Yianni Diakomihalis at 2022 NCAA semifinals (photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanicki.com)To steal the line from last year's FCW Top-20 Articles, everyone knows 125 Pat Glory, 133 Roman Bravo-Young, 174 Carter Starocci, 184 Aaron Brooks, and 285 Gable Steveson are bonus point monsters, and this season they totaled 283 Fpts. Top names and all NCAA Champions or Finalists (Nick Suriano did not make the Top-20).
But here's five names that totaled 328 Fpts: 125 Caleb Smith (APP), 133 Joshua Koderhandt (NAVY), 174 Logan Messer (GMU), 184 Jonathan Loew (COR), and 285 Ben Goldin (PENN). This group only has one All-American (Loew finishing 8th).
And as I say every year, that's the beauty and frustration of Fantasy Sports. Sometimes your top performers are not "household names."
So, with that, let's take a look at this past season's Top-20 at each weight to help give you an early start to win each week this coming year.
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
Notes:
The only wrestler to finish as Champion AND be #1 in Fantasy Points at their weight was Yianni Diakomihalis this season. Despite starting late and the roller coaster soap opera of “what weight will he go,†Yianni strung together nine matches totaling 51 Fpts. The other ten wins of his regular season only totaled 37 Fpts.
Even with three losses in the regular season totaling -13 Fpts, Josh Finesilver finds himself as the second highest ever (in the last three seasons) Blue Devil to grace the Fantasy College Wrestling ranks. Who was better? More on that later (hint hint, nudge nudge).
In the past three seasons, there have been two constant wrestlers who have been in the top seven in Fpts at this weight. In fact, this season for John Millner and Sammy Sasso, who finished 6th and 7th respectively, it was their “worst†outing from a rankings perspective. In 2021 they finished 3rd and 4th, in 2020 they finished 4th and 5th. It's like they were tied to the hip or something.
A few recent transfers made the Top-20 with Austin Gomez taking the #9 spot and Brent Moore at #11, separated by only one Fpt. Gomez wrestled nine matches fewer than Moore in the regular season.
Two non-starters finished in the Top-20 in Matthew Williams and Kaya Sement, both wrestling about the same number of D1 matches, but with Williams having 11 more Fpts when all was said and done.
The lowest regular season match total for the 149 class was from Tariq Wilson who only wrestled 13 matches (winning them all). He did not participate in any tournament and only had three matches won by bonus, but was good enough to squeak into the Top-20.
Seven of the eight All-Americans at 149 made the Top-20.
Who Missed The Cut:
The only All-American to not make the Top-20 was Bryce Andonian (VT), who only had nine regular season matches. Of those nine matches, four were won by pin (that's good). But, of those nine matches, had two losses (that's bad… from a Fantasy perspective). Essentially, the two losses negated one of his regular-season pins, ultimately landing Andonian as #34 with 28 Fpts.
Unlike other weights, the difference in Fpts between #20 and #21 was much wider than just a point or two. Luka Wick (CP) finished at #21 in the rankings, but five Fpts behind #20 Degen (32 Fpts total). To Wick's credit, he only had 13 regular season matches with only eight of those matches being against D1 competition and counting. Shame though, the five matches that “didn't count†were all won by Pin too.
In fact, four wrestlers tied with 32 Fpts: Luka Wick, Chance Lamer (MICH), Max Brignola (LEH), and John Acreri (BUFF).
Tying for points and only separated by 0.3 PPM, PJ Ogunsanya (ARMY) and Anthony Artalona (PENN). Both had their opportunities to move up in the rankings with Ogunsanya losing by Injury to end the season (-6 towards his point total) and Artalona starting a month late plus three losses in the regular season (two losses by major).
Other notables to miss the cut include Anthony White (RUT) at #29 with 30 Fpts, Willie McDougald (OU) at #31 with 29 Fpts, Jaden Abas (STAN) at #36 with 26 Fpts, Josh Heil (CAMP) at #40 with 24 Fpts, Beau Bartlett (PSU) at #44 with 22 Fpts, and Michael Blockhus (MINN) at #53 with 17 Fpts.
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