With the 2016 season officially in the books we can unveil our first set of pound-for-pound rankings for the class of 2019. Please join in on the discussion of these rankings on facebook.com/IAwrestle and twitter.com/IAwrestle. Use the hashtag #IAwrestleP4P.
1. Cade DeVos – Waukee
2. Aden Reeves – Albia
3. Eric Faught – Clear Lake
4. Nick Oldham – WDM Valley
5. Drake Doolittle – Webster City
6. Josh Tibbits – Martensdale-St. Mary’s
7. Lance Runyon – Indianola
8. Nick Graham – Johnston
9. Riley Wright – Denver-Tripoli
10. Conrad Braswell – Cedar Rapids Prairie
Honorable Mention: Matthew Jordan – Des Moines East, Lucas Roland – PCM Monroe, Spencer Trenary – Pocahontas Area, Jacob Wempen – Linn-Mar, and Jaymus Wilson – Alburnett.
Cade DeVos was one of the most dominant wrestlers in the state before suffering an injury that held him out of the state tournament (his only loss was to Teske), Coupled with his national resume, DeVos was a no brainer for #1. Reeves had a tough state tournament falling to Randone, but as a double Fargo All-American, and solid Super 32 tournament, he sticks as the #2 wrestler.
Both Eric Faught and Nick Oldham were the highest finishing freshmen at the 2016 state tournament, but Faught’s national resume gives him the edge here for #3.
Drake Doolittle had a nice state tournament taking third, and gets a huge boost for scoring a win over Justin Portillo earlier in the season. Josh Tibbits slots right after Doolittle after a 3rd place finish and his only loss to Henderson at the state tournament.
From #7 through our five honorable mention the separation was fairly close. We feel confident that right now we have identified the top ten freshmen, but there are plenty of wrestlers that are right on the cusp of being in the top ten, and even more probably deserving of the honorable mention spot.
We hope you enjoyed our freshmen pound-for-pound rankings and as always, feedback is welcome.
I give a B for effort. This class is way better than this. The man weights are not being considered. 132 and up is a whole lotta tougher for a freshman to be successful consistently against the upperclassmen. It’s 2 bad they don’t get the respect the lighter weights get. Freshman against freshman – Sophmore doesn’t widen there dominant matches. It’s been the same match ups since 3rd grade.
What about beau lombardi. He did very well this season at 182. Plus he was wrestling all juniors and seniors
Zach? How about Kyler Rieck (SLP)? Fourth place finish at 2A 138, national folkstyle resume. Past two seasons: Rieck 2-0 over Roland, Rieck 3-0 over Zach (State AAU finals with one arm), Rieck over Graham 2-0 ( major and fall). Good effort but close to zero credibility on this one!
Anthony Zach was 2-1 vs Nick Graham and didn’t get honorable mention. He had a BAD district day and probably qualifies 8/10 times in that district
Actually I believe Anthony was 3-1 against graham.
Can’t believe Collin Lewis didn’t at least make honorable mention.