High School Team Rankings 2018-2019

Blair's Best Team Ever?

An Ironman finalist vs. an Akron finalist. A Fargo Champ vs. a Super 32 Champ.

Such matchups could be used to preview a high profile tournament or as key matchups in a great high school dual.

But, no. Those are Blair Academy wrestle off contests.

Blair has finished as the nation's top team 15 times, all of them within the last twenty years. Only time will tell where this team stacks up in the pantheon of Blair Academy teams, one metric of which might be how they perform in college. In that case, it's a tall task to supersede the 2001 team that featured Cory Cooperman, Mark Perry, Zack Esposito, and Steve Mocco.

But one thing is for sure - this Blair team has ZERO holes. 

In fact, with what Blair had returning from last year's team, they likely would have been the consensus preseason #1 team. Instead, Head Coach Brian Antonelli, who took over the Buccaneers in 2014 and has since guided them to the last three national titles, has brought in even more talent and removed all doubt.

New faces on the Blair roster include Fargo AA's Danny Wask (NJ/106) and Rylan Rogers (WA/152), California State Champ Dom Mata (160), and the Ferrari Brothers - Anthony an Akron finalist, and AJ the #1 ranked 195lber in the country. Currently, the 14-man Blair line-up includes ten nationally ranked wrestlers.

Of course, all the above said, Blair will be tested as they'll see six of the Top 8 (some multiple times) throughout the season. The action gets started off, as always, in a big way as sixteen of the Top 25 will be in the field at Ironman this weekend. 

Perennial powerhouses Bergen Catholic and Wyoming Seminary are a tough call at the #2 spot. I gave Bergen the nod, but that will be sorted out at Beast.

La Salle (OH) is the new face among the nation's elite. They are expected to challenge St. Edward, one of the most consistent power programs in the nation, for supremacy in the big school division in Ohio.

I have Detroit CC conservatively at #5. State rules prevent them from some events but they have a good slate with duals vs. St. Ed's and Montini and at Brecksville Holiday Tournament to ensure we have a good gauge on them.

While Cali doesn't have a team in the upper echelon, they lead the board here with six ranked teams. It could be one of the better team races at their state tournament in a while - at least in terms of parity. 

In last week's action, Southeast Polk edged a solid field at Gardner Edgerton (KS). In 2nd was Allen (TX) and then Broken Arrow (OK) who was 3rd without several football stars, two of whom are major point scorers. Goddard (KS) was 4th.

At the Newbury Invite, Poway edged Clovis.