Class of 2016 Big Board

Mark Hall Reigns Supreme

What an amazing senior class. With the amazing talent headed to the next level, there are sure to be even more competitive and crowd pleasing moments in the future. Some of these guys will go off to their respective schools and make an instant impact while other will take full advantage of easing their way in.

The most intriguing senior who is sitting atop of this incredibly talented class is Mark Hall. We've seen him take on the best competition both domestically and internationally with everyone champing at the bit to see him do some damage in a Penn State singlet along side the tough dudes who are already making waves for the Nittany Lions. Hall capped off his career as arguably the best high school wrestler in the history of the sport as he captured his sixth Minnesota state title.

Behind Hall is his future teammate Nick Suriano, a four-time undefeated New Jersey state champ who only gave up one takedown in his entire career. Suriano is expected to slide into the Lions' line-up at 125 to fill the big shoes of four-time NCAA All American and National Champion Nico Megaludis. Suriano was just as dominant as Hall as he took out plenty of the nation's best to collect numerous titles year-after-year.

The top five is rounded out by Iowa-bound Alex Marinelli, recent free agent Nick Reenan and Mason Manville, who will also be taking the trip to PSU. Manville was undefeated as he finished his career as a National Prep champ. Marinelli finished with his fourth Ohio state title and Reenan bounced back-and-forth the entire year between 182 and 195-pounds with his only losses coming to Blair's Chase Singletary at 195. Nonetheless, Reenan finished as the #1-ranked wrestler at 182 while Manville was at the top at 152 after reclaiming the top spot at Who's #1 to start the season. Marinelli is the only guy in the top five without the top-ranking since he sits behind Hall at #2 at 170.

During the season there were plenty of guys that put on great performances and improved their recruiting status while some couldn't sustain their momentum from previous years and saw a dip in their ranking. A guy that came in hot, but took losses and was dropped is Jordan Wood. Wood took a devastating loss to Correnti in the Beast of the East finals and went from eight to 20 behind Correnti who made the move up from 31 to 19. Jack Mueller, who won his fourth National Prep title this season, climbed from 19 to just outside the top 10 at #11. Mueller is probably one of, if not the, most technical guys I've seen all year. He started out his season with an Ironman title and stated that he just wanted to separate himself from the competition. Well that mindset showed as he took out everyone in his path.

Right behind Mueller at #12 is Drew Hughes. Hughes made a huge jump up 20 spots from 32 with a strong finish to his season. He had a great showing at the Pittsburgh Wrestling Classic where he did double duty for both Team Indiana and Team USA. His win for Team USA turned out to be a difference maker as he shut out Jake Wentzel, who is #40, 6-0. Making one of the biggest jumps was Clovis, California's AJ Nevills who went from 76 to 47. Nevills had a pretty awesome season as he claimed titles at both the Doc B and state tournaments.

Like I said at the beginning, this was an amazing class full of guys that will be lighting up scoreboards on the next level.