Which State is the Best?

[Jason Bryant]

Looks like Jason Bryant agrees with my approach. 

 
 

Not sure if you were the original one who suggested this, but that’s exactly the rationale I used and why I posted it. To me, that’s the most fair way.

[JWC]

Every parent (regardless of sport) should see this.  Little Jimmy isn't elite.  

[Yugdab]

On 3/21/2026 at 5:55 PM, cowcards said:

Ever wonder what place a team of the best finishers from each state at each weight would finish at the national tournament?

Clink the link and have some fun. 

I'll have the 2026 results in their later tonight after the finals.

Gooo Minnesota! 

[Yugdab]

On 3/21/2026 at 8:29 PM, red viking said:

Best state per capita is the true measure. I think IA and OK are near the top. Im not too impressed when a,state has a lot of great wrestlers, if it's only because they have a bigger population. 

Nah, total HS participants would be a more accurate thing. But this is a great measure of overall strength 

[lu_alum]

11 hours ago, Jason Bryant said:

Not sure if you were the original one who suggested this, but that’s exactly the rationale I used and why I posted it. To me, that’s the most fair way.

@Jason Bryant Not sure if I was the first, but I crunched similar numbers back when you used to monitor the predecessor to this forum.

[AnklePicker]

No California on that list.  How many AAs did CA have?

[Bacanator]

2 hours ago, AnklePicker said:

No California on that list.  How many AAs did CA have?

Looks like 5 based off of the calculator 

[lu_alum]

3 hours ago, AnklePicker said:

No California on that list.  How many AAs did CA have?

Flo lists CA as having nine AAs.

https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/15685422-by-the-numbers-the-2026-ncaa-wrestling-championships

[cowcards]

32 minutes ago, lu_alum said:

Flo lists CA as having nine AAs.

https://www.flowrestling.org/articles/15685422-by-the-numbers-the-2026-ncaa-wrestling-championships

I've got 9 too. If you go to stats --> state it will list the AA's by state. Along with some other nice stats.

[cowcards]

1 hour ago, elijedi06 said:

Looks like 5 based off of the calculator 

The calculator only does highest point scorer at each weight. If multiple guys were AAs at 149, only the top scoring one will show. 

[Jim L]

On 3/24/2026 at 12:51 AM, lu_alum said:

Looks like Jason Bryant agrees with my approach. 

 

 

Any ranking that has Mass in the top ten is questionable. I am a former Mass wrestler who still casually follows what the Mass HS kids do at the next level. There are too few AAs per state to make anything other than the top 3 or 4 states results meaningful.

[Jason Bryant]

It’s just numbers.

[bnwtwg]

Hey this is a random question but does anyone know what the highest team score is for a team that had zero national champions? Totally not digging for anything in particular, no agenda whatsoever, no copium

[lu_alum]

3 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

Hey this is a random question but does anyone know what the highest team score is for a team that had zero national champions? Totally not digging for anything in particular, no agenda whatsoever, no copium

The Golden Goofers won a team title with no champs. 138.5 points is a pretty high bar.

[bnwtwg]

2 minutes ago, lu_alum said:

The Golden Goofers won a team title with no champs. 138.5 points is a pretty high bar.

[lu_alum]

Just now, bnwtwg said:

Lucky timing. I just logged into the forum. It helps that I've downloaded all of the brackets on Jay Hammond's (The Historian) site before he passed away. What a great guy. I had the fortune of sitting next to him during the 2006 EIWA tourney. That was the final year for the Letters-Cooperman-Zinck-Frick foursome.

[Show_Me]

Great stuff !

My only question would be : why is “hometown” prioritized over “High School”when determining the State ?

Case in point : 285 Trevor Tinker is shown as Missouri although he never wrestled HS in MO (wrestled exclusively in California).  Using HS over hometown would be a more valid approach in my opinion.

[cowcards]

20 minutes ago, Show_Me said:

Great stuff !

My only question would be : why is “hometown” prioritized over “High School”when determining the State ?

Case in point : 285 Trevor Tinker is shown as Missouri although he never wrestled HS in MO (wrestled exclusively in California).  Using HS over hometown would be a more valid approach in my opinion.

Because the hometown is where the wrestlers themselves say they are from. I'm going to default to them on determination of home state. Attending a HS isn't limited to where you are from. You can go virtually anywhere you want.

Also, what happens when you have guys at different HS state. Look at Lilledahl. Should he be considered PA because he spent more time in HS there?

Edited April 6 by cowcards

[Show_Me]

24 minutes ago, cowcards said:

Also, what happens when you have guys at different HS state. Look at Lilledahl. Should he be considered PA because he spent more time in HS there?

I didn’t specifically mention Lilledahl as he wrestled his HS freshman season in Missouri (CBC) before going to PA to wrestle at Wyoming Seminary.  He could be either MO or PA in my opinion.  The listed hometown would then be a good tie breaker in that multi-HS-State situation.

Lilledahl’s situation is completely different from Tinker … who’s family moved from MO to CA in 2018 & never wrestled HS in MO. To me, it’s just makes sense to classify him as CA.

Anyway, I enjoyed what you put together.

Edited April 6 by Show_Me

[cowcards]

57 minutes ago, Show_Me said:

I didn’t specifically mention Lilledahl as he wrestled his HS freshman season in Missouri (CBC) before going to PA to wrestle at Wyoming Seminary.  He could be either MO or PA in my opinion.  The listed hometown would then be a good tie breaker in that multi-HS-State situation.

Lilledahl’s situation is completely different from Tinker … who’s family moved from MO to CA in 2018 & never wrestled HS in MO. To me, it’s just makes sense to classify him as CA.

Anyway, I enjoyed what you put together.

I mentioned Lilledahl as an issue with using HS as the determining factor. It opens up more arguments for which to use. He started in MO but spent more years in PA. 

I wouldn't have a problem if people classified Tinker as Cali either, but how do I know that he moved and isn't just out there for school and coming back every summer or break? Or that something happened and he is living with a relative for a little bit? It opens up too many scenarios to do cleanly. 

Hometown is clean and easy and what the wrestler says their state is. 

[ionel]

3 hours ago, cowcards said:

Because the hometown is where the wrestlers themselves say they are from. I'm going to default to them on determination of home state. Attending a HS isn't limited to where you are from. You can go virtually anywhere you want.

Also, what happens when you have guys at different HS state. Look at Lilledahl. Should he be considered PA because he spent more time in HS there?

But what do you do with guys who win "states" which one counts?  

[cangemi]

On 3/21/2026 at 6:55 PM, cowcards said:

Ever wonder what place a team of the best finishers from each state at each weight would finish at the national tournament?

Clink the link and have some fun. 

I'll have the 2026 results in their later tonight after the finals.

Really cool

[MPhillips]

Just now, ionel said:

what do you do with guys who win "states"

Depends what states show up...

[ionel]

5 minutes ago, MPhillips said:

Depends what states show up...

[cowcards]

15 minutes ago, ionel said:

But what do you do with guys who win "states" which one counts?  

I'll allow these guys to call it states

https://www.hhsdawgs.com/sport/wrestling/boys/#

(They are an OR school that won the WA state champ this year)