Hempstead, NY – Seven members of the Hofstra wrestling team will begin their quests for national titles and All-American honors at the 2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships on Thursday, March 18 from the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

The three-day, seven session national championship event kicks off on Thursday with Session 1A at 11 a.m. and Session 1B beginning at 2 p.m. The first day continues with Session 2A at 6 p.m., followed by Session 2B at 9 p.m. The ESPN family of networks will cover the entire NCAA Championships on television and through the ESPN App. TrackWrestling will provide live results of each match, in addition to updates to the brackets. These links can be found on this page as well as on the wrestling schedule page on GoHofstra.com.

Junior Holden Heller enters Thursday as the highest-seeded Hofstra wrestler at No. 19 in the 157-pound bracket. Heller, 8-0 on the year and the EIWA champion at 157 pounds, will be facing off against Will Lewan of Michigan. Lewan went 7-2 this season and finished eighth at the Big Ten Championships for the Wolverines.

After going 7-2 and finishing third at the EIWA Championships, senior Charles Small received the No. 23 seed in the 184-pound bracket. Small was paired against Tate Samuelson, who went 10-3 for Wyoming and took second at the Big 12 Championships. Prior to wrestling at Hofstra, Small wrestled at the 2019 National Junior College Athletic Association National Championships and finished as the champion at 184 pounds.

An at-large qualifier for the 2020 NCAA Championships, redshirt junior Zachary Knighton-Ward made his way to St. Louis by earning automatic qualification with a third-place finish at 285 pounds at the EIWA Championships. With a 7-3 record in 2020-21, Knighton-Ward was seeded No. 27 in the 285-pound bracket and he will be matched-up against Gannon Gremmel of Iowa State. 15-1 on the year for the Cyclones, Gremmel won the 285-pound title at the Big 12 Championships.

Junior Trey Rogers will be representing the Pride in the 197-pound bracket after finishing fifth at the EIWA Championships. The No. 30 seed with a 6-3 record, Rogers will open his NCAA Championships against Kordell Norfleet. Norfleet went 9-0 for Arizona State and won the 197-pound title at the Pac-12 Championships.

An automatic qualifier to last season's NCAA Championships, redshirt senior Ricky Stamm made it back to the national championship tournament after placing fifth at 165 pounds at the EIWA Championships. With a 7-2 record in 2020-21, Stamm was seeded No. 32 in the bracket and will wrestle against Northern Iowa's Austin Yant in the pigtail match. Yant enters this year's tournament with a 4-2 record and a fifth-place finish at the Big 12 Championships.

Graduate student Greg Gaxiola automatically qualified for this year's NCAA Championships at 149 pounds after finishing fourth at the EIWA Championships with a 4-3 record. An NCAA qualifier as a member of the Fresno State wrestling team in 2020, Gaxiola was seeded No. 32 in the bracket and is paired with Utah Valley's Cameron Hunsaker in the pigtail match. Originally an alternate, Hunsaker went 9-7 on the year and finished seventh at the Big 12 Championships. He replaces Gaxiola's original opponent, Northern Colorado's Andrew Alirez.

Senior Vinny Vespa earned an automatic spot in this year's NCAA Championships after going 4-5 on the year and finishing fifth at 141 pounds at the EIWA Championships. As the No. 33-seed wrestler in the bracket, Vespa will be competing against Indiana's Cayden Rooks in the pigtail match. Rooks earned an at-large bid after going 5-9 this season and finishing sixth at the Big Ten Championships.

The seven Hofstra wrestlers competing in this year's national championships are the most sent in a single season by Hofstra since six grapplers represented the Pride at the 2012 National Championships. Michael Hughes was the last Hofstra wrestler to come back to Hempstead an All-American after he placed sixth in the 285-pound bracket at the 2018 NCAA Championships.