The Little Rock Trojans are the athletic teams representing the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The university offers 7 men's and 8 women's varsity sports. The Trojans are a non-football member of the Ohio Valley Conference and a men's wrestling affiliate member of the Pac-12 Conference. Little Rock will leave the Ohio Valley Conference after the 2025-26 school year to join the United Athletic Conference beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, coinciding with the rebranding of the Western Athletic Conference under the UAC name. Little Rock will join the rebranded league as a non-football member.
On March 17, 2018, just hours before the start of the Division I NCAA wrestling championship finals, Little Rock announced the addition of a wrestling program. The program began in 2019 and is the first Division I program in Arkansas. The school received a $1.4 million pledge from Arkansas businessman Greg Hatcher, considered the father of Arkansas wrestling for helping the sport grow in a state that did not sanction high school wrestling before 2008.
As a member of the non-wrestling Ohio Valley Conference (just like its previous conference, the Sun Belt), the team is an associate member of the Pac-12. Little Rock joins Presbyterian and the unified Long Island University program as new Division I programs in 2019. Paul Bianchi became the school's first NCAA qualifier at 133 pounds in 2021.
The 2023-24 season was Little Rock's best to date. After nine combined wins in its first four seasons, Little Rock exceeded that total during the season. On January 19, 2024, the Trojans had its first win over a nationally ranked opponent, 24th ranked Arizona State. Little Rock reached 17th in the national rankings in February 2024, the first time any Trojan program reached the top 20, and had seven wrestlers in the coaches rankings, one of the factors that determine at-large bids for the national championship. The Trojans won the regular season Pac-12 title with a 4-1 record, 15-5 overall.
Little Rock finished second in the Pac-12 tournament with three conference champions and five NCAA qualifiers. Nasir Bailey became the program's first All-American at 133, followed shortly thereafter by Stephen Little at 197.
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Little Rock has already begun putting itself into the national spotlight. Little Rock broke into the top 25 for the first time in history earlier this season after a ranked win over Arizona State, and the Trojans have continued their winning ways, beating Oregon State, Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield and SIUE. The team's lone Pac-12 loss this year came against Stanford on Jan.
Historic Pac-12 Championship Victory
Six years after its formation, the University of Arkansas at Little Rock wrestling team has won the Pac-12 wrestling championship. The Trojans were in a tightly contested battle with the Oregon State Beavers in the team race, who finished just five points behind Little Rock. The Trojans scored 86.5 points, finishing 5 points ahead of host team Oregon State - half a point more than they scored over the Beavers last year in a race for second place.
Head coach Neil Erisman said what the program accomplished is a reflection of the work the team has done in six short years. “What a day, what a tournament,” Head Coach Neil Erisman said. “The guys wrestled their tails off. So proud of them and all that they’ve accomplished. It took a lot of grit to do what we’ve done not just today but since the inception of this program. Very thankful for our fans, our supporters, the athletes and our families. It's a great day for a Little Rock Wrestling, Little Rock Athletics, and the state of Arkansas. God is good! Go Trojans."
Since the program's inception, there have been plenty of highs and lows for Little Rock Wrestling, especially in the beginning years. When Little Rock competed in the Pac-12 Tournament during its first two years, a dead-last finish was as high as it could get. Flash forward to 2024, Little Rock earned its first dual meet Pac-12 title and its first two All-Americans in 133-pounder Nasir Bailey and 197-pounder Stephen Little.
Little Rock won its first Pac-12 Tournament in program history, just six years in the making.
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This year, Little Rock had five Pac-12 Champions and two runners-up. It was the most individual Pac-12 Championships in the program's history. The five who placed first automatically qualified for the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia, PA. Little also earned a qualifying bid with his second-place finish.
Individual Achievements and NCAA Qualifiers
Six of UA Little Rock’s wrestlers will advance to the NCAA national tournament. Five wrestlers - Nasir Bailey, Jordan Williams, Matty Bianchi, Joseph Bianchi and Tyler Brennan - claimed individual Pac-12 champion titles. They will be advancing to the national tournament along with second-place finisher Stephen Little.
For Bailey and Joey Bianchi, they repeated as champions in their respective weight classes: 133 pounds and 165 pounds. Matty Bianchi (157 pounds), Williams (149 pounds) and Brennan (174 pounds) are each first-timers in the championship.
Bailey, thanks to a sudden victory takedown against Cal Poly's Zeth Romney, won his second-straight Pac-12 championship at 133 pounds. Matty Bianchi won his first Pac-12 title at 157 pounds in a thrilling match with Oregon State's C.J. Hamblin, 6-4. Matty's older brother Joey won his second individual Pac-12 Championship at 165 pounds after beating Cal Poly's Luka Wick in sudden victory, 4-1.
Jordan Williams won his first Pac-12 championship at 149 pounds after beating two top-10 opponents in one of the deepest weight classes in the conference. Williams defeated No. 10 Chance Lamer of Cal Poly with a 10-4 decision before downing Oregon State's sixth-ranked Ethan Stiles by a 15-5 major decision.
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However, the most significant first-placer may be 174-pounder, Tyler Brennan. Brennan has been with the program since its inception and thanks to COVID-19 eligibility which gave student-athletes an extra year to compete, he was able to win his first Pac-12 title in his career.
Which means Brennan has quite literally been through it all with the Trojans. It's been more than a long time coming for one of the program's first wrestlers who always brings a unique style every time he steps on the mat. Now, Brennan will get to work his patented double-leg-ride and power-half on the national stage. Brennan fell just short of qualifying for the NCAA Championships last year and was brought on the trip as an alternate. No need to alternate this year for Brennan as his first-place victory automatically qualified him for the NCAA Tournament.
Brennan’s 11-0 major decision, along with a pin in the first round, contributed the most team points to the Trojans in the championship meet. Williams and Bailey were both named Wrestler of the Meet. Williams went 2-0 against two top-10 opponents in the 149-pound weight class, and Bailey took out the No. 7 wrestler in the nation in the finals following a first-period pin in the preliminary round. It marks the second time in as many years that Bailey has received the award.
Little and Brennan Van Hoecke finished as runners-up in their respective brackets. Little’s weight class featured three top-10 wrestlers, including Little himself, and the redshirt sophomore only allowed a 2-0 decision to the top seed in the final. The six Trojans will compete at the NCAA Tournament in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from March 20-22.
The NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will select the remaining 43 at-large qualifiers and announce full brackets and seeding on March 11.
The Trojans had fourth place finishers at 125 pounds, 184 pounds and heavyweight.
At 141 and 184 pounds, the Trojans could earn at-large bids to the NCAA Tournament. Brennan Van Hoecke finished second in the tournament, which puts him in good position to receive an at-large bid to travel to Philadelphia. For Brock DelSignore at 184 pounds, the road to Philadelphia isn't impossible, but like Van Hoecke, he will need to receive an at-large bid from the seeding committee.
Little Rock beat last year's previous program record of five national qualifiers by sending six to the national tournament this year.
But, if Van Hoecke and DelSignore receive at-large bids, the Trojans could improve their chances of reaching another accolade: A top 10 team finish at NCAAs.
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Building a Family-Centric Environment
A Big 12 champion at Oklahoma State, Erisman came to Little Rock from North Carolina where he served as the assistant coach for four seasons. This new job was unlikely any he had had before. He wasn't just inheriting a new program.
One of the biggest challenges Erisman faced initially was finding older athletes to mentor his new guys. Two of those athletes were Bianchis. The older Bianchi, Paul, came to Little Rock from Fargo where he wrestled his first three years and qualified for the national tournament in 2018.
Erisman said he leaned on his more seasoned wrestlers like Paul to support the enormous group of young talent in the room. "[That first class] didn't have those older guys there every single day going into 'alright, I've been through it, you're gonna make it' or 'hey, you know, you're gonna have to turn up here, you're gonna have to develop this if you want to be successful,'" Erisman said.
Joey Bianchi said his older brother Paul became a critical mentor for him, fulfilling exactly the role that Erisman hoped he would, but that didn't mean the brothers weren't competitive with one another. Erisman frequently paired Joey and Paul Bianchi together in the practice room and told Joey never to let his older brother take him down.
Now that Paul has graduated, Joey is taking on that older brother role. "I love having Joey here, obviously. He's been my main practice partner since I was like, you know, seven years old or something like that," Matty Bianchi said. "I can get a good workout every single time I go with him and actually push him even harder because I know he can't get rid of me because he's my brother. So I can say whatever I want to him. The two now wrestle in back-to-back weights with Matty ranked No. 31 at 157 pounds and Joey ranked No.
But it isn't just the Bianchi brothers that are giving Little Rock a 'family-centric' environment. "With the other two sets of brothers, I'd say they're kind of like cousins almost just because you can relate to them because they also have a brother on the team," Matty Bianchi said. "I think it kind of shows the other teammates that man, they're so close, because we are literally family, and they kind of want to hop in on that.
Take 165 pounds for example. Joey Bianchi, the team's starter for the last three seasons, nearly lost his spot to a teammate earlier this year. He remembers the feeling of seeing a ranking number next to his name for the first time. It came right after the Southern Scuffle and inspired a sense of appreciation mixed with relief.
"I finally saw the ranking next my name and I was like, finally," Joey Bianchi said. "After about, like, the first week and a half, I was put in the rankings and a lot of the guys would come up to me saying like, 'Oh, my God, Matty, you're in the rankings," Matty Bianchi said. "I thought, at first, I was like, 'man, that's awesome.' But then I also thought to myself, 'no, that's expected. That's what should have been.' I think it's really cool to have that number by my name, and it's really cool that it got other people to do it too.
Bailey is currently the highest-ranked Little Rock athlete at No. 6 with a 21-2 record while Little is ranked No. 9 with a 17-2 record. Senior Tyler Brennan is also ranked No. 23 at 174 pounds; junior Josiah Hill sits at No.
Looking Ahead: National Stage Aspirations
Little Rock has never qualified more than one wrestler at a time for NCAAs. Making nationals is no longer the goal though.
"This year has changed so much compared to past years, that it's like, instead of placing Pac-12s, it's winning Pac-12, so then we can get a good seed at nationals to put us in a better spot to All-Americans," he said.
Matty Bianchi aspires for Little Rock, a team once underestimated and struggling to pick up a Division I win, to become a program with the brand of an Oklahoma State, his coach's alma mater. He and his brother emphasized that the success of this year's team, and the expected success for the program at NCAAs, should in no way be considered a fluke.