Wrestling set to get underway with annual Maroon and Gold scrimmage

TEMPE – Sun Devil Wrestling is ready for its season tuneup, with the program's annual Maroon and Gold scrimmage slated for Saturday, Nov. 1st at 1:00 P.M. MST at Desert Financial Arena. The scrimmage will mark the start of head coach Zeke Jones’ 12th season at the helm, the longest tenured head coaching stint across all of Arizona State’s 24 division one varsity sports. 

While the wrestling will begin at 1:00, the festivities will be at full-tilt early and often. Fans, friends, family and alumni alike can join coach Jones alongside the newly formed Southwest Wrestling Club for an afternoon of food and fun at the Desert Arboretum Park right next to Desert Financial Arena. A full timeline of the pre-match activities can be found below:

11:00 A.M. MST: FREE barbecue at the Desert Arboretum Park
11:30 A.M. MST: Sun Devil Wrestling town hall with Zeke Jones and Dave Kiley (Director, Southwest Wrestling Club)
1:00 P.M. MST: Coach Jones gives opening statement to the crowd inside of Desert Financial Arena
1:30 P.M. MST: Wrestling matches begin  

After a fun-filled afternoon, the party will roll on as the Sun Devils will feature 10 intrasquad matches, with the following projected matchups:

(Subject to change)
125| Damian Moreno vs. An’ee Vigil
133| Carter Dibert vs. Kyler Larkin
141| Pierson Manville vs. Daniel Miranda
149| Kaleb Larkin vs. Loser of match 1 & 2
157| Winner of Match 1 vs Winner of Match 2
165| Winner of Match 6 vs Nicco Ruiz
174| Cael Valencia vs Leo Tukhlynovych
184| Azizbek Fayzullaev vs Shay Addison
197| Winner of Match 4 vs Winner of Match 5
285| David Szuba vs TBD

Ranked Opponents in 2025-26
The Sun Devils once again find themselves in a loaded pool of competition, squaring off against six ranked opponents on top of three highly competitive neutral site invite only events. Of the six ranked opponents, three of which land in the top-10 via FloWrestling’s preseason polls:

vs. #4 Iowa State
vs. #8 Oklahoma State
vs. #7 Lehigh
vs. #16 West Virginia
vs. #19 Missouri
vs. #28 Oregon State

FULL SCHEDULE 

A dozen years of Zeke Jones
Zeke Jones has redefined success and cemented the Sun Devils into the national spotlight since his hiring in April 2014. Now heading into year 12, Jones has a new sense of energy around the program and the team. 

“This is a big year for our program. We're pretty excited about where we're heading, I think all people would consider we've hit the reset button. We're bringing in 14 new wrestlers on our new roster that caps at 30. It's a really exciting time for us and I can’t wait to see what this team can achieve,” said Jones.

Under Jones’ leadership, the Sun Devils have won six conference titles, as Jones trails just Bobby Douglas (8) for most in team history. Jones sits behind just Douglas and Men's Golf's Randy Lein (8) for the most conference titles among any coach in Sun Devil history. 

Welcome to Tempe
The Sun Devils welcome 14 newcomers to the team, making it the largest signing class in Sun Devil Wrestling history. Kyler Larkin is one of the class headliners as he joins his older brother, Kaleb Larkin, to continue the Larkin pipeline at ASU. Larkin is considered one of the top 132-pounders and recently captured the U20 Pan-American title in the 61 kg freestyle division, representing the United States. 

Coming from the transfer portal is former Oklahoma standout Jude Randall. Randall put a stamp on his freshman campaign by going 9-3 last season as a freshman in Norman. He also joined Ky. Larkin at the U20 Pan-American event, as he captured his own title at 72 kg in the Greco-Roman division.

The new big man on campus David Szuba will slide into the 285 weight class for ASU. Hailing from Rider university, Szuba is ranked No. 21 on FloWrestling’s preseason list in the heavyweight division. He compiled a career 68-37 record and qualified for the NCAA Championships last season including a victory in the first round. He secured the MAC Championship and went 12-1 as a senior last season. His younger brother, Ben Szuba joins the team entering his freshman year. 

The Sun Devils also made a late splash, bringing in Mizzou transfer and three-time NCAA qualifier Colton Hawks to round out an almost brand new roster set to compete in 2025-26. 

Newcomers by class
Freshman (8):  Gabriel Delgado, Jamar Dixon, Jabari Hinson, Israel Ibarra, Kyler Larkin, Ben Szuba, Melvin Whitehead, Aidan Ysaguirre

Sophomores (1): Jude Randall 

Juniors (3):  Gavin Bauder, Leo Tukhlynovych, An’ee Vigil

Graduates (2): Colton Hawks, David Szuba 

Champions Made Here 
Former Sun Devil Wrestling standout Zahid Valencia etched his name into the history books by taking gold at the Senior World Wrestling Championships in Zagreb, Croatia.

The 28-year-old scored a perfect 49-0 across five total matches against international opponents en route to a gold medal. The dominant run was capped off by securing a 12-0 tech fall victory over Hayato Ishiguro (JPN) in the finals, his fourth tech fall victory of the championships. 

Valencia now joins Zeke Jones as the only former Sun Devil wrestlers to win gold at the world championships, as Jones took gold in 1991

During his tenure at ASU, Valencia was a two-time NCAA Division I national champion (2018-19), a three-time All-American, a three-time Pac-12 champion, and a three-time Pac-12 Wrestler of the Year.

The Legend of Larkin
Sun Devil Athletics hall of famer Eric Larkin is widely regarded as one of the greatest athletes to ever dawn the Sun Devil singlet. Standing sixth on the all-time wins list at ASU with 123, Larkin accomplished several feats that no other Sun Devil had, including being honored with the 2003 Dan Hodge Award and being selected as the Outstanding Wrestler of the 2003 NCAA meet following a perfect 34-0 record in his senior campaign. Prior to winning the NCAA title, Larkin made an impressive improvement over the course of his career finishing fourth (133) as a freshman, third as a sophomore (141) and second as a junior (141).  

He now passes the torch to the next generation of Larkin’s with children Kaleb and Kyler poised for huge seasons ahead. 

Kaleb currently holds a 2-0 record in his NCAA career across limited action due to injuries. Kaleb earned his way to the US Olympic trials in the summer of 2024, going toe-to-toe with four-time national champion Yianni Diakomihalis in a wire-to-wire bout. 

As for Kyler, his freshman year will be one of the most anticipated in the entire country. Kyler is fresh off of a dominant gold medal performance at the U20 Pan-Am Championships in the 61 kg freestyle division in Lima, Peru. He is also a 2023 Fargo champion while winning the college division at the Reno Tournament of Champions at 133 lbs in 2023. 

Ruiz The Roof
Headlining the Sun Devils returning class is none other than 165-lb standout Nicco Ruiz. Ruiz is poised for another huge season following a slew of success in his first full season coming in 2024-25. The early season rankings have Ruiz penciled in at No. 12/14 via FloWrestling and Intermat. 

Ruiz is the lone Sun Devil to have qualified for the NCAA Championships a season ago, as he turned in a 1-2 outing at the national meet in Philadelphia. The meet was highlighted by a take down of No. 31 Cody Goebel (Wisconsin) by a 16-3 MD for his first career win at the national meet.  He also placed sixth in the 165-lb bracket at the team's first trip to the Big 12 Championships to punch his ticket to the NCAA Championships. 

Ruiz finished the 2025-25 season at 14-8, leading the team in tech-fall wins (4). 

JUCO Bandits
Among the deep transfer class, coach Jones and his staff dove into the junior college waters and reeled in three high-impact wrestlers. The trio Gavin Bauder, Leo Tukhlynovych and An’ee Vigil are primed to make the jump from junior college to division 1 after each of which spent two years in the NJCAA. 

In two seasons at Clackamas CC for Vigil, he cemented himself as one of the best all-around 125 lb wrestlers in the NJCAA. Vigil claimed two individual NJCAA National Championships and was a part of the 2025 national runner-up squad. He was recognized as a 2025 NJCAA All-American and named The Open Mat’s 2024 NJCAA Freshman of the Year.

Bauder, a teammate of Vigil’s at Clackamas, secured an NJCAA national championship of his own at 133 lbs. His stellar season helped propel the team into the second place finish nationally before putting pen to paper with the Maroon and Gold.

Tukhlynovych earned back-to-back years of All-American honors and finished third nationally at the 174 lb mark in 2024-25 after seasons at Rochester Community and Technical College Minnesota.

Brotherly Love 
The Sun Devils active roster features three different sets of brothers. Ben and David Szuba, Kaleb and Kyler Larkin, and Aidan and Emilio Ysaguirre. Notably, the Aguirre and Larkin brothers are local products born and raised in Arizona. 

Cleveland, This is for You
The 2025-2026 season will come to a close at the NCAA championships in Cleveland, Ohio hosted at Rocket Arena. The three-day event will span from March 19-21 where the Sun Devils will hope to hope to be well represented. 

Follow along
Be sure to follow Sun Devil Wrestling on X (@ASUWrestling), Instagram (SunDevilWrestling1962) and Facebook for all the latest coverage and content throughout the season.