UVU Wrestling 2026-27: 14 Duals, a Top-10 Home Opener and a Coach Calling This His Deepest Team

Utah Valley opens its 2026-27 wrestling season in its own gym and then goes straight to a top-10 opponent. Head coach Adam Hall announced the schedule on September 18, and the dates on UVU's official schedule page put the first action at Lockhart Arena in Orem on Friday, October 23, at 7 p.m. MT, with the Wolverines' home dual opener against No. 8 Iowa State at the UCCU Center on Friday, November 6. As of October 18, no 2026-27 match has been wrestled. Everything below comes from UVU's athletics site, and the UVU wrestling team page carries the official roster and schedule links.

A schedule built around the Big 12

The release lists 14 duals, eight of them on the Big 12 calendar, and says nine of the Wolverines' opponents sit in the top 26 of Intermat's preseason rankings. It also notes that the Big 12 will crown a regular-season champion beginning this season, so the eight conference duals now count toward a title.

The home duals are West Virginia on November 19, Wisconsin on December 19, Northern Iowa on February 4 and Missouri on February 5, all at Lockhart Arena by the schedule page. The road duals the release lists are Wyoming on January 22, Northern Colorado on January 24, Arizona State on January 30, Oklahoma on February 12, Oklahoma State on February 13 and Little Rock on February 19. The conference championships follow on March 5-6, 2027, at the BOK Center in Tulsa, and the NCAA Championships are set for March 18-20 in St. Louis.

Hall's own summary of the roster is the headline of the whole announcement. "This is by far the deepest team we have had since I have been here," he said in the release. Hall is in his third season as head coach, and the claim carries weight because of how the last one ended.

The opening weeks

The schedule page lists the Wrestle Offs first, on October 23 at Lockhart Arena, and then the Clarion Open on Sunday, November 1, in Clarion, Pennsylvania. The release describes the Clarion Open as the opening tournament. The page lists both, so Utah Valley fans have two dates to mark before the Iowa State dual on November 6.

After that the calendar fills quickly. UVU returns to the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on December 4-5 and the Southern Scuffle on January 2-3, the release says, and the Rockwell UVU Open is at the UCCU Center on January 10. The Davidson Duals follow on January 16, where the release expects UVU to face The Citadel, now led in its first season by former UVU assistant coach Timmy McCall.

What 2025-26 left behind

The Wolverines finished 2025-26 at 5-8 in duals, 3-4 in the Big 12, with a 1-5 mark at home and 3-2 on the road, as the schedule page prints it. The wins that page lists include Stanford 19-12 at the UCCU Center on November 1, California Baptist 26-9, Chattanooga 33-3, Air Force 32-6 and Northern Colorado 21-17 on February 15, the final Big 12 dual of the year.

The individual results were stronger than the dual record. UVU tied for 11th at the Big 12 Championships in Tulsa with four podium finishes: David Evans third, Caleb Uhlenhopp seventh, Haiden Drury seventh and Hudson Rogers eighth. Hall said the program had "twice as many conference place winners and three times as many NCAA qualifiers as we did last year."

Five Wolverines then went to the NCAA Championships in Cleveland, which tied for the second most NCAA qualifiers in program history. They were Drury at 141, Evans at 149, Uhlenhopp at 184, Kael Bennie at 197 and Jack Forbes at 285. The schedule page lists UVU tied for 34th of 70 teams.

Who is back

Uhlenhopp and Bennie are the names to watch. Uhlenhopp, a Green Valley High School graduate from Henderson, Nevada, is listed on the roster at 184 pounds as a fifth-year. He finished 2025-26 with 18 wins and went 4-4 across the Big 12 and NCAA Championships, with all eight of those matches coming against qualifiers. Bennie, a Layton High School graduate, wrestles at 197 pounds and is listed as a senior. He finished with 15 wins, and 22 of his 33 matches came against NCAA qualifiers. UVU's recap said both "will both be back to vie for a second berth next season," and Hall added that the two "will be hungry this offseason."

Hudson Rogers, a junior on the roster from Meridian, Idaho, wrestles at 174 pounds. He placed eighth at the Big 12 Championships, a result the release described as just short of an NCAA berth. Drury, Evans and Forbes were in their final seasons of eligibility, and none of the three appears on the 2026-27 roster.

The crowd that came for it

Utah Valley's growth as a wrestling program also shows up in the stands. On February 21, a program-record crowd of 5,541 filled the UCCU Center for the dual against No. 5 Nebraska, a 32-6 loss. UVU finished the season ranked No. 15 nationally in attendance, up three spots, averaging 2,023 fans over six home dates for a total of 12,138, fifth among Big 12 programs. With the Iowa State dual returning to the UCCU Center on November 6, the first home night of the year is again the one with the largest building.

Key facts:

• Head coach: Adam Hall, as listed on the official roster page
• Conference: Big 12, with a regular-season champion crowned beginning this season
• Schedule: 14 duals, eight on the Big 12 calendar; nine opponents in Intermat's preseason top 26 (UVU release, Sept. 18)
• First dates: Wrestle Offs, Oct. 23, 7 p.m. MT, Lockhart Arena; Clarion Open, Nov. 1; Iowa State, Nov. 6, 7 p.m. MT, UCCU Center
• Conference championships: March 5-6, 2027, BOK Center, Tulsa
• 2025-26 record: 5-8 overall, 3-4 Big 12; tied for 11th at the Big 12 Championships and tied for 34th of 70 at the NCAA Championships
• NCAA qualifiers in 2025-26: five, tied for the second most in program history
• Returning NCAA qualifiers: Caleb Uhlenhopp (184) and Kael Bennie (197)
• Attendance: program-record 5,541 vs. Nebraska on Feb. 21, 2026; No. 15 nationally, 2,023 per date
• As of Oct. 18, 2026: no 2026-27 match wrestled