Utah Valley University will send five student-athletes to the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Championships, which begin Thursday at Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, according to a March 17 announcement. The qualifiers are Haiden Drury (141 pounds), David Evans (149), Caleb Uhlenhopp (184), Kael Bennie (197), and Jack Forbes (285).
This marks the second-highest number of qualifiers Utah Valley has sent to the championships. In 2019, the program set a record with six qualifiers, while in both 2018 and this year, five wrestlers earned spots. Head Coach Adam Hall previously had an All-American in his first season leading the program.
Wrestling is scheduled to start at noon Eastern Time on Thursday and will be broadcast across ESPN networks. Matches will be available on ESPN+, with select sessions airing on ESPNU, ESPN2, and ESPN.
Utah Valley’s five qualifiers bring its all-time total to 52 during 17 seasons of Division I postseason eligibility. The program has seen three wrestlers reach the NCAA semifinals but has yet to have a finalist. Notably, Ben Kjar became Utah Valley’s first All-American in 2011 after advancing to the semifinals. In 2021, Taylor LaMont and Demetrius Romero also reached the semifinals before finishing fifth and sixth respectively.
Drury is making his second appearance at the NCAA Championships; he previously competed at 133 pounds in 2022 and went 1-2. He joins Evans and Uhlenhopp as automatic qualifiers from their performances at the Big 12 Championships, while Bennie and Forbes received at-large bids. Drury is set to become Utah Valley’s fourteenth wrestler with multiple NCAA appearances.
In first-round matchups, Evans holds Utah Valley’s highest seed at No. 9 and will face Andrew Clark of Rutgers. Drury is seeded nineteenth and opens against Braeden Davis of Penn State. Uhlenhopp starts as the thirty-second seed with a pigtail match against Sam Goin of Indiana; Bennie faces Rocky Elam of Iowa State for his opener; Forbes meets Taye Ghadiali of Michigan.
Bennie is one of three native Utahns competing this year alongside Moses Espinoza-Owens from South Dakota State and Brock Hardy from Nebraska. Evans represents one of fifty Pennsylvania qualifiers, while Forbes hails from Colorado among eight representatives from that state.
