NCAA Championships
Cal Poly Wrestling Opens NCAA Championships Thursday in Philadelphia
3/19/2025 7:00:00 AM | Wrestling
SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — The Mustangs are headed to the City of Brotherly Love.
The four Cal Poly wrestlers that qualified for the 2025 NCAA Championships, along with alternate Daschle Lamer, departed San Luis Obispo on Tuesday for Philadelphia and open competition at the national tournament at 9 a.m. PDT Thursday with first-round matches in each of the 10 weight classes.
Action during the three-day tournament held inside the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia can be seen live on ESPN+ via a special MatCast stream that will feature every match. The morning sessions of the NCAA Championships on Thursday, Friday and Saturday will also be carried live on ESPNU, while the evening sessions on each day will be telecast live on ESPN.
At 9 a.m. PDT Thursday, the national tournament gets underway with first round bouts for the 33-man brackets. Then at 4 p.m. PDT on that day, second round and consolation matches will take place. On Friday at 9 a.m. PDT, quarterfinals and consolation second and third round bouts are scheduled to get started, then a brief break will be taken before semifinal and more consolation matches start at 5 p.m. PDT. On the final day Saturday, placing matches get underway at 8 a.m. PDT and championship bouts will begin live on ESPN at 4 p.m. PDT. Any wrestlers that make it to the final day Saturday guarantee themselves a placing position and All-American honors.
Redshirt juniors Trevor Tinker (heavyweight) and Chance Lamer (149 pounds), and redshirt sophomores Zeth Romney (133 pounds) and Koda Holeman (125 pounds) will all take the mat for the Mustangs at NCAAs. Daschle was selected as an alternate at 184 pounds and will only wrestle if someone in his weight class either gets injured or doesn’t make weight prior to the tournament beginning.
ROMNEY EYES ALL-AMERICAN HONORS: Entering the tournament as the fourth seed at 133 pounds, Romney will certainly be in contention for a placing position. He enters NCAAs with a 14-4 record on the year and is looking to become Cal Poly’s fourth All-American at 133 pounds and first since Boris Novachkov in 2010.
The Simi Valley, Calif. native has had a sensational redshirt sophomore campaign thus far. In December, Romney became the first Mustang in 15 years to capture a championship at 133 pounds at the prestigious Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, defeating four nationally ranked opponents en route to the title. Romney started the season 11-1 and earned an automatic berth to NCAAs for the second straight year by placing second in his weight class at the Pac-12 Championships. Two of Romney’s four losses this season have come against Little Rock’s Nasir Bailey, who he fell to by a 4-1 decision in overtime in the Pac-12 title match. Bailey, a two-time Pac-12 champion, is seeded No. 3 at 133 and was an All-American last year, placing fourth. Earlier this year at the NWCA National Duals, Romney pinned Bailey at 4:14.
Romney has eight victories over nationally ranked opponents this season and is 8-3 against opponents that qualified for this year’s NCAA Championships. He will wrestle No. 29 seed Tyler Ferrara from Cornell in his opening match. In his first appearance at NCAAs last season, Romney went 0-2.
A CHANCE AT REDEMPTION: After falling in the NCAA Round of 12 each of the last two seasons and finishing one victory short of All-American honors, Chance will be looking to put those results behind him and reach the final day of the tournament this year.
The Corvallis, Ore. native is seeded No. 14 at 149 pounds entering the tournament with a 14-2 record and will square off against No. 19 Andrew Clark from Cornell (12-5) in his opening match. Chance punched his ticket to NCAAs for the third straight year by capturing third in his weight class at the Pac-12s Championships, falling by decision to Little Rock’s Jordan Williams in the semifinals, who went on to claim the conference title and is seeded eighth at NCAAs.
Chance is 5-2 against nationally ranked opponents this season and half of his 14 victories have come by either fall (two) or technical fall (five). At NCAAs a year ago, Chance advanced to the semifinals before dropping back-to-back matches to Kyle Parco and Rider’s Quinn Kinner on the second day to see his run come to an end.
RED-HOT TINKER LOOKS TO KEEP IT ROLLING: After not surrendering a single point in a dominant showing at the Pac-12 Championships, Tinker enters NCAAs on a 12-match winning streak and is 22-5 on the season.
Tinker is the No. 15 seed at heavyweight and will get a chance at revenge in his opening match when he faces No. 18 seed Lance Runyon from Northern Iowa, who he lost to by a 13-1 major decision in his second match at the Cliff Keen Invitational earlier this season.
Tinker tore through the heavyweight bracket at conference, defeating Oregon State’s Brett Mower — ranked No. 29 in the country — by an 11-0 major decision in the semifinals before silencing Cal State Bakersfield’s Jake Andrews — seeded 17th at NCAAs — by an 8-0 major decision in the title bout to become the second wrestler in program history to win a Pac-12 championship at heavyweight and the first since Seth Woodhill in 1993. The resounding victory against Andrews came after Tinker fell to him by a 7-3 decision in the first-place match at the Roadrunner Open earlier this season.
Twenty-one of Tinker’s 22 victories this season have come via bonus points, including eight by technical fall and five by fall. At the Pac-12 Championships, Tinker racked up over 11 minutes of riding time between his two matches. He led the team in takedowns (32) and four-point near falls (five) this season in duals.
Tinker is making his third straight NCAA appearance and this marks the first year he has secured an automatic berth to nationals, earning at-large bids each of the last two seasons.
HOLEMAN THE IRONMAN: Holeman is set to make his first appearance at NCAAs and enters the tournament as the No. 28 seed, squaring off against No. 5 seed Richard Figueroa from Arizona State — the defending national champion — in his opening match.
Holeman learned last Tuesday that he had secured an at-large berth to the NCAA Championships after coming up short in a true-second place allocation match to CSUB’s Richard Castro-Sandoval at the Pac-12 Championships.
The redshirt sophomore is 20-11 this season and is the only Mustang that has wrestled in every single date for the team this season.
LOOKING TO GET HIS CHANCE: Daschle will wait to see if he gets a chance to wrestle in his first NCAA Championship. The redshirt freshman is 13-9 this season. Daschle fell to Oregon State’s TJ McDonnell in the 184-pound Pac-12 championship bout in a match that would have sent Daschle directly to NCAAs via an automatic berth. Daschle was leading the title match 5-2 with riding time when McDonnell grabbed a takedown with less than five seconds remaining to force overtime, earning an early takedown in the extra period to prevent Daschle from capturing an automatic bid to NCAAs.
TEAM FACTS: This is the fourth consecutive year Cal Poly has sent at least four wrestlers to NCAAs — just the second time in program history the Mustangs have accomplished that feat and the first since qualifying at least five from 2003 to 2007. The Mustangs will be looking to improve upon their 47th-place finish at last year’s NCAA Championships.
FOLLOW: Follow Cal Poly wrestling on Twitter/X (@CalPolyWrestle) and Instagram (@cpwrestle) for updates throughout the NCAA Championships.
NCAA First Round Matches
125 pounds: No. 28 Koda Holeman (Cal Poly) 20-11 vs. No. 5 Richard Figueroa (Arizona State) 16-2
133 pounds: No. 4 Zeth Romney (Cal Poly) 14-4 vs. No. 29 Tyler Ferrara (Cornell) 12-5
149 pounds: No. 14 Chance Lamer (Cal Poly) 14-2 vs. No. 19 Andrew Clark (Rutgers) 22-13
285 pounds: No. 15 Trevor Tinker (Cal Poly) 22-5 vs. No. 18 Lance Runyon (Northern Iowa) 18-7
184-pound First Alternate: Daschle Lamer (Cal Poly) 13-9
