Rutgers Wrestling to hire five-time All-American Mikey Labriola as assistant coach

Nebraska five-time All-American Mikey Labriola is set to be hired by the Rutgers Scarlet Knights as a new assistant coach ahead of the 2024-25 season. The hire will be official, pending a background check, sources told On3.

Labriola will join the staff after Donny Pritzlaff, who spent 10 years as the Rutgers associate head coach, accepted the head coaching job at Columbia. Labriola finished his career with the Huskers in 2023.

Labriola was a part of the Lehigh Valley Wrestling Club RTC this past season following his college career.

Labriola finished his college career with a 113-29 varsity record, per WrestleStat. He was the NCAA runner-up at 174 pounds in 2023, losing to eventual four-time NCAA champion Carter Starocci (Penn State).

After redshirting his first season, Labriola went 29-9 en route to a 6th place finish at the 2019 NCAA Tournament. He was a NWCA Coaches All-American amid the canceled 2020 tournament.

In 2021, he had his best finish to date. Labriola finished in 3rd place with a 16-2 final record that winter. The next season, he went 22-6 and finished in 7th place.

But, Labriola finally reached the big stage during his final season. A 28-2 record later, Labriola was the national runner-up, only losing to Starocci that season.

Now, he’ll add to a Rutgers staff that includes head coach Scott Goodale and assistants Joe Pollard and Steve Mytych. The Scarlet Knights just reeled in the No. 4 ranked recruiting class per InterMat and welcome back four All-Americans to the roster. That includes Dylan Shawver (133), Jackson Turley (174), John Poznanski (197) and Yaraslau Slavikouski (285).

Mikey Labriola hired by Rutgers Wrestling

Labriola is now in the fold in Piscataway, NJ as the Scarlet Knights continue their climb in the Big Ten and nationally. Replacing Pritzlaff though, is still a big challenge.

Pritzlaff, a two-time NCAA champion at Wisconsin and World Bronze Medalist, spent the last 10 years as the associate head coach at Rutgers. Now, he’ll become a head coach at a Division 1 program for the first time in his career.

A well respected technician and recruiter, Pritzlaff should bring instant juice to a Columbia program looking to rise in the Ivy League. The Lions went 5-8 in duals last season.

Pritzlaff has the success on the mat to back it up. He won two NCAA titles and was a four-time All-American at Wisconsin. He won his two titles in 2000 and ’01 at 165 pounds.

Pritzlaff eventually represented Team USA at the 2007 World Championships and won a bronze medal at 74 KG.