(Tony & Ben Rotundo/WrestlersAreWarriors.com)
After taking a breif break from the wild ride that was the 2015 NCAA tournament, we can now look ahead to next season as we at IA Wrestle try to project what the preseason top 8 rankings will look like. For a majority of the rankings we took the top returning All-Americans at each weight in order and then filled in with R12 and R16 guys. Nahshon Garrett (Cornell) has already made his decision to go to 133 public so he is the only weight change thus far. All-Americans Zain Retherford (PSU) and Bryce Hammond (Cal-Bakersfield) both come off redshirts at 141 and 174 and have been slotted in about where they would have fallen with this crop of returning All-Americans.
Think of this as just an early snap shot for next season. We all know that freshman and wrestlers coming off redshirt are going to emerge and spring up the rankings. As will guys who will have a break out season, and then wrestlers will change weight. You get the picture. This isn’t a perfect ranking. Just a view at the top returning wrestlers at each weight right now.
| 125 | ||
| 1 | Nathan Tomasello | Ohio State |
| 2 | Zeke Moisey | West Virginia |
| 3 | Thomas Gilman | Iowa |
| 4 | Conor Youtsey | Michigan |
| 5 | Eddie Klimara | Oklahoma State |
| 6 | Jordan Conaway | PSU |
| 7 | Joey Dance | Virginia Tech |
| 8 | David Terao | American |
| 133 | ||
| 1 | Cody Brewer | Oklahoma |
| 2 | Cory Clark | Iowa |
| 3 | Jimmy Gulibon | PSU |
| 4 | Ryan Taylor | Wisconsin |
| 5 | Mason Beckman | Lehigh |
| 6 | Rossi Bruno | Michigan |
| 7 | Nahshon Garrett | Cornell |
| 8 | Earl Hall | ISU |
| 141 | ||
| 1 | Dean Heil | Oklahoma State |
| 2 | Evan Hendersen | North Carolina |
| 3 | Kevin Jack | NC State |
| 4 | Zain Retherford | PSU |
| 5 | Rick Durso | Franklin and Marshall |
| 6 | Chirs Mecate | Old Dominion |
| 7 | Lavion Mayes | Missouri |
| 8 | Anthony Ashnault | Rutgers |
| 149 | ||
| 1 | Jason Tsirtsis | Northwestern |
| 2 | Brandon Sorensen | Iowa |
| 3 | BJ Clagon | Rider |
| 4 | Alex Richardson | Old Dominion |
| 5 | Dan Neff | Lock Haven |
| 6 | Sal Mastrani | Virginia Tech |
| 7 | Alec Pantelo | Michigan |
| 8 | Colin Heffernan | Central Michigan |
| 157 | ||
| 1 | Isaiah Martinez | Illinois |
| 2 | Brian Realbutto | Cornell |
| 3 | Nick Brascetta | Virginia Tech |
| 4 | Ian Miller | Kent State |
| 5 | Brian Murphy | Michigan |
| 6 | Mitch Minotti | Lehigh |
| 7 | Anothy Collica | Oklahoma State |
| 8 | Spartak Chino | Ohio |
| 165 | ||
| 1 | Alex Dieringer | Oklahoma State |
| 2 | Bo Jordan | Ohio State |
| 3 | Ethan Ramos | North Carolina |
| 4 | Isaac Jordan | Wisconsin |
| 5 | Jim Wilson | Stanford |
| 6 | Cooper Moore | UNI |
| 7 | Dylan Palacio | Cornell |
| 8 | Clark Glass | Oklahoma |
| 174 | ||
| 1 | Kyle Crutchmer | Oklahoma State |
| 2 | Zach Epperly | Virginia Tech |
| 3 | Kurtis Julson | NDSU |
| 4 | Cody Waters | Ohio |
| 5 | Bryce Hammond | Cal-Bakersfield |
| 6 | Alex Meyer | Iowa |
| 7 | Blaise Butler | Virginia |
| 8 | Zac Brunson | Illinois |
| 184 | ||
| 1 | Gabe Dean | Cornell |
| 2 | Nate Brown | Lehigh |
| 3 | Vic Avery | Edinboro |
| 4 | Blake Stauffer | Arizona State |
| 5 | Kenny Courts | Ohio State |
| 6 | Hayden Zilmer | NDSU |
| 7 | Willie Miklus | Missouri |
| 8 | TJ Dudley | Nebraska |
| 197 | ||
| 1 | Kyle Snyder | Ohio State |
| 2 | Morgan McIntosh | PSU |
| 3 | J’den Cox | Missouri |
| 4 | Conner Hartmann | Duke |
| 5 | Nathan Burak | Iowa |
| 6 | Aaron Studebaker | Nebraska |
| 7 | Jace Bennett | Cornell |
| 8 | Anthony Abro | Eastern Michigan |
| 285 | ||
| 1 | Nick Gwiazdowski | NC State |
| 2 | Adam Coon | Michigan |
| 3 | Connor Medbery | Wisconsin |
| 4 | Ty Walz | Virginia Tech |
| 5 | Michael Kroells | Minnesota |
| 6 | Austin Mardsen | Oklahoma State |
| 7 | Blaize Cabell | UNI |
| 8 | Collin Jensen | Nebraska |
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I think Amar Dhesi will be a major factor at 285 for Oregon State.
Luke Smith R of 12 in 2014 comes back. He would be in front of Chino.
added to my notes. Thanks!
PSU will likely have Mega at 125, Conaway at 133, Gulibon at 141 and Retherford at 149. Should be interesting.
I am not sure how I would like that from a PSU perspective. Conaway and Gulibon weren’t big for their weights. I’ll put it this way, I would much rather see Conaway at 133 than Gulibon.
How about if Nico went to 133 and Conaway stayed at 125? Jimmy to 141 and Retherford at 149?
That might be a bit better. I think Nico could be the same position at 125 as he is at 133, but don’t feel the same about Conaway.
Of course that is just my opinion.
Mega is on record that he will be wrestling next year.
No Sammy Brooks?
All of the AAs from 184 return, that puts Sammy just on the outside
I understand he wasn’t an AA, but I don’t think that tells the whole story with Sammy. His 2 losses at Nationals were to the #1 and #3 seeds, Dean and Stauffer. That’s just bad luck, not an indication of where he resides in the 184 hierarchy. I suspect we will see Sammy ahead of a TJ Dudley even though Dudley finished 8th at nationals…he beat the 14 and 6 seeds to get to the podium, where Sammy had the 1/3…not even close. Congrats to Dudley for being an AA, but he shouldn’t be ranked ahead of Sammy to start next year.
Collica will most likely bump down 10 149 next year. He was a small 157#.
Won’t matter about Retherford. He will be going to 149. Also you are missing Nico.
Right, but for now we have to rank guys where we have actual confirmation where they will be wrestling. Until Cael/Zain say he’s going to 149, the default for wrestlers is their old weight.
For Megaludis, I seem to recall that they said there was a posability he was taking his Olympic shirt. We can insert him when he comes back.
This is interesting and it gives a good view of who is returning all-americans with some other sprinkled in versus actual rankings.
Zain Retherford got to be #1
I understand Retherford is a good wrestler, but he is not even the highest returning AA from 2014.
Yep and he was not a champ or a runner up
Also his two loses at nationals in 2014 was Mitchell Port and Logan Steiber (who he beat).
why is that he was never a national champ or a runner up