Wrestling to kick off 2025-26 at Michigan State Open
TEMPE – Sun Devil Wrestling is set to begin the season with its first appearance of the 2025-26 campaign at the Michigan State Open. The event will be held at Jenison Field House in East Lansing, Mi. First whistles to commence the wrestling will sound at 9:30 A.M. EST (7:30 A.M. MST) with bouts rolling all day. Fans can catch the full-day of action streamed live via Flo Wrestling.
Flo Wrestling live stream /// Tournament information
The tournament will feature a double elimination style bracket for each respective weight class. The event will not feature any team scores kept. A maximum of six matches will be enforced per NCAA rules.
Arizona State will be one of 16 teams set to compete on Saturday, marking its first competition of the season to feature outside opponents after the Maroon and Gold scrimmage tuneup.
Michigan State Open teams
Arizona State
Campbell
Central Michigan
Davidson
Edinboro
Findlay
GVSU
Indiana
Kent State
Michigan
Michigan State
Northern Illinois
Northwestern
Purdue
Wisconsin
The Sun Devils will be well represented, as the team is sending 21 wrestlers of their own, with the projected roster as follows:
ASU wrestlers competing in East Lansing
125| Damian Moreno, An’ee Vigil
133| Kyler Larkin, Carter Dibert
141| Pierson Manville, Daniel Miranda
149| Kaleb Larkin
157| Chance McLane, Michael Kilic, Jabari Hinson
165| Nicco Ruiz, Israel Ibarra
174| Cael Valencia, Leo Tukhlynovych
184| Shay Addison
197| Jacob Meissner, Damion Schunke, Max Acciardi, Aidan Ysaguirre
285| David Szuba, Ben Szuba
Of the 21 travelers, five freshmen: Kyler Larkin, Jabari Hinson, Israel Ibarra, Aidan Ysaguirre and Ben Szuba are all bound to get their first NCAA action.
Transfers David Szuba, Leo Tukhlynovych and An’ee Vigil will be dawning the Maroon and Gold for the first time in their respective careers as well.
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
Sun Devils in the rankings
141| No. 27 Pierson Manville (Intermat)
149| No. 26 Kaleb Larkin (Intermat)
165| No. 13 Nicco Ruiz (Flo Wrestling)
197| No. 25 Colton Hawks (Intermat)
285| No. 20 David Szuba (Flo Wrestling)
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 (2) - Jude Randall, Gavin Bauder
Juniors (2) - 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 brothers 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. 13/14 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 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.
The National Duals
The Sun Devils will be one of 16 schools set to compete in the groundbreaking National Duals Invitational, set to take place Nov. 15-16 at the BOK center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The 16-team field reflects both tradition and depth in college wrestling. Cornell, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, NC State, Nebraska, Northern Iowa, Ohio State, Oklahoma State and Virginia Tech earned automatic bids by finishing in the top 12 at the 2025 NCAA Championships. ASU will be joined by Lehigh, Little Rock, Missouri and Wyoming, who were randomly selected from programs finishing between 13-24. Together, the competitors have combined for more than 60 NCAA team titles and 450 individual national champions.
In addition to world-class competition, the event will feature a record-setting $1 million prize purse — the first of its kind in collegiate wrestling. The champion will claim $200,000, with $150,000 awarded to both the runner-up and third-place teams, and prize money extending through eighth place. Every participating program will also receive a $20,000 stipend, underscoring the Invitational’s commitment to supporting the sport at the highest level.
Back to the Bok
The Sun Devils postseason journey will begin with the 2026 Big 12 championships back at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The second trip of the year to th BOK center will mark the start of the Big 12 Championships. The Big 12s are slated for Mar.7-8, as ASU is set to make its second apperance with it being year two in the conference.
Last season, Nicco Ruiz Placed sixth in the 165-lb bracket at the team’s first trip to the Big 12 Championships, which resulted in him punching his ticket to the NCAA Championships
Cleveland, This Is For You
The 2025-2026 season will conclude at the NCAA championships in Cleveland, Ohio, hosted at Rocket Arena. The three-day event will take place from March 19 to 21, where the Sun Devils will hope to be well represented.
Follow along
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