Class of 2021 High School Big Board

Senior Big Board

At the top of the board #1 Richard Figueroa (CA) and #2 Shane Van Ness (NJ) have separated themselves as the elite tier in the class. Figueroa posted multiple wins this season over weight class #2 Joey Cruz en route to an undefeated season and his third California state title. Van Ness missed some time due to injury after winning the four-man bracket at Who’s #1. He came back and smashed the field at National Preps with three falls and a pair of technical falls. 

After the top two the board gets awfully messy and could be evaluated in a ton of different ways. The big mover in the group was #4 Kyonte Hamilton (MD). He had the early hiccup at Ironman, but was dominant throughout the rest of the season. Hamilton avenged his loss at Beast of the East to Noah Pettigrew (NJ) and looked spectacular taking out Kolby Franklin (PA) in the National Prep finals. 

Everyone in the top 20 could stake a claim to be higher on the board until you get to Figueroa and Van Ness. There are tons of conflicting results and some of the best resume wins are counterbalanced with recent losses. 

There were several seniors on the final big board that came from outside the top 100 in their final season to finish in the top 30. With future events on hold, it could be the preseason until we get to see everyone on the mat again. Look for fall tournaments to be big statement events after the hiatus. Lots of scholarship money often is made in Fargo. That might get pushed to the fall making the nation events on the fall folkstyle circuit more important than ever.

Please email any feedback to Brock Hite at hitebrock@gmail.com or DM @RankingsBrock on Twitter.