OKLAHOMA CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 2026--
The National Duals Invitational, a groundbreaking $1 million collegiate wrestling event sponsored by Paycom, has announced the 16-team field for the 2026 edition of the premier event. Tickets for the tournament — which will take place Dec. 12-13 at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma — go on sale May 26.
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Defending National Duals Invitational champion Ohio State will be joined in the field by Arizona State, Arkansas-Little Rock, Iowa State, Minnesota, Missouri, NC State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Maryland, Pittsburgh, Rutgers, Stanford, Virginia Tech and Wyoming.
Together, the 16 programs represent some of the most storied traditions in collegiate wrestling, combining for 54 NCAA team titles and over 400 individual titles.
“Seeing this caliber of programs commit so quickly reinforces what we’re building in Tulsa,” said Matt Surber, tournament director. “The National Duals Invitational is bringing together some of the most historic programs to compete for significant prize money in the exciting duals format. We expect this tournament to continue elevating the sport of college wrestling.”
Topping $1,230,000, the 2026 prize purse will represent one of the most significant financial contributions in college wrestling. The top eight teams will earn payouts, with the winning squad walking away with $250,000 — a $50,000 increase over the $200,000 Ohio State earned as inaugural champions in 2025. The second- and third-place teams will each earn $175,000, while fourth- and fifth-place will both secure $100,000. Sixth- through eighth-place payouts will be $40,000, $25,000 and $20,000, respectively. All participating teams will receive $20,000 for attending and will have the opportunity to compete for $50,000 in team takedown bonuses.
Tickets will be available for purchase beginning May 26 at 10 a.m. CDT through Ticketmaster and the BOK Center Box Office.
Fans can follow team content and every match leading up to the championship finals exclusively on FloWrestling.
For updates and more information, visit nationaldualsinvitational.com.
About the National Duals Invitational
The National Duals Invitational is a premier collegiate wrestling event featuring 16 of the top NCAA Division I teams competing for a total purse of more than $1 million. Hosted at the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Invitational offers substantial payouts to participating programs, including $250,000 to the championship team. The National Duals Invitational is sponsored by Paycom.
The National Duals Invitational has announced the 16-team field for the 2026 edition of the premier event.
FORT COLLINS, Colo. (AP) — Workers at Denver airport initially missed a security breach by man who scaled an 8-foot perimeter fence and crossed a runway where he was hit and killed in a fiery collision by a plane with 231 people on board, authorities said Tuesday.
The runway fatality underscores the longstanding challenge of keeping intruders out of major airports. Denver International Airport sprawls across 53 square miles (138 square kilometers) — twice the size of Manhattan — on open prairie northeast of the city center.
The 41-year-old trespasser triggered an alarm as he crossed into the airport in a remote area about 2 miles from the terminal late Friday night. But security personnel mistakenly attributed that alarm to a herd of deer that was nearby.
Authorities said the man died by suicide. However, no note from the victim was immediately recovered. The manner of death was determined based on the investigation at the scene, a records review and a postmortem examination, said Sterling McLaren, chief medical examiner for the city and county of Denver.
The collision involving the Frontier Airlines plane as it was taking off for Los Angeles sparked an engine fire that forced passengers to evacuate via slides. Twelve people sustained minor injuries and five were taken to hospitals. Four have since been released, said airport Chief Executive Officer Phillip Washington.
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. There is also an online chat at 988lifeline.org
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A black-and-white video released by the airport shows, from a distance, a figure walking toward the runway with arms swaying. The person crosses onto the runway at a slight angle and seconds later the plane is seen speeding past. It strikes the person with its right engine, which bursts into flame.
A few minutes before the man scaled the fence, a ground-based radar system activated in the area, triggering an alarm. An airport worker checked a surveillance camera and saw a herd of deer in the same area but did not initially see the trespasser, Washington said.
"The camera view was alternating between the wildlife and the individual. There are some ditches in the area, so the person was out of view for a bit as well,” Washington said.
He said federal officials notified the airport about the trespasser. Because of the remote location and short time period between the man scaling the fence and crossing the runway, Washington said airport personnel were not able to intervene.
The man crossed about 650 feet (200 meters) from the fence to the runway before being struck and killed by the Frontier Airlines plane traveling at 150 mph (240 kilometers per hour) on takeoff.
The plane’s engine caused the man’s death, McLaren said. She described it as “a purposeful act with a foreseeable fatal outcome.”
Denver police Chief Ron Thomas said investigators were contacting the man’s family and those who knew him to seek more information about his motivations.
Trespassers breaching airport perimeters is a regular problem, with perhaps dozens annually nationwide, said security expert Jeff Price, who was assistant director of security at the Denver airport in the 1990s. The airport is surrounded by about 36 miles of perimeter fence, which airport officials say is continuously inspected.
The vast majority of airport trespassers are intoxicated or simply “messing around just to see if they could do it,” said Price, adding that they typically don't pose a real threat. Denver also gets the rare individual who will jump the fence seeking to prove a long-running conspiracy theory about a UFO base being based at the airport, he said.
The Transportation Security Administration oversees airport security programs, including perimeter security requirements.
“It's really not that difficult to jump an airport perimeter fence,” Price said. “They meet the standards for TSA, but the standards are not that robust.”
The fences are typically 6 to 8 feet tall with barbed wire at the top, he said. They must be approved by federal inspectors, but there are no set rules on their construction. Major airports such as Denver typically also have intrusion detection systems that include cameras and motion sensors, he said. Some systems detect the seismic impact of people dropping to the ground, Price said.
The person was killed on the airport’s easternmost north-south runway and at least 1.25 miles (2 kilometers) from any airport buildings. Empty fields and croplands surround Denver International Airport in most directions. Distant trees and structures in the video showed that the person was headed toward the airport when they crossed the runway.
The Transportation Security Administration has regulatory oversight of airport security programs, including perimeter security requirements.
Separately, the National Transportation Safety Board on Sunday said it is gathering information about the evacuation.
An agency spokesperson said an investigation would be launched if it's determined the injuries meet the agency's definition for “serious." That can include a person requiring hospitalization for more than 48 hours, suffering a broken bone or second- or third-degree burns affecting more than 5% of their body.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Frontier Airlines jetliner number n646fr sits outside the airlines technical operations center with other jetliners in for service north of Denver International Airport Saturday, May 9, 2026, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
