Preseason national high school wrestling rankings update (11/6/2023)
The major national pre-season wrestling tournaments are in the books. It’s now time for teams to prepare for the upcoming season. There will still be some action, but nothing on the grand scale of Super 32. Some ultra-talented high school wrestlers are entering college open tournaments as well.
The wrestling world saw a shocker unfold on Sunday at the Clarion Open in Pennsylvania when World Champion Marcus Blaze (Perrysburg, Ohio) won an overtime battle with the No. 1 126-pounder in the NCAA D1 rankings and National Runner-up, Purdue’s Matt Ramos. Ramos defeated Iowa’s Spencer Lee at last year’s NCAA Tournament.
Blaze, who is just a junior in high school, gathered a takedown in OT to move to the finals where he fell to Brayden Plamer (Unattached-UTC). In the quarters, Blaze dominated the riding time, posting almost two minutes, in his 9-4 win over Jax Forrest (Bishop McCort, Pennsylvania).
Blaze takes over the top spot at 126 after occupying the No. 1 position at 120-pounds. Overall, Ohio has 30 ranked competitors.
Perrysburg (Ohio) junior Marcus Blaze, who is the SBLive's top-ranked wrestler in the 126-pound weight class and a World Champion, shocked Purdue's Matt Ramos, the top ranked wrestler, at 126, in the NCAA Division I rankings at the Clarion Open last weekend.
Photo by United World Wrestling/Kadir Caliskan
Graham, Ohio’s Brogan Tucker’s performance at S32 was one of the more surprising given he was not in the rankings and had no big national-level wins on his sheets. That all changed when Tucker saddled losses on Gabriel Bouyssou (Scituate, Rhode Island), August Hibler (Bergen Catholic, New Jersey), and Beau Hickman (Tuttle, Oklahoma), en route to a fifth-place showing at 144.
Pennsylvania’s Super 32 dominance where they won half the titles is reflected in the national rankings as the Keystone state dominates with three No. 1 wrestlers and 85 total grapplers ranked, the most of any state. Super 32 results gave them two of their four head honchos in Joe Bachmann (Faith Christian Academy) and Bo Bassett (Bishop McCort).
Joe Bachmann (Faith Christian Academy) captured Super 32 supremacy over No. 3 Rocco Hayes (Carl Sandburg, Illinois). Hayes stormed through the bracket to reach the finals, posting upsets over Grey Burnett (Perrysburg, Ohio) and Rocco Cassioppi (Honenegah, Illinois), whom he had lost to earlier this fall at the Test of the Best All-Star dual.
Bassett moved back into familiar territory atop the 132-pound rankings. Bassett defeated Sergio Vega (Sunnyside, Arizona) in the finals after Vega downed previous No. 1 Ben Davino (St. Charles East, Illinois) in the semi-finals, 6-5.
Bassett, who was not seeded, won the 133-pound championship at the Clarion Open with a 13-10 decision of Pittsburgh’s Vincent Santaniello. Santaniello picked off top-seeded Nic Bouzakis (Ohio State) in the semis, 11-4.
Pennsylvania’s other number one comes from Wyoming Seminary, Joe Sealey (157).
California is tied with Pennsylvania regarding No. 1 wrestlers with three, Brock Mantanona (Palm Desert, 144), Cody Merrill (Gilroy, 215), and Aden Valencia (Ann Sobrato, 138). 52 Californians litter the rankings, also the second most of any state.
One of the big risers for California from Super 32 is Antonio Rodriguez from Los Gatos. Rodriguez came in unranked but had some high-level wins and accomplishments under his belt. During his freshman season, Rodriguez was third at the Reno Tournament of Champions with a win over Poway’s Edwin Sierra and second at Doc B – putting a 3-0 blanking of Dederick Navarro (Nampa, Idaho) on the bracket.
The now sophomore was a state runner-up to Ronnie Ramirez (Walnut) but failed to place at the NHSCA Freshman Nationals, which hurt his ranking at the time. At Super 32, Rodriguez landed in the eighth position on the podium with quality wins over Tyler DeKraker (Blair Academy, New Jersey) and Cam Stinson (Mallard Creek, North Carolina), and now sits in the No. 16 spot at 120-pounds.
DeKraker stayed ahead of Rodriguez despite being pinned in the third period, as he was holding a 4-1 lead, and it was more of a defensive fall than a maneuver. In addition, at the Grappler Fall Classic, DeKraker beat Antonio Mills (Stone Mountain, Georgia) 11-3 in the finals. Mills beat Rodriguez, 3-0, in their seventh-place meeting.
Prior to S32, Joseph Antonio (St. John Bosco) was behind Leo Contino (Buchanan) in the 157-pound pecking order but his upset win over Conner Harer (Montgomery, Pennsylvania) in the semis moved him up the ranks. Harer was third with a win over Contino.
Collin Guffey (Granite Hills, California) beat Contino at Doc B last year, plus has a win over Maxximus Martinez (Gilroy), whom Contino lost to.
New Jersey equals California and Pennsylvania with three top dogs in the country, William Henckel (Blair Academy, 165), Paul Kenny (Christian Brothers Academy, 113), and Anthony Knox (St. John Vianney, 120). Their 42 total on the list is the third best in the nation.
Adrian DeJesus (St. Joe Regional, New Jersey) resided in the honorable mention section at 126 as Super 32 started. When it ended, DeJesus was perched on the third spot during the awards presentation, with a huge win over Seth Mendoza (Mt. Carmel, Illinois), 4-3, in the consolation semis. For the bronze, DeJesus, who is now ranked sixth, downed Nikolaus O’Neill (Malvern Prep, Pennsylvania), 1-0.
Quite a few Illinois wrestlers made noise at S32, to go along with Hayes’ run to the finals, Nicholas Garcia (Marmion Academy), Tyler Guerra (St. Charles East), and Will Denny (Marist) provided shocking moments to bring home hardware. While no Illinois grapplers sit atop the rankings, there are 29 total mixed throughout.
Garcia climbed from honorable mention to No. 10 at 113 after placing eighth and registering wins over Dru Ayala (Fort Dodge, Iowa), Davis Motyka (Wyoming Seminary), and Aydan Thomas (Stillwater, Oklahoma).
Guerra moved from No. 23 at 138 to No. 11 after an upset run to seventh place at S32 that included wins over Jack Nelson (Westonka, Minnesota) and Dalton Perry (Central Mountain, Pennsylvania).
Denny gave Vince Bouzakis (Wyoming Seminary) his second recent upset loss, 6-5, on the way to placing sixth at S32. Bouzakis came back to take third. Denny climbed from honorable mention to No. 20 at 150.
Amongst Oklahoma’s 22 total ranked wrestlers is Kody Routledge (Edmond North), Routledge didn’t see his ranking at 150-pounds move at all even with a second-place finish at S32. Routledge’s finals opponent, Kollin Rath (Bethlehem Catholic, Pennsylvania), was the only wrestler ranked higher than him in the bracket.
Routledge’s former in-state rival, Kael Voinovich transferred to Iowa City, Iowa this season, and finished fourth at S32. Voinovich was not able to climb the rankings due to losses he suffered at the Elite 8 Folkstyle Duals to Jason Mara (Meridian, Idaho) and Hunter Sturgill (Baylor School, Tennessee).
New York’s Casper Stewart (Attica-Batavia) won the Grappler Fall Classic, picking up wins over Denny and Sturgill, as well as Bouzakis. Mara beat Sturgill at Elite 8 Folkstyle. Gianni Moldonado (Lake Gibson, Florida) was third at the GFC, beating Denny and Sturgill.
Chris Kiser (Ponca City) was previously No. 1 at 113. We have him at 120 now. Kiser just dropped a 5-2 decision to Isaiah Jones (Bixby) at the Bixby Open in the 126-pound bracket. Since Kiser was at 113 last season and at Fargo this summer, we figure he will settle in at 120.
Wisconsin’s 14 ranked wrestlers contain two number ones, Koy Hopke (Amery, 285) and Aeoden Sinclair (Milton, 190). Angelo Ferrari (Melissa, TX) is No. 1 at 175. New York’s PJ Duke (Minisink Valley) is the supreme one at 150.
The top two wrestlers at 165 suffered defeat at S32 to unexpected foes. Leandro “LJ” Araujo (Bismarck, North Dakota) handed No. 1 Ethan Birden (Dublin Coffman, Ohio) a 2-1 loss in the quarters and went on to defeat Dom Bambinelli (Mill Creek, Georgia) in the finals. Bambinelli shocked No. 2 Alessio Perentin (Delbarton, New Jersey) in the semis, 7-2.
At 190, Harvey Ludington (Brick Memorial, New Jersey) beat Elijah Diakomihalis (Hilton, NY) at the Tyrant Bison Duals and Karson Tomkins (Midlothian, Texas) at the Waterway Duals. At the Waterway Duals, Diakomihalis defeated Tomkins. The perfect chain was disrupted when Tomkins beat Ludington at S32. Given Tomkins’ win is the most recent, we have them as Tomkins>Ludington>Diakomihalis.
Marco Christiansen (Minnetonka, Minnesota), a double All-American at Fargo, suffered two upset losses at S32 that plunged him down the rankings, falling to Matt Kowalski (Springboro, Ohio) and Anthony Lowe (Brunswick, Georgia). Kowalski beat the eighth-place finisher Gunner Henry (Brownsburg, Indiana) early in the championship rounds, and then lost to Henry in their consolation follow-up.
Trevyn Gates (Pleasant Grove, Utah) beat Lane Kiser (Trinity, Kentucky) at the NHSCA Junior Nationals. Noah Weaver (Rossville, Indiana) edged Kiser, 5-4, at S32. Kiser won the Indiana Mat tournament recently with a 10-4 decision over Kowalski in the finals.
Cason Howle (Greenwood, SC) beat Lowe at S32. Silas Dailey (Plymouth, Wisconsin) won an overtime battle with Christiansen at the PNL-Omaha Regional Tournament. That leaves us with Gates>Weaver>Kiser>Kowalski>Howle>Lowe>Dailey>Christiansen.
For now, we are still allowing multiple wrestlers from the same school at the same weight. Once lineups are decided, we will pare it down to one rep per wight, per team.
Questions and information to improve the rankings can be sent here: billybwrestling@yahoo.com.
SBLIVE PRESEASON NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL WRESTLING RANKINGS
UPDATED 11/6/2023
