects, according to FloWrestling Freshman Brody Conley ranked No. 19 in the class of

2022, as he followed in the footsteps of redshirt freshman Jordan Titus (No 25-2021) and junior Peyton Hall (No 31-2020) • The Big 12 Championship returns to the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for the seventh straight year on March 4-5 Two weeks later, Tulsa will host the 2023 NCAA Division i Wrestling Championships at the BOK Center for the first time in NCAA history This is the 12th time that the NCAA Championships will be held in the state of Oklahoma and the first time since 2014 when it took place in Oklahoma City.