EAST LANSING, Mich. – Northwestern wrestling kicks off its 2026-27 season on Saturday as the ‘Cats head to the Michigan State Open, where a full complement will face off with a 26-team field inside Jenison Field House. Action kicks off at 8:30 a.m. CT in both the Open Division and the Freshman/Sophomore Division.
The Field
Representatives from 26 schools will be in attendance in East Lansing, including fellow Big Ten teams Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio State, Purdue, Wisconsin and the hosting Michigan State Spartans. A full list of attending teams can be found on FloWrestling.
2026-27 Season Preview
Head Coach Matt Storniolo begins his 12th season at the helm with a young squad, featuring nine first years and no seniors. A pair of past NCAA qualifiers returns to the mat for Northwestern in Sam Cartella, who qualified for the 2025 NCAA Championships at 149 lbs, and Billy Dekraker, who qualified last March at 141 lbs.Â
Dekraker, who ranks No. 26, leads a group of three Wildcats who enter 2026-27 in the InterMat rankings. Dedrick Navarro will be back for his third season on the mat, also ranked No. 26 by InterMat at 125 lbs after back-to-back winning seasons. Coming off a gold medal at the U23 Pan American Championships, Massey Odiotti enters this season in the rankings as well, placing No. 26 at 133 lbs.
Also among Northwestern's returning wrestlers is last year's starter at 174 lbs, Eddie Enright, who climbed as high as No. 27 in the InterMat rankings after defeating a number of higher-ranked wrestlers. Other returners include Jacob Bostelman, who started the majority of last season at 165 lbs, Gunnar Myers, who started at 157 lbs, Alex Smith, who started at 197 lbs as a true freshman in 2025-26, and Dirk Morley, who competed at 285 lbs.
Included in the first-years set to debut this weekend are four who made InterMat’s Top-200 recruits heading into this season: the No. 41 signee nationally, Will Detar, No. 57 Jaxon Miller, No. 118 Liam Davis and No. 159 Trayvn Boger.