Re-Ranking Recruits from the Class of 2020

One of the longstanding traditions at InterMat is the re-ranking of high school recruiting classes five years after the wrestlers enrolled in college. During normal circumstances, this would encompass nearly all of the wrestlers in the high school Class of 2020. But we still aren’t in a typical stretch of wrestling seasons. Due to the extra year of eligibility for wrestlers active in 2021, due to COVID, about half of the wrestlers in this recruiting class have another year of eligibility remaining, should they choose to use it. With another season’s worth of accomplishments, there could be some more shuffling on this list if it were revisited a year from now. 

When it comes down to it, this isn’t quite as strong of a group as other classes before it. Only two wrestlers have captured national titles from this group and only four have made an NCAA final. Last year, we noted how four wrestlers from the Class of 2019 with national titles was a bit of a low number. That figure looks much better now as three wrestlers from that group won their first titles in 2025 - so this is a number that could change in the future. Overall, we have 24 wrestlers from the Class of 2020 that have already earned All-American honors. Again, that number is lower than in past seasons - the Class of 2019 had 31 at this time, a year ago. 

Looking at the top group from the Class of 2020 - it’s a bit of an outlier from recent years. As we’ve gotten access to more information and video, there have been fewer wrestlers in the top ten that didn’t go on to superstar status, compared to ten or 15 years ago. Four wrestlers from the top ten have not yet earned All-American honors (a few are still active). 

As we tried to sort through careers, it was rather easy to figure out who should earn the number one ranking in 2024. Keegan O’Toole was the only multiple-time champion from this class and the sole five-time All-American - never finishing lower than third. 

Since he has multiple years of eligibility remaining and a national title already under his belt, AJ Ferrari gets the second slot over Beau Bartlett. If we revise this in the future, there’s a chance that Ferrari could have an argument over O’Toole for the top spot. As of now, Bartlett has more NCAA placements than Ferrari, but AJ has the title and a record with only two losses. 

In turn, Bartlett gets the number three spot over Dustin Plott because of his number of high NCAA finishes and multiple NCAA #2 seeds. 

So, let’s get down to it! Below are the top 50 wrestlers from the Class of 2020, re-ranked after considering their collegiate accomplishments. They are listed along with the schools they attended, along with their original high school class ranking via Willie Saylor’s MatScouts site. 

After the top 50 is a list of the top 50 from 2019. On that list, wrestlers are noted by the schools they initially signed with.

1. Keegan O’Toole (Hartland, WI) - Missouri (High School Rank: #5)

2x NCAA Champion, 5x All-American (2,3,1,1,3), 4x Big 12 Champion

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