Philadelphia hosts 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling championships this weekend at Wells Fargo Center
With the help of the University of Pennsylvania, the Wells Fargo Center is set to host the 2025 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships this weekend, bringing together the nation's best collegiate wrestlers. You could call it March Mat-ness.
A total of 330 competitors from 90 Division I programs will battle across 10 weight classes. Philadelphia was selected, in part, because of its affinity for the sport.
"Pennsylvania, New Jersey, this area of the country is really known as the hotbed of wrestling. When you look at the heat map of where these 330 wrestlers came from, in terms of their home state, the heat map is right here around Philadelphia," University of Pennsylvania Wrestling Coach Roger Reina said.
Two local athletes compete for Penn – freshman Reed Fuller from Wayne and junior Hunter Gandy from Pennsville. They say more people should be paying attention to the sport.
"There's not many sports where you go out and go head to head against someone in front of 30,000 people, and put it all in the line, and just testing your physicality or mentality. It's incredible." Gandy said.
President Trump is expected to be in attendance for the wrestling championships this weekend. Trump graduated from The Wharton School at Penn in 1968, according to the Daily Pennsylvanian student newspaper.
How wrestling is scored
If you're unfamiliar, here's a quick rundown of what to look for:
If one wrestler gains control of the other wrestler, that's called a takedown. That's worth three points.
If someone escapes from another wrestler's control, that's an escape, which is worth one point.
If someone reverses control, that's worth two points.
And ultimately, with pinning your opponent, both shoulder blades touching the mat for a second ends the match.
