CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The NCAA announced the complete field for the upcoming 2026 Division I Wrestling Championships on Tuesday afternoon, tabbing The Citadel redshirt junior Thomas Snipes as an at-large bid within the 165 lbs division. Notably, the Simpsonville, S.C, native will serve as the lone at-large bid for the Southern Conference, which advanced the 10 individual champions plus one alternate to national postseason tournament.

"I'm pleased to see that Thomas Snipes got an at large bid for the 2026 national tournament in Cleveland," interim head coach Luke Welch said. "I think this showcases the consistency that he's had all year. At the beginning of the season he had some really good wins and his record going into SoCon Championship was 22-5, but he didn't have the performance at the league tournament we wanted. In spite of that, because we did our part all year, he was able to get an at-large bid, so I'm just excited for him to get a second opportunity to go out there and showcase his talent and represent The Citadel, himself, his family, this program and his community, it's exciting."

Snipes currently owns a 22-7 overall record following a 7-1 run within Southern Conference regular-season play, earning the No. 1 overall seed at the league championship on March 6-7 along with All-Southern Conference honors. The redshirt junior reached the national tournament a season ago after claiming the 2025 Southern Conference 165 lbs individual title, and now serves as the first repeat NCAA qualifier for the Bulldogs since Michael McAleavy achieved the same feat in 2021 and 2022.

The full bracket for the NCAA DI Wrestling Championships releases on Wednesday, March 11 at 8 p.m. ET courtesy of the annual selection show via NCAA.com. Following the announcement, Snipes heads north to Rocket Arena in Cleveland, Ohio, for the three-day event slated for Thursday, March 19 through Saturday, March 21.