InterMat's 2025 Recruiting Class Rankings: Part One (#13-25)

Recruiting class rankings are always unique in their own sort of way. This year, the number one spot seemed to be locked up early; however, a furious push from the second-place team ensued. Third was pretty easy to determine, but after that, there were a lot of teams that could make a case for the remainder of the top ten. Then, as you made your way down to the 25 spot, there were a handful of teams that could’ve made a case for their inclusion. 

Some of it came down to how you value quantity over quality. As you peruse the rankings, you’ll see plenty of classes that had both. 

Recruiting rankings mark the end of the respective class and put a bow on the hard work of coaching staffs around the nation. The question you ask is, how are these rankings tabulated? First, we have used the big board rankings courtesy of our sister-site MatScouts. Willie Saylor has taken the arduous task of projecting the top-250 wrestlers in the Class of 2025, making calculating these rankings slightly easier.

Some of the factors that are taken into account when putting these rankings together include:

- Numbers: Where were the signees ranked? How many top-ten, top-50, top-100, top-250, etc., does a school have?

- Fit: After years of following these programs and their coaching staffs, does a particular recruit fit the "type" of kid that has success at their respective team. Or maybe a style of wrestling.

- Filling a need: In years past, I have weighed this very heavily. Signing two highly ranked 184 lb prospects doesn't appear to fit a need when you have a stud sophomore returning at the same weight. 

- Impact on a program: This is subjective, but tends to favor teams that aren't consistent NCAA trophy contenders. If Iowa or Penn State sign the #80 overall recruit and he turns out to AA twice, taking seventh and eighth for them, it has a particular impact. But if Brown or Wyoming sign the same prospect and he has the same career, it will have a much more significant impact on those two programs. Both Brown and Wyoming may have benefitted from this criteria in 2025.

So, with that out of the way, enjoy the first half of InterMat's 2025 Team Recruiting Rankings. 13-25. 1-12 will be posted tomorrow. 

25. Iowa State

Top Recruits: #14 Christian Castillo (Ames, IA), #107 Carter Pearson (Southeast Polk, IA), #139 TJ Koester (Bettendorf, IA), NR Jacob Helgeson (Johnston, IA)

Not every class has to have 10 incoming freshmen and eight Big Boarders. It’s difficult to pull off and maybe even more so with roster limits looming. All of that to say, Iowa State doesn’t have a huge class, but that’s not a bad thing. The Cyclones have had some very strong classes of late. That combined with some key transfers doesn’t leave them with many holes. Actually, they’ll have some interesting roster decisions. 

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