2018-2019 Prospect Rankings

Prospect Rankings By Weight

Prospect rankings are back! Here we handicap the talent and rank them based on what we believe will be their future college weights.

Over the next couple weeks, we'll roll out Prospect Rankings at each of the ten college weights.

A little about these rankings:

The Prospect Rankings are markedly different from the weight class rankings (which are all grades with wrestlers at their current weights and based entirely on results) and the Big Board rankings (which are grade specific and opinion-based).

Prospect Rankings take wrestlers from all grades and project them to their college weights. We then rank them based on what we think (opinion/assessment) their potential is.

A good measure to understand what I'm assessing, is to find a valuation to a senior, and then to take all the other wrestlers and project what level they will be at when they are a senior.

It's certainly an inexact science - one that is ever evolving and full of factors (none more obvious than the difficult in projecting physical growth). But Prospect Rankings just might be the most important one to recruiters, who have to not only target each weight, but have to deliberate on signing that weight this year, or waiting a year or two on someone who might turn out to be better.

To the Rankings

Kurt McHenry ended as our #1 125lb prospect last year and remains #1. But he is the one rock in a weight that is otherwise in flux.

11 of the Top 20 in our final 125lb prospect rankings were eligible to return (9 graduated). 

8 of the Top 20 come back. Greg Diakomihalis is reclassified to 125. 

There were two non-graduates that were ranked at 125 last year that are not ranked to start this year: Noah Surtin (IL) and Jacob Rundell (IL). One of last year's ranked 125lbers, Anthony Clark, has been moved to 133.

The biggest movers on the board are Richie Figueroa who won a Cali State title, FloNationals, and Akron Cadet Trials before reaching Cadet World finals.

Eric Barnett won Fargo in an incredibly deep weight and moves from #7 to #3.