Fantasy College Wrestling - 2024 Season Top-20 (285 lbs)

The data has been processed, the charts have been reviewed, and the evaluations are complete. The 2024 breakdown of the Top Fantasy Wrestlers of the 2024 season is here to help you start your 2025 season research.  

Just like in the past few years, some names are going to be expected, while a lot more may not be. That's the beauty of Fantasy Wrestling, where any wrestler can be the star of the weekend and win the dual for you.

To compile these lists, we used standard WrestleStat Fantasy College Wrestling Data & Scoring. Just a reminder of how points were tallied in WrestleStat leagues:

1) The scoring used was standard team scoring across all competitions (+3 for a win by decision, -4 for a loss by major, etc)

2) Scoring only counted against D1 competition

3) Wins via forfeits (FFT) would count as +6 towards a wrestler's point total

4) Wins or losses by medical forfeit (MFF) did not count as + or - towards a wrestler's point total

5) Points were only accumulated during the regular season
 

285 Top-20

Notes:

Your #1 Overall Fantasy Wrestler for the 2024 season resides in the heaviest of weights. Taye Ghadiali put together the best Fantasy Wrestling performance in five seasons, amassing 136 Fpts in “only” 32 countable matches. How great of a season was it? That's for the next article.

For the second year in a row, Wyatt Hendrickson finds himself as the #2 Fantasy Wrestler at heavyweight, but unlike the 2023 season he came up juuuust short of breaking the 100 Fpt mark. He had reached the century mark in 2023 and in 2022, but in 2024 he was one match short. Well, more specifically one takedown short. He won 9-3 against Taye Ghadiali and won 9-4 against Devon Dawson (NDSU). One takedown more in either of these matches, he’s at 100 Fpts even.

Two wrestlers next meet in the 80’s, one an All-American and the other falling just short. Zach Elam finished 3rd by putting together a strong head start at the beginning of the season. Seven of his first 12 matches were won by pin (only two took over one minute), and three by techs. The second half of his regular season was filed with decisions and one loss, which was to #4 Yonger Bastida, who was five Fpts behind Elam.

The next four spots, #5 through #8, are all within a match outcome in finding themselves in a different order.

Nathan Taylor makes his way back into the Top-20 (Top-10, actually) after being absent from the 2023 season ranks. He was #9 in 2022 and ended up at #5 in 2024. Right behind Taylor is Nick Feldman who was out with injury for his True Freshman season. Feldman put in an impressive campaign, but with three of his four losses being by bonus (two majors and one injury for a total of -14).

Wrestling in the most matches of any competitor in the 285 Top-20, Michigan State’s Josh Terrill competed in 38 regular season bouts. In his first 27 matches, he lost six times. In his last 11 matches, he lost seven of them (-27 Fpts). Despite the record, he finishes at #11.

Jamir Ferere is the highest ranked non-starter to make the lost, outlasting redshirt true freshman Jim Mullen by one Fpt. One other non-starter, Austin Kohlhofer, also makes the Top-20 at #18.

Rounding out the heavyweight Top-20 is your reigning national champion Greg Kerkvliet. Only wrestling in 12 matches, it's the second lowest by any 2024 NCAA Champion (outdone by 174 Carter Starocci’s 11 matches). Only three of his 12 matches were by decision, which accounts for his weight class best PPM of 4.3

Who Missed The Cut:

There were two All-Americans who did not end up making the Top-20, with Yaraslau Slavikouski (RUT) being close with just 45 Fpts and Cohlton Schultz (ASU) being a bit farther away with 27 Fpts (in only eight regular season matches).

NC State’s Owen Trephan and Rider’s David Szuba both tied Kerkvliet with 51 Fpts, but fell just outside the Top-20 as the first men out due to PPM (Trephan with 4.6 and Szuba with 1.9.)

Other notables to not make the top-20 include Lewis Fernandes (COR) with 47 Fpts, Hogan Swenski (OHST) with 41 Fpts, Hunter Catka (VT) with 38 Fpts, Trevor Tinker (CP) and Bradley Hill (IOWA) each with 35 Fpts.