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America's Southern states have always been a bit of a black hole for the sport of wrestling, but that could change if trends seen at the 2017 NCAA Championships continue.

Last week in St. Louis, seven wrestlers who claimed Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, or Texas as their home states earned All-American honors.

Below is a map of the hometowns of those seven wrestlers (along with the Oklahoman AAs and Illinois' Zane Richards along for the ride):


This is the most AAs we've seen from the South going at least as far back as the 2000 tournament. This holds true even when Tennessee and Louisiana are included.

Arkansas and Mississippi have yet to produce an All-American in recorded history. (If anyone knows of any, let us know!)

Our 2017 Southern AAs are as follows:

• Bo Nickal, Penn State (1st, 184) Allen, Texas
• TJ Dudley, Nebraska (3rd, 184) Irmo, South Carolina
• Joey Dance, Virginia Tech (5th, 125) Christiansburg, Virginia
• Jack Mueller, Texas (6th, 125) Dallas, Texas
• Sean Russell, Edinboro (7th, 125) Lawrenceville, Georgia
• Brandon Womack, Cornell (8th, 165) Scottsboro, Alabama
• Denzel Dejournette, Appalachian State (8th, 285) Winston-Salem, North Carolina

You have to go back to the 1990s to find South Carolina's last All-American prior to Dudley (Minnesota's Shelton Benjamin). And we've yet to uncover another Alabaman All-American other than Womack. If you know of one, give us a holler!

Florida has managed to buck the trend, averaging more than one All-American per year for the past 20 years, but that state has long been an anomaly with regard to its more culturally homogeneous neighbors.

Penn State's Bo Nickal represents the first national champion from a Southern state since Virginian Bubba Jenkins won a title in 2011 at Arizona State. Before Jenkins, Jordan Leen won a championship while representing Cornell and the state of Tennessee in 2008.

Total NCAA qualifiers from the South are also on an upward slope. The average number of qualifiers per year from Southern states (excluding Florida) since 2000 is 23. The 2017 tournament had 27 Southern wrestlers in its brackets.

The numbers of qualifiers by Southern states at the 2017 NCAAs are as follows:

• Georgia: 8
• Virginia: 8
• Texas: 5
• North Carolina: 3
• Alabama: 1
• Tennessee: 1
• South Carolina: 1

While it may be too early to tell how sustainable this movement will prove to be, it is nonetheless a welcome development for the greater wrestling community. With seven Division I programs in the state of North Carolina alone, there are diverse options for Southern recruits who don't want to stray too far from Dixie.

As more wrestlers from the South earn All-American honors, it can't help but start a virtuous cycle. The collegiate success helps generate interest from local youths, which in turn, feeds into the local or nearby college programs. Though it may not amount to anything more than wishful thinking, such developments can't hurt in the ultimate goal of jumpstarting new DI wrestling programs in the South.