IL pretty close to the Mighty pa

[Caveira]

Pretty pretty close.    Behind in d1?   Needed to win big in d2 to have more AAs
 

 

[11986]

22 minutes ago, Caveira said:

Pretty pretty close.    Behind in d1?   Needed to win big in d2 to have more AAs
 

 

PA with only 6 D1 AAs has to be a pretty down year for them historically, right? 

California not being on there jumps out as well.

and Virginia is not on there. sigh....

[flyingcement]

12 minutes ago, 11986 said:

PA with only 6 D1 AAs has to be a pretty down year for them historically, right? 

California not being on there jumps out as well.

and Virginia is not on there. sigh....

this was just the top of the list, so while they may not be on the top, they are likely still somewhere down there on the list

but most definitely a down year for PA - although I don't have the supporting numbers on hand

Edited yesterday at 11:00 PM by flyingcement

[11986]

27 minutes ago, flyingcement said:

this was just the top of the list, so while they may not be on the top, they are likely still somewhere down there on the list

but most definitely a down year for PA - although I don't have the supporting numbers on hand

thanks for confirming my recall that this is not a great PA year. and yeah, that's what I meant, not seeing California in top 15ish is a little surprising.  and for my home state, a certain amount of the more casual fan base thinks we're not PA or OH or NJ but pretty competitive otherwise. Nope not there at this point, and if anything, losing ground to states like NC and GA in our general vicinity. 

[flyingcement]

Just now, 11986 said:

thanks for confirming my recall that this is not a great PA year. and yeah, that's what I meant, not seeing California in top 15ish is a little surprising.  and for my home state, a certain amount of the more casual fan base thinks we're not PA or OH or NJ but pretty competitive otherwise. Nope not there at this point, and if anything, losing ground to states like NC and GA in our general vicinity. 

I remember some tough schools when we went down to Virginia duals.  Great Bridge, Cox, Grundy, Hickory, Christiansburg, Herndon, et al. Are those schools not as strong as they used to be?

[Idaho]

In a somewhat related note,  Monmouth NJ trying to get to D1. 

 

https://outlook.monmouth.edu/2025/04/wrestling-for-more-monmouths-club-team-pushes-for-d1-status/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJ3rSdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFwdnZPc2dHcnBqRGRjVGxtAR7FBufxVM8VXuPzSbojWdWUf3iqjbl5f7ChkeDQDEKrzsg_dTZWm-DXyxRftg_aem_GrCtYlVu8uojwRW101vscA

[11986]

9 minutes ago, flyingcement said:

I remember some tough schools when we went down to Virginia duals.  Great Bridge, Cox, Grundy, Hickory, Christiansburg, Herndon, et al. Are those schools not as strong as they used to be?

for all my commentary on this subject, I don't follow HS results like I did 10+ years ago, but here goes. GB, Cox, Grundy, CBurg all still big time within the state but down nationally. This is not the GB of Frishkorn bros, Michael Martin, Staylors, Bond, Siordes, Chris Brown era.  

Having 6 divisions plus private schools having their own vs 3 and privates years back is part of it. Not knocking the kids, but not too many have to get through a hammer or more to win a state title....

part of my surprise with VA too though was thought D3 might carry us here. Lots of programs in recent years added and doing pretty well an I think with decent level of in state kids. But we don't have D2 that I know of or NAIA so maybe that is part of it when total numbers get added up. 

[ionel]

Now weight it by state population.  

[Jason Bryant]

this was just the top of the list, so while they may not be on the top, they are likely still somewhere down there on the list
but most definitely a down year for PA - although I don't have the supporting numbers on hand

I didn’t want to put 40+ states of text on a social graphic, so I went with approx the top 15 (with ties)

[11986]

4 minutes ago, ionel said:

Now weight it by state population.  

still doesn't help Virginia lol

[Caveira]

35 minutes ago, Jason Bryant said:

I didn’t want to put 40+ states of text on a social graphic, so I went with approx the top 15 (with ties)

General kudos to @Jason Bryant for all you do for the sport sir.  

[dragit]

2 hours ago, Caveira said:

Pretty pretty close.    Behind in d1?   Needed to win big in d2 to have more AAs
 

 

Combine this news with the Illini strong results at B1G and to a little lesser extent NCAAs.  Like Penn State before 2010, and tOSU to an extent around the same time, Illinois and Rutgers have been sleeping giants who could be monsters if they could keep their guys home.  Rutgers doesn’t seem to have it in them but Poeta may be doing something in Champaign that could make that happen.

[BAC]

6 AAs in D1 is more than a down year for PA.  It's easily their all-time worst over the last several decades.  It's rare for PA to dip below 10, and I can't a recall a time they had fewer than 9.

To be sure, some of the counting is a bit suspect.  (Lilledahl I get, but Bartlett? Usually, spending all 4 years of high school at a given state makes you "from" that state for counting purposes.)

But mostly it is just bad luck.  PA lost a bunch of guys in the blood round. They also had a bunch of hammers redshirting/injured (e.g. Arrington, Welsh, Crookham, Watters), not to mention Sasso getting shot. They only lose Starocci, so I expect they'll be back in double digits next year.

[flyingcement]

2 minutes ago, BAC said:

6 AAs in D1 is more than a down year for PA.  It's easily their all-time worst over the last several decades.  It's rare for PA to dip below 10, and I can't a recall a time they had fewer than 9.

To be sure, some of the counting is a bit suspect.  (Lilledahl I get, but Bartlett? Usually, spending all 4 years of high school at a given state makes you "from" that state for counting purposes.)

But mostly it is just bad luck.  PA lost a bunch of guys in the blood round. They also had a bunch of hammers redshirting/injured (e.g. Arrington, Welsh, Crookham, Watters), not to mention Sasso getting shot. They only lose Starocci, so I expect they'll be back in double digits next year.

Coming from someone who has produced this info a couple times in the past, I always struggled with finding ample information to make my own determination of where someone should be from.  It feels easier to accept their submitted "hometown" even if they have different ways of how they may characterize that.  

 

Thank you @Jason Bryant for this breakdown. 

[Fletcher]

12 hours ago, ionel said:

Now weight it by state population.  

PA and IL are surprisingly close in population

[Fletcher]

IL high school wrestling is always underrated year after year.

[jchapman]

Pennsylvania:  King of D2

[Jason Bryant]

I take what the athlete lists as their hometown on their school bio. I can also do “by high school state” … that could sway more to PA (Sem) and NJ (Blair) given they are boarding schools that have a lot of out-of-state students.

HS state is trickier in the cases where wrestlers transfer across state lines - i’ve typically used the last place they wrestled (non-PG) as the high school.

I don’t do per capita, because it assumes every person in highly populated states have the same access to the sport as they do in places like Iowa. If I were to compare this to a state’s population, it would be to NFHS participation numbers - the prospective college wrestlers, in my estimation, come from who is wrestling in high school, not a general population count.

[Boring]

Could someone post a link to the actual article please?

[bnwtwg]

1 hour ago, Fletcher said:

IL high school wrestling is always underrated year after year.

Winning the Fargo crown year after year is never enough. How many IL guys are already in the senior greco finals this weekend btw? 4 out of 10 finalists ain't too shabby of a start

55 Jayden Raney

60 Zane "I already made the senior freestyle team" Richards

63 Ellis Coleman

77 Kamal Bey

 

[ionel]

1 hour ago, Fletcher said:

PA and IL are surprisingly close in population

IL & Pa have more than 3x the population of say OK.

[No BS Fan]

28 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

Winning the Fargo crown year after year is never enough. How many IL guys are already in the senior greco finals this weekend btw? 4 out of 10 finalists ain't too shabby of a start

55 Jayden Raney

60 Zane "I already made the senior freestyle team" Richards

63 Ellis Coleman

77 Kamal Bey

 

Pretty sure Raney is from Kentucky

[bnwtwg]

1 minute ago, No BS Fan said:

Pretty sure Raney is from Kentucky

They are Illinois trained courtesy of former Illini Brooks Black

[JVStateChamp]

26 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

They are Illinois trained courtesy of former Illini Brooks Black

I would say if both twins wrestled in the Kentucky state tournament 2 months ago then they would probably be considered from Kentucky. Regardless 3 of 10 is still very impressive.

[Boring]

33 minutes ago, bnwtwg said:

They are Illinois trained courtesy of former Illini Brooks Black

Brooks Black is the textbook definition of a guy who never lived up to expectations in college. Remember all the hype about him coming out of HS?