Recruiting Update (9/5/2024)

Pictured: Oregon State commit Manny Saldate Week one of the college football season kicked off last weekend which is always fun. From a wrestling standpoint, that means that fall visits, oftentimes centered around football games, are off and running. I imagine in the coming days/weeks the verbals will start rolling in as more and more recruits have the opportunity to visit their future home campuses. Before the football boost, there were a handful of nationally-ranked recruits that have made recent commitments. Here are some of the latest. For all the current recruits that have committed, check InterMat’s commitment page. #100 Manny Saldate (SLAM Academy, Nevada) Oregon State continues to reel in recruits from the Class of 2025. At this point, they have four Big Boarder’s and five total commitments. Nevada’s Manny Saldate gives Chris Pendleton’s squad a pair of wrestlers currently ranked in the top-100 nationally. Saldate is a three-time Nevada 5A state champion who is a fixture on the national scene. Over the summer, Saldate placed in both styles in Fargo, at the Junior level, taking eighth in freestyle and third in Greco. With those placements, Saldate has now gotten onto the medal stand five times during his Fargo career. Earlier this year, Saldate also finished in the top-eight in both styles at the UWW U17 Trials. He was a finalist in Greco and seventh in freestyle. It was his first time placing in freestyle after cracking the top-eight in Greco in each of the previous two years. During the 2023-24 high school season, Saldate was third at both the Powerade and the Doc Buchanan Invitational. The first few years of Pendleton’s tenure at Oregon State have produced huge recruiting classes, so Oregon State doesn’t have a pressing need in Saldate’s weight range (133/141); however, more talent across the board is always welcomed. Saldate, along with, #78 Adrian Reyes (Clovis, CA), #118 Koy Davidson (Fort Dodge, IA), and #148 Jeff Lopez (Clovis West, CA) give the Beavers a really strong start to recruiting in the Class of 2025. #140 Max Nevlin (St. Peter’s Prep, New Jersey) A commitment from New Jersey state placewinner, Max Nevlin, gives Campbell a trio of Big Boarder’s amongst their 2025 verbals. Nevlin is a three-time New Jersey state qualifier, who made the podium for the first time in 2024 with a fifth-place finish at the 157 lb weight class. Nevlin also has some national credentials to his name as he was third in 16U freestyle in Fargo in 2022. Later that year, he was fourth at the Beast of the East. Nevlin appears to project at the 174 lb weight class for Scotti Sentes’ team. For the long haul, Campbell doesn’t have an entrenched starter at that weight, though they do have some recruits from the Class of 2024. Nevlin joins #93 EJ Solis (South Dade, FL) and #193 Max Brady (Mariner, FL) as members of Campbell’s Class of 2025. Campbell’s 2024 recruiting class was tabbed by InterMat as the #22 group in the country. #149 Cole Evans (Perrysburg, Ohio) We’ve already touched on West Virginia’s recruiting in previous updates, but we’ll have to do it again as the Mountaineers received a verbal commitment from their fourth Big Boarder of 2025, Cole Evans. Evans is a three-time Ohio state qualifier and two-time champion. As a freshman, Evans won the DI 106 lb bracket by defeating current UVA recruit Adam Butler (St. Edward) in the finals. Evans had a huge jump to 132 lbs in his sophomore year and qualified for the state tournament, but missed out on the podium. That year, Perrysburg had state champions at the two weights below Evans. As a junior and back towards his normal weight, Evans won the 126 lb weight class at the DI classification. On his way to the title, he downed Brown recruit Khimari Manns (St. Edward) in the semifinals and top-200 recruit Phoenix Contos (Waite) in the championship finals. Though Evans doesn’t have any major national credentials just yet, he narrowly missed out on placing at the 2023 Walsh Ironman. Evans advanced to the quarterfinals with a win over Oklahoma recruit Sebastian DeGennaro (Jensen Beach, FL) before losing a one-point match to JJ McComas (Stillwater, OK). In the bloodround he was edged by Navy recruit Andrew Binni (Canon-McMillan, Pennsylvania) in the ultimate tiebreaker rideout. For now, we have Evans in the 133/141 lb range at the collegiate level, though he could grow into 149 lbs. Though there are already Class of 2025 recruits at 133 and 141 lbs for WVU, they are weights of need in the long term. NR Elliott Humphries (Northfield Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts) One of the breakout stars from Fargo has recently given a verbal commitment to Penn. Elliott Humphries went 2-2 and missed the podium for Northfield Mt. Hermon at the 2024 National Prep Championships. A few months later, Humphries made the Fargo Junior freestyle finals at 165 lbs. In the opening round at Fargo, Humphries shocked #30 Jordan Chapman (Cranford, NJ) in a 20-19 barnburner. It was one of three wins over ranked opponents on his way to the raised center mat. Despite not placing at National Preps, Humphries now holds a national ranking of #12 at 165 lbs. Penn’s Class of 2025 already includes five members of the Big Board and a pair of top-100 recruits. The Quakers did not receive a national ranking for their 2024 Class; however, they were ranked in each of the previous three years.

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Recruiting Update (9/5/2024)

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