UNC Men’s Wrestling: Tar Heels named in preseason rankings

The UNC Men’s Wrestling Program had several Tar Heels named to the 2023-2024 InterMat Wrestling Preseason Rankings on Wednesday afternoon.

This week, three UNC Men’s Wrestling program members were ranked in the 2023-2024 InterMat Wrestling Preseason Rankings.

The highest-ranked Tar Heel in his weight class was redshirt sophomore Lachlan McNeil. McNeil is in the 141-pound weight class and finished fourth in the 2023 NCAA Men’s Wrestling Championships, which helped him earn All-American honors. He has a 33-10 career record as a Tar Heel.

Gavin Kane is ranked sixth in his 184-pound weight class. Kane was the ACC runner-up in 2022-2023 and finished eighth at the NCAA Men’s Wrestling Championships, also earning All-American honors. The junior has a career 45-16 record at Carolina, including a 25-9 record last season.

Redshirt junior Max Shaw is the third Tar Heel who represented the UNC Men’s Wrestling program in the National Rankings for his weight class. A member of the 197-pound weight class, Shaw is ranked No. 19 overall in the preseason rankings. Shaw has a career 50-32 record. During the 2022-2023 season, he was 16-12, his best record in a season since his freshman season when he was 15-6.

The UNC Men’s Wrestling program will be in new territory as Coleman Scott, the head coach for the past twelve seasons, left his position to become the associate head coach at Oklahoma State last month. Scott led the Tar Heels to a 12th-place national finish, the best finish for the program since 1995.

Rob Koll, 1988 National Champion as a member of the UNC Men’s Wrestling program, was named the head coach shortly after Scott left.  The Tar Heels will be hoping to build off the preseason rankings of their trio and carry them back to the National Tournament.

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