All-American Luke Stanich Finishes Third in Cleveland

Saturday, March 21

Cleveland, Ohio

11:00 AM

Lehigh University

NCAA Championships

Photo by: Matt Hawley

All-American Luke Stanich Finishes Third in Cleveland

3/21/2026 1:38:00 PM | Men's Wrestling

Brackets Team Scores Photo Gallery Photo Gallery 2

CLEVELAND – Sophomore Luke Stanich wrestled back to a third place finish Saturday for Lehigh on the final day of the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Rocket Arena. Stanich won decisions over Carter Nogle of Air Force and Nebraska's Brock Hardy to cap an 18-1 sophomore season.

Lehigh finished session five in 16th place with 26.5 points.

All-American Luke Stanich discusses his third place finish! 👇 pic.twitter.com/2xi5OOkOxM
— Lehigh Men's Wrestling (@LehighMWREST) March 21, 2026

In Saturday morning's consolation semifinals, Stanich defeated Nogle 9-4 behind two first-period takedowns and a takedown in the third.

The win over Nogle earned Stanich a match with returning finalist and No. 3 seed Hardy. Stanich fought off a single leg shot from Hardy for a good chunk of the first period, which ended scoreless. Hardy escaped to open the second period, but Stanich came back with two takedowns to lead 6-2 after two. Stanich accumulated more than a minute of riding time in the second period, which tacked on another point, making the final score 7-2.

Stanich is now a two-time All-American, also having finished fifth at 125 in 2024.

All six of Lehigh's NCAA qualifiers won at least one match in Cleveland, with Sheldon Seymour, Max Brignola and Rylan Rogers all finishing one win shy of a spot on the podium.

Gallery: (3-26-2026) NCAA Men's Wrestling, 3/21/26

The 2025-26 Lehigh wrestling season is presented by the Historic Hotel Bethlehem.

141 – No. 5 Luke Stanich – 3rd place
Rd. of 32: Tech fall No. 28 Pierson Manville (Arizona State) 21-6, 7:00
Rd. of 16: major dec. No. 21 Tyler Wells (Oklahoma) 11-2
Quarterfinal: dec. No. 4 Anthony Echemendia (Iowa State) 6-4
Semifinal: L by dec. No. 1 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) 4-1, sv
Consolation semifinal: dec. No. 18 Carter Nogle (Air Force) 9-4
Third place match: dec. No. 3 Brock Hardy (Nebraska) 7-2

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