The latest

edition of the NCWA Individual and Team Rankings have arrived just in time to

be placed under the Christmas tree. For

full rankings click on the following link via Dropbox: NCWA Rankings 12.22.16. There aren’t as many changes at the top of

the weight classes this month as the top guys have established themselves

pretty well heading into the Winter break.

One thing is clear, with five #1 ranked wrestlers, Emmanuel College

(Franklin Springs, GA) is the team to beat this season in the NCWA.

The top-5

remained the same at 125 lbs. Byron

Smith (Jr, Middle Tennessee, 11-3) remains at #1. The #2 ranked wrestler, Timothy Sakow (Jr,

Central Florida, 8-2), protected his home turf winning the UCF Open, #3 Brenden

Hazelton (So, Grand Valley, 15-1) went 4-1 at the Art Kraft Memorial placing 2nd. #4 Anthony DeCesare (Fr, US Air Force Prep,

15-7) continues to perform well in difficult opens going 4-2 at the Bob Smith

Open and 3-1 (2nd) at the Colorado Mesa Open. The biggest mover was Anthony Monahan (Fr,

Apprentice, 6-6) as he moved from #9 to #6 with a strong showing at the Ted

Reese Invite going 3-1 and placing 3rd.

The #1

ranked wrestler at 133 lbs, Darius Bunch (So, Emmanuel, 10-5) went 2-1 at the

Jet Invitational placing 2nd and followed it up with a 1-2 outing at

the Midwest Classic (known as a very difficult national holiday

tournament). #2 De’Ante Evans (So,

Toledo, 6-3) and #3 Dylan Carlile (So, Emmanuel, 3-3) held steady in the

rankings. Justus Griffith (Sr, Central

Florida, 6-1) moved up one spot to #4 with a 1st place finish at the

UCF Open. Apprentice once again had the

biggest mover in the rankings as Shalek Colon (Fr, 10-4 and 5-0 in the NCWA)

went 4-0 to capture the Ted Reese title.

There

were no changes in the top-7 at 141 lbs.

Returning finalist and #1 ranked wrestler Stephen Hale (Sr, Emmanuel,

0-2) made his return to the mat albeit with two tough losses in Oklahoma at the

Jet Invitational. #2 Carlos Garcia (Jr,

Middle Tennessee, 4-1) and #3 Matt Seymour (So, Central Florida, 2-3) were

idle. #7 Zach Vatalare (Sr, Michigan WC,

7-0) stayed undefeated as he looks to become a 4x All-American. Jeff Hayden (So, Towson, 4-0) made his season

debut going 4-0 at the UMBC duals putting him back into the All-American race

at #9 to follow-up his 2016 8###sup/sup### place finish at the weight.

Pre-season

favorite Jeremiah Lutz (Sr, Emmanuel, 8-1) is back on top at 149 lbs. Lutz won the Jet Invitational and placed 2nd at the Midwest Classic re-establishing himself as the one to beat at 149. This is impressive considering the pedigree

of the #2 ranked wrestler, Tyler Megonigal (Fr, Liberty, 5-0) who has not wrestled

since his 1st place finish at the Messiah Invitational. The next 6 wrestlers in the weight class

maintained their position in the rankings.

Parker

Simington (Fr, US Air Force Prep, 22-3) continued his dominance over just about

everyone on the planet with a 5-0 (1st) showing at the Bob Smith

including a technical fall over an Air Force wrestler, a 4-2 decision over

Sheets of Oklahoma State, and a 3-1 sudden-victory win over Robbins of Air

Force. He followed that performance with

another 1st place finish at the Colorado Mesa Open. #2 James Nereim (Fr, South Florida, 5-2) lost

a close decision 4-2 to Milks of UNC-Pembroke in the finals of the UCF

Open. Jay Sheppard (So, Emmanuel, 9-7)

was moved from 149 to 157 as is now ranked #4.

Dylan Dwyer (Fr, Grand Valley, 24-1) has amassed the most wins in the

NCWA so far this season, is 11-0 vs. NCWA opponents, and rightly moved up from

#7 to #5. His only loss this year was in

sudden victory to Keane of Elmhurst College in the 1st round of the Art

Kraft Memorial. #6 Bryson Woody (Fr,

Apprentice, 13-3) followed the trend of his fellow Shipbuilders moving up from

#9 with a 4-1 outing placing 3rd at the Ted Reese. Woody also claimed victories over NCAA-D3

opponents from Baldwin Wallace and York (PA).

Taylor

Workman (Jr, Toledo, 10-2) remains atop of the 165-lb weight class with a 2nd place finish at the Art Kraft losing 11-8 to Eichert of Triton College in the

finals. The top-5 is still rounded out

by #2 Trace Thome (Sr, Florida, 7-2) who went 3-1 placing 3rd at the

UCF Open losing to Sloop of UNC-Pembroke in the 1st round, #3 John

Prentice (Jr, Penn State – DuBois, 6-4), #4 Peter Becher (So, East Carolina,

7-3), and #5 Michael Bryant (Jr, Liberty, 1-1).

The

deepest weight class in the NCWA may have gotten deeper with the recent success

of Malik Settles (Fr, Springfield Tech, 14-3).

Settles who won the Ted Reese moved from #10 to #5 in the rankings and

looks to challenge the former NCWA finalists in #1 Josh Ferenczy (Sr, Liberty,

11-3) and #2 Phillip Marra (Sr, Penn State – New Kensington, 2-2). Five other returning All-Americans fill out

the top-10 with #3 Bailey Bischer (Jr, Grand Valley, 8-2), #4 Shane Brown (Sr,

Akron, 11-1), #6 Clay Kocsis (Sr, Penn State – Mont Alto), #7 Zakery Pitt (Sr,

Emmanuel, 1-2), and #9 George Andrews (So, UConn, 7-2). Sandwiched in there is #8 Costas

Hatzipavlides (Fr, Iowa State WC, 15-6) who continues to amass impressive

victories and moves up from #12.

The champ

is back at 184 lbs. #1 Cody Chaney (Sr,

Emmanuel, 9-1) made an impressive debut with back-to-back finals at the Jet

Invitational (3-0, 1st) and the Midwest Classic (5-1, 2nd)

losing 5-3 to Johnson of Wisconsin-Parkside.

He sandwiched in a tech fall victory over Truett-McConell. #2 River Robertson (Jr, Maine, 6-1) placed 2nd at the Ted Reese losing to Hailer of Johnson & Wales in the finals. #3 Paul Schoenberg (Sr, Penn State WC, 7-1)

jumped over #4 Ron Spera (Jr, James Madison, 3-1) as he went 4-0 placing 1st at the Bob Quade Open. The #5 ranked

wrestler moved up from 174 in George Vanvalen.

He placed 4th at 174 last season and recently placed 4th at the RIT Invite going 4-2.

#1 at 197

lbs, Maveric Rechsteiner (Jr, Emmanuel, 6-4) had a tough road at the Midwest Classic

losing 4-1 to Gomez of Northern State and 12-10 to Archer of Lindenwood-St.

Charles. In between he had a pin over

Perry of Tiffin. #2 Sean Kennedy (So,

Middle Tennessee, 9-1) and #3 Kyler Slade (So, Ohio State WC, 2-2) were

idle. New to the 197 lb rankings is #4

Diallo Matsimela (So, Henry Ford, 9-0) who was most recently ranked #7 at 285

lbs. Robert LaPeter (So, Florida State,

12-2) made the biggest jump moving to #7 from #12 with a 1st place

finish at the UCF Open.

The

235-lb weight class saw another shuffle as the returning champion for Mott CC

re-enrolled in school, this year at cross-state rival Henry Ford College. William Vincent (Jr, 0-0) looks to make

history by winning back-to-back titles for 2 different traditional NCWA institutions. Brenden Murphy is the only NCWA wrestler to win titles for 2 different programs doing so for Southern Illinois - Edwardsville (133 lbs, 2012) and McKendree (133 lbs, 2013) both while the programs were in NCAA transition stages. Following Vincent are #2 Stevan Webb (Jr, UConn,

7-1) whose only loss is to the 2nd ranked wrestler at 285, #3 Sett

Brennock (Jr, Ohio State WC, 3-2), #4 Rickey Carter (Sr, Florida A&M, 0-0)

and #5 Jeff Henderson (So, Henry Ford, 8-5).

The only question is whether Henderson will make the move to 285 to give

HFC more depth in the duals lineup.

The top-6

at 285 lbs are the same 6 wrestlers; however, #2 Donavan Lozada (Jr,

Springfield Tech, 13-0) made the jump from #4 with yet another tournament win

at the Ted Reese. #1 Jesse Gaudin (Jr,

Central Florida, 5-2), #3 Dylan Stadel (Jr, Utah State, 6-3), and #4 Austin

Wells (Jr, Middle Tennessee, 5-3) are the clear favorites at 285 with no real

sign of dominance between the four Juniors at this time in the season.

There was

some movement in the Division 1 team rankings with #2 Middle Tennessee jumping

over MAC rival #3 Liberty. Central

Florida is tied with the Flames at #3.

Rounding out the top-10 are #5 Grand Valley State, #6 Apprentice who

jumped #7 US Air Force Prep, #8 Henry Ford (who made the biggest jump from #19

with the addition of Vincent at 235 lbs), #9 Springfield Tech (up from #13),

and #10 South Florida. But clearly, the

team to beat is current #1 Emmanuel College outdistancing the #2 team by 25

points, which is the equivalent of 3 to 4 additional All-Americans.

The NCWA

D-2 standings are still led by #1 Toledo followed by in-state rivals #2 Akron

and #3 Ohio State WC. The top-6 is

separated by 6 pts with #4 James Madison and Penn State WC followed by #6 Iowa

State WC.

The next

rankings are expected to be released just before the 2017 NCWA National Duals,

which are hosted by Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA. For more information on the National Duals,

visit NCWA National Duals