Matt Oney '90 enters his eighth year as the head WPI wrestling coach ahead of the 2025-26 season.
Coach Oney guided the Crimson and Gray to a 12-9 dual meet record as the Engineers posted five straight wins to open the 2024-25 campaign. WPI posted fourth place finishes at Ursinus' Racich Rumble and Southern Maine's Ted Reese Invitational and a fifth place showing at the NEWA Futures. Seniors Tanner Thatcher and Nicolas LeSieur, and sophomore Joe Tully received a mix or regional and national recognition in respective weight class rankings by the NWCA and The Open Mat throughout the season. Thatcher led the Engineers with a fifth-place finish at the two-day NCAA regional meet in a highly-touted 125-pound weight class as WPI finished 15th as a team.
The Crimson and Gray finished 6-11 in the 2023-2024 campaign as they enjoyed wins over Norwich, Trinity (CT), SUNY Brockport, Western New England and two versus Bridgewater State. WPI finished 13th at the NEWA Futures Tournament and 15th at the NCAA Northeast Regional Championship hosted by WPI this March. First-year grapplers Joseph Tully and Mason Medina collected NEWA Rookie of the Week honors in 2023-2024 as Tully finished eighth at the NCAA Regional championship propelled by a trio of victories on day one. Tully earned All-NEWA Honorable Mention and All-NEWA Rookie distinction as 16 members of the Crimson and Gray were listed to the All-NEWA Academic Team. Tanner Thatcher claimed NWCA Scholar All-American honors for the second-consecutive year as the program finished fourth overall in the NWCA Team Scholar All-America Top 30 rankings.
WPI finished 8-12 in 2022-2023 and closed out the regular season with a dominating 40-6 victory over Western New England before placing fifth at the NEWA Futures Tournament and 11th at the NCAA Division III Northeast Regional Championship with four members of the Engineers taking a stand on the podium. Tommy Dell'Aera highlighted the regional tournament showing for the Crimson and Gray with a semifinal round victory to qualify for the NCAA National Championship. Dell'Aera became the seventh in program history to earn a bid to nationals in the "regional era" and first since 2020. The Engineers boasted the top team grade-point average solidifying their title as the 2023 NWCA Scholar All-American Division III Team Champions as the group calculated a 3.767 team GPA as six individuals claimed Scholar All-America recognition.
The 2021-2022 season featured a pair of wins at the Jim Aguiar Invitational hosted by Plymouth State and at the NEWA Duals against RIC. Oney’s squad earned a few individual accolades including a NEWA Rookie of the Week honor for Tanner Thatcher after notching a trio of wins at the Trinity Quad. WPI finished fifth at the NEWA Futures meet before six Engineers posted wins at the NCAA Division III Northeast regional. Off the mat, Oney’s Engineers earned the top team grade-point average in the NEWA and seventh overall in NCAA DIII as honored by the NWCA including Scholar All-America nods for Tommy Dell’Aera, Chris Gens and Ryan Powers.
The WPI wrestling team finished the 2019-20 season with an overall record of 8-15 and finished eighth lace in both the NEWA Duals and Northeast Regional Championships. Four wrestlers earned All-Region, three earned NWCA Scholar All-American, and although the NCAA Championships was canceled due to COVID-19, three-time national qualifier Tyler Marsh was named a third team All-American.
Prior to returning to Boynton Hill, Oney had a two-year stop at Kansas Wesleyan where he boasted three NAIA national qualifiers, five KCAC Champions, two KCAC Most Outstanding Wrestlers, and the program's first All-America. His debut campaign, as well as the program's first full season, yielded the school's first national qualifier and 2016-17 KCAC Coach of the Year accolades. Academically, Oney touted the program's first NAIA All-American and NWCA All-Academic honoree. Prior to leading the Coyotes, Oney served as an assistant men's and women's coach at Wayland Baptist for two years.
Before making the move to the collegiate ranks, Oney was a math and physics teacher at Punahou School, a top-tier ethnically diverse college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii, for over two decades. As head coach, he guided the boys' team to six consecutive state titles and the girls' team to three in-a-row while collecting numerous league and state accolades along the way.
Off campus, the USA Wrestling GOLD Certified Coach is well traveled, having been to Turkey and Russia as part of the organization's Coaches Apprentice Program in 2009 and 2010. He was later on the women's freestyle staff for the Pan-Am Cadet Championships from 2012 to 2015 and the Pan-Am Junior Championships in 2017. The 2013 team claimed the title while the 2012, 2015 and 2017 lineups placed second, and the 2014 team earned bronze. Oney was also involved at the state level from 2003-2012.
The electrical engineering major posted a dual meet record of 21-10 (.667) with 12 pins - without being pinned himself - and was third in the region at 142 as a sophomore and as a senior. Both All-New England performances led to NWCA Scholar All-America honors while 1989-90 co-captain also helped the team to a second-place showing regionally and No. 15 nationally.
