Ben Darmstadt - Wrestling Coach - University of North Carolina Athletics

Ben Darmstadt

Title:
Assistant Coach

Ben Darmstadt joined the Carolina Wrestling coaching staff in October 2023.

In the 2025-26 season, the Tar Heels opened the season 6-0 in dual action, the best start to a season since 2005-06 and the fifth time in program history Carolina has won their first six duals. The Tar Heels defeated No. 12 Northern Iowa on the road, their highest ranked road victory in nearly a decade. Individually, Bryce Hepner won the 165-pound title at the 2026 ACC Championships, Carolina's first ACC champion during head coach Rob Koll's tenure and the first 165-pound ACC champion for the program since 2009.

The Tar Heels qualified six wrestlers for the 2026 NCAA Championships in Cleveland, including four freshmen. The four freshmen qualifiers were the most in program history for Carolina.

During the 2024-25 campaign, Carolina clinched a share of the ACC regular season title, the 19th in program history and the first since the 2018-19 campaign. The Tar Heels qualified eight for the NCAA Championships in Philadelphia, the most since 2021. At the national tournament, Lachlan McNeil earned All-America honors with a fifth-place finish at 149 pounds, becoming the sixth Tar Heel with three-or-more All-America finishes.

In his first season in Chapel Hill, the Tar Heels had their most dual victories since 2019-20. Individually, five Carolina wrestlers earned berths to the NCAA Championships in Kansas City, with Lachlan McNeil collecting All-America honors for the second-straight season.

A former wrestler under head coach Rob Koll at Cornell, Darmstadt was a two-time All-America honoree during his time with the Big Red. A two-time EIWA Champion and two-time All-Ivy League First-Time honoree, the Elyria, Ohio native graduated from Cornell with his bachelor's degree in marketing.

Prior to arriving in Chapel Hill, Darmstadt was a coach at the Cardinal Wrestling Club regional training center.