DALTON, GA – The National Collegiate Wrestling Association’s National Duals Tournament, the first leg of the NCWA Championship Series, begins today in Dalton as 300 wrestlers and coaches return to Georgia’s mountains to compete for the favorite’s role toward the national title.
This is the sixth consecutive season for Dalton’s Northwest Georgia Trade and Convention Center to host the two-day event. No other city has hosted more NCWA championship events than Dalton.

The 2016 Duals has its largest field ever with 24 schools with geographic representation from seven of the NCWA’s nine conferences. For the first time in the event’s eight-year history, nine of the top 10 teams in the latest NCWA power rankings are in the field, including all of the top eight. The top five seeds are top-seed Central Florida, No. 2 Emmanuel College, No. 3 and defending champion Liberty, No. 4 Middle Tennessee and No. 5 Grand Valley State. Liberty has reached the National Duals’ finals match in three of the past four years.
Regional programs Georgia, Clemson, Florida, Auburn and Middle Tennessee are also in the field. The National Duals hosts three schools from the Penn State University system for the first time. Penn State-DuBois and Penn State-Mont Alto are here, as is the club program at the main Penn State campus. Penn State’s club is student-run and independent of its athletic department, as is Ohio State’s club program, which is attending for the first time.
No team has repeated as champion in the tournament’s history. Liberty (2012, 2015) is the only two-time champion, with former champions Marion Military (2010) and Grand Valley State (2009) seeking their second title.
The 24-team field is broken into eight pools of three teams for round-robin action beginning at noon on Friday, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to the round of 16 at 6 p.m. Friday. The championship quarterfinals begin at 10 a.m. Saturday, with the semifinals (4 p.m.) and championship match (6 p.m.) following. Consolation matches are scheduled throughout Saturday’s schedule.
The National Duals is the first of two segments within the NCWA National Championship Series that unites the association’s two championship events into a single format. The Series is unique among all other major-college championships in any sport. Each team will earn points based on its National Duals finish that will carry over to the start of the NCWA Championships in March, the second leg of the Championship Series. The National Duals champion will receive 24 points, the runner-up 23, and so on that gives participants a head start of sorts in the team standings.
The full 24-team field is: Auburn, The Apprentice School, Central Florida, Clemson, East Carolina, Emmanuel, Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Georgia, Grand Valley State, Grays Harbor College (Wash.), Liberty, Marion Military (Ala.), Maryland-Baltimore County, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Ohio State wrestling club, Penn State wrestling club, Penn State-DuBois, Penn State-Mont Alto, South Florida, Temple, Toledo, Wayne State (Neb.).