2023 NCAA champion Vito Arujau (photo courtesy of Tony DiMarco)Earlier this week, InterMat released its re-ranking for the high school Class of 2018. With recruiting on the mind, we decided to jump in and look at each individual weight class for the 2023 NCAA DI Championships.
As is customary in wrestling we'll start with the lower weights and work our way up.
This analysis will break down the 2023 NCAA qualifiers a weight class at a time, by their pre-collegiate ranking within their recruiting class, their year of high school graduation, transfers, home states, and, of course, rankings for the 2023 All-Americans.
We've made our way to the 133 lb weight class. 133 is an interesting study because you'll see that there were plenty of wrestlers that were off-the-radar that emerged once they got to college. That being said, the All-Americans were generally highly sought after recruits. Also, maybe what is a sign of things to come in the future, almost a third of this weight class transferred at least once in their collegiate careers.
For past weights in this series:
125 lbs
2023 NCAA Qualifiers (133) by Recruiting Rankings
#1-#10
#2 (2017) Daton Fix (Oklahoma State)
#4 (2017) Vito Arujau (Cornell)
#4 (2022) Jesse Mendez (Ohio State)
#11-#30
#12 (2018) Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)
#15 (2016) Taylor LaMont (Utah Valley)
#16 (2016) Micky Phillippi (Pittsburgh)
#16 (2021) Wyatt Henson (Oklahoma)
#18 (2019) Lucas Byrd (Illinois)
#19 (2019) Michael Colaiocco (Penn)
#31-#50
#34 (2018) Brody Teske (Iowa)
#41 (2019) Sam Latona (Virginia Tech)
#49 (2019) Kai Orine (NC State)
#51-#100
#51 (2019) Connor McGonagle (Lehigh)
#54 (2020) Zach Redding (Iowa State)
#66 (2019) Brayden Palmer (Chattanooga)
#68 (2020) Dylan Ragusin (Michigan)
#74 (2017) Connor Brown (Missouri)
#75 (2020) Kurtis Phipps (Bucknell)
#77 (2020) Aaron Nagao (Minnesota)
#91 (2019) Chris Cannon (Northwestern)
#99 (2017) Michael McGee (Arizona State)
#101-#200
#154 (2021) Brendan Ferretti (Navy)
#201+
#292 (2021) Gable Strickland (Lock Haven)
(Not Ranked by Willie Saylor/Matscouts; Ranked by The Open Mat)
#86 (2018) Kyle Biscoglia (Northern Iowa)
Not Ranked
Joe Heilmann (Rutgers) - 2018
Jack Maida (American) - 2021
McGwire Midkiff (North Dakota State) - 2017
Ethan Oakley (Appalachian State) - 2020
Cody Phippen (Air Force) - 2018
Chance Rich (CSU Bakersfield) - 2018
Angelo Rini (Columbia) - 2019
Ethan Rotondo (Cal Poly) - 2017
Jason Shaner (Oregon State) - 2018
Dom Zaccone (Campbell) - 2019
2023 NCAA Qualifier (133 lbs) by Recruiting Class
2016
Taylor LaMont (Wisconsin)
Micky Phillippi (Pittsburgh)
2017
Vito Arujau (Cornell)
Connor Brown (Missouri)
Daton Fix (Oklahoma State)
Michael McGee (Arizona State)
McGwire Midkiff (North Dakota State)
Ethan Rotondo (Cal Poly)
2018
Kyle Biscoglia (Northern Iowa)
Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)
Joe Heilmann (Rutgers)
Cody Phippen (Air Force)
Chance Rich (CSU Bakersfield)
Jason Shaner (Oregon State)
Brody Teske (Iowa)
2019
Lucas Byrd (Illinois)
Chris Cannon (Northwestern)
Michael Colaiocco (Penn)
Sam Latona (Virginia Tech)
Connor McGonagle (Lehigh)
Kai Orine (NC State)
Brayden Palmer (Chattanooga)
Angelo Rini (Columbia)
Dom Zaccone (Campbell)
2020
Aaron Nagao (Minnesota)
Ethan Oakley (Appalachian State)
Kurtis Phipps (Bucknell)
Dylan Ragusin (Michigan)
Zach Redding (Iowa State)
2021
Brendan Ferretti (Navy)
Wyatt Henson (Oklahoma)
Jack Maida (American)
Gable Strickland (Lock Haven)
2022
Jesse Mendez (Ohio State)
Home States for the 133 lb NCAA Qualifiers
Alabama
Sam Latona (Virginia Tech)
Arizona
Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State)
California
Aaron Nagao (Minnesota)
Chance Rich (CSU Bakersfield)
Illinois
Michael McGee (Arizona State)
Dylan Ragusin (Michigan)
Dom Zaccone (Campbell)
Indiana
Jesse Mendez (Ohio State)
Iowa
Kyle Biscoglia (Northern Iowa)
McGwire Midkiff (North Dakota State)
Brody Teske (Iowa)
Michigan
Brendan Ferretti (Navy)
Missouri
Connor Brown (Missouri)
Cody Phippen (Air Force)
Kai Orine (NC State)
New Hampshire
Connor McGonagle (Lehigh)
New Jersey
Chris Cannon (Northwestern)
Michael Colaiocco (Penn)
Joe Heilmann (Rutgers)
Jack Maida (American)
New York
Vito Arujau (Cornell)
Zach Redding (Iowa State)
North Carolina
Ethan Oakley (Appalachian State)
Ohio
Lucas Byrd (Illinois)
Angelo Rini (Columbia)
Oklahoma
Daton Fix (Oklahoma State)
Oregon
Jason Shaner (Oregon State)
Pennsylvania
Wyatt Henson (Oklahoma)
Kurtis Phipps (Bucknell)
Micky Phillippi (Pittsburgh)
Gable Strickland (Lock Haven)
Tennessee
Brayden Palmer (Chattanooga)
Utah
Taylor LaMont (Wisconsin)
Washington
Ethan Rotondo (Cal Poly)
133 lb NCAA Qualifiers Signed by Another School
Connor Brown (South Dakota State)
Joe Heilmann (North Carolina)
Wyatt Henson (Iowa)
Taylor LaMont (Utah Valley)
Michael McGee (Old Dominion)
Brayden Palmer (Clarion)
Micky Phillippi (Virginia)
Ethan Rotondo (Wisconsin)
Brody Teske (Penn State)
Dom Zaccone (Illinois)
Recruiting Rankings for 2023 All-Americans
1st: Vito Arujau (Cornell) - #4 in 2017
2nd: Roman Bravo-Young (Penn State) - #12 in 2018
3rd: Michael McGee (Arizona State) - #99 in 2017
4th: Daton Fix (Oklahoma State) - #2 in 2017
5th: Aaron Nagao (Minnesota) - #77 in 2020
6th: Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) - #4 in 2022
7th: Sam Latona (Virginia Tech) - #41 in 2019
8th: Kai Orine (NC State) - #49 in 2019
