Iowa Wrestling Rankings and Other Notes: Hawks at No. 2

I’m going to kick off a weekly post combining the major rankings between Flowrestling, Trackwrestling, Intermat, and Wrestlestat. It’ll be fun keeping track of this throughout the year and see how we’re trending.

In terms of individual rankings for my other posts, I will be using Wrestlestat. They are as close to a baseball reference website as we’re going to get for wrestling. Plus, they list wrestlers from all rosters, so we can see how backups compare to starters.

For team rankings, I will be using Trackwrestling. They use a baseline system of placement and advancement points and leave potential bonus points out of the equation. So if everyone wrestles to their ranking/seed, the points are what we get.

So without further ado, here we go.

INDIVIDUAL:

*indicates overall ranking per class

For the most part, everything has stayed the same for the rankings from our season preview.

Austin DeSanto has dropped to #3 on Wrestlestat because Northwestern’s 125lbers #2 Sebastian Rivera has wrestled at 133 for their first two duals. Whether or not he’s staying up there has yet to be seen. They both sit behind #1 Seth Gross (Wisc).

Pat Lugo has also made small gains in a couple of the rankings after Sammy Sasso (OSU) got tossed and stuck over the weekend. He was previously #1 on wrestlestat.

Cash Wilcke didn’t go in our opening dual, though he did compete and win the Luther Open in dominating fashion, he holds firmly at 184. However, Nelson Brands burst onto the scene after dropping Matthew Waddell (UTC). He debuts at #18 in the overall 184 index.

Jacob Warner was less than impressive to open the season, but he actually climbs up to #3 on Intermat thanks to former #3, Kyle Conel (PSU) dropping an unexpected match over the weekend. Conel was an early season finalist contender, but has really struggled thus far.

Despite opening up his Carver-Hawkeye debut with a win, Tony Cassioppi remains at #12. If he keeps sticking his opponents and racking up the wins, he’ll climb in a hurry.

TEAM:

If you have yet to fully realize how close of a team race this truly is, now is the time. As mentioned, Trackwrestling only uses placement and advancement points, which as follows:

1st - 16 placement + 4 advancement = 20 points

2nd - 12 placement + 4 advancement = 16 points

3rd - 10 placement + 3.5 advancement = 13.5 points

4th - 9 placement + 3.5 advancement = 12.5 points

5th - 7 placement + 3 advancement = 10 points

6th - 6 placement + 3 advancement = 9 points

7th - 4 placement + 2.5 advancement = 6.5 points

8th - 3 placement + 2.5 advancement = 5.5 points

9-12th - 2 advancement = 2.0 points

13-16th - 1.5 advancement = 1.5 points

Both Iowa and PSU have some serious lineup questions, so with different guys stepping in and out, we could flip and flop with them on a regular basis throughout the year.

Outside of the top two, there isn’t a team within 50 points. We knew Ohio State was going to be on a down swing this year, but they still have some hammers in their lineup. However, they dropped an unexpected dual to Virginia Tech, 21-15. With that loss, Nebraska jumps ahead of them and finds themselves inside the top three for perhaps the first time in years.

All three state of Iowa teams: Iowa, Iowa State, and Northern Iowa, appear in the top 10.

UNI stumbled against Northwestern, losing 24-20 and ISU beat Bucknell, 24-15.

The only other team worth noting that’s completely absent from the top 10 is Missouri. After an 0-2 start to their season, they’re in trouble. They’re usually a medal contender come March, but right now they’re doing everything they can to keep afloat.

Editor’s note: