This weekend is all about Mat Madness and there are three former Section 9 wrestlers ready to take on the best in the nation. Let’s take a closer look at PJ Duke, Zack Ryder, and Stephan Monchery as they prepare to compete in the 2026 NCAA Wrestling Division 1 National Championship tournament in Cleveland, Ohio.
Match-by-match results for all three wrestlers will be posted on this site as well as our Facebook page throughout the weekend. Good luck men! Section 9 could not be prouder of all three of you!
PJ Duke (Penn State – Minisink Valley, #1 seed @ 157) – True Freshman
2025-2026 Season
PJ was one of the most highly recruited wrestlers coming out of high school and he showed why during his freshman campaign. Duke brings a 19-1 record into the NCAAs. His lone blemish was a 2-1 TB1 loss in a dual meet to defending national champion Antrell Taylor from Nebraska. PJ would avenge the loss a few weeks later in the Big 10 finals where he decisively majored Taylor by a score of 12-4! Duke enters the nationals as the #1 seed. His opening round opponent will be the winner of the 32nd seed, Jeb Prechtel from Bellarmine, and the 33rd seed, Yannis Charles from Morgan State.
High School Career
Duke began his varsity wrestling career at Section 1 Carmel by winning the state title as a 7th Grader! That summer his moved to the Minisink Valley school district where PJ would go on to win three more state titles. Duke finished his high school career with a 173-1 record. His only loss, ironically, was in the finals of the Ironman Tournament where he lost by injury default to his current Penn State teammate Tyler Kasak. PJ also has an impressive resume in freestyle where he is a 3X age group world medalist including a gold medal at the U20 World Championships in 2025. However, the highlight of his 2025 summer was his best of three series win over Yianni Diakomihalis to earn his spot on the senior world team. Yianni is a world silver medalist and a 4X NCAA champion!
Zack Ryder (Oklahoma State – Minisink Valley, #22 seed @ 184) – Redshirt Freshman
2025-2026 Season
Ryder has gutted his way through some injuries and still managed to qualify for the NCAA Championships by placing 8th at the Big 12 Conference Tournament. More accurately, Zack won his blood round match and forfeited to 8th place, knowing that it guaranteed him a spot in the national tournament. Ryder has a 12-9 record coming into the national tournament but do not let his record mislead you. Ryder has lost a few razor close decisions to a couple of wrestlers who are considered top contenders at 184 pounds this weekend. He lost 4-2 to #7 seed Angelo Ferrari from Iowa and dropped a 4-1 decision to the #2 seed Aeoden Sinclair from Missouri. Ryder can wrestle with anyone in this bracket! His opening round opponent is the #11 seed Shane Cartagena-Walsh from Rutgers.
2024-2025 Season
Zack began his college career wrestling for Penn State. His true freshman year was nothing short of spectacular. He finished the season a perfect 8-0 including the title at the Southern Scuffle where he notched wins over All-American TJ Stewart (Virginia Tech) and blood-rounder DJ Parker (Oklahoma). He also won the title at the Black Knight Invitational where one of his victories was over his opening round opponent at this year’s NCAA tournament, Shane Cartagena-Walsh (Rutgers).
High School Career
Zack was one on the most successful wrestlers in Section 9 history. He was a 3X state champion for Minisink Valley! That’s extremely impressive considering that there was no state tournament in 2021 due to Covid and he forwent his senior year to train at M2 Training Center, a training facility started by his current college coach, David Taylor. Ryder has also collected some hardware in freestyle where he was a Fargo champion, a 2X U17 World bronze medalist, and a U20 World silver medalist.
Stephan Monchery (Appalachian State – Middletown, #23 seed @ 285) – Sophomore
2025-2026 Season
With only one guaranteed qualifier coming from the Southern Conference Championships at 285, Stephan needed to win the title in order to punch his ticket to Cleveland – and that’s exactly what he did! Monchery is now a 2X NCAA tournament qualifier. His opening round opponent at this year’s tournament will be the #10 seed, Davis Szuba from Arizona State. Monchery takes a 23-7 record into the nationals.
2024-2025 Season
Monchery won the SoCon title and qualified for the NCAA tournament as a true freshman at 285 pounds. He finished his freshman season with a 19-11 record including a 7-1 record in conference dual meets. Stephan finished 2nd in the Freshman/Sophomore Division of the Southeast Open.
High School Career
Stephan had a stellar high school career for Middletown capped off by a 42-0 record as a senior including an Eastern States Classic title and a New York State title. As a junior, Monchery finished with a 42-2 record where he won the Eastern States Classic and placed 2nd in NYS.