Leaderboard

Two weeks ago marked the release of our recruiting class rankings and last week we followed those up with five schools that earned honorable mentions. So, we’re all finished with the Class of 2023 recruiting? Not quite. We’ve drilled down a bit and looked further into each conference for more recruiting information. With some of the traditional superpowers consistently atop national recruiting rankings, this will be a way for more schools to get recognized for their recruiting efforts. We’re saving the best for last as we look into the Big Ten, a conference that accounted for nine of the top-25 schools in InterMat’s Class of 2023 recruiting rankings. Before getting to the Big Ten, here are links to the conferences already covered: ACC Big 12 EIWA MAC Pac-12 SoCon Big Ten on the 2023 Big Board Illinois: #10 Kannon Webster (Washington, IL), #30 Braeden Scoles (Kewaskum, WI), #60 Will Baysinger (Prospect, IL), #113 Chris Moore (McHenry, IL), #179 Logan Swaw (Lockport, IL) Indiana: #59 Sam Goin (Crown Point, IN), #151 Bryce Lowery (Roncalli, IN), #165 Cheaney Schoeff (Avon, IN) Iowa: #6 Ben Kueter (City High, IA), #19 Gable Arnold (City High, IA), #26 Ryder Block (Waverly-Shell Rock, IA), #64 Kale Peterson (West Fork, IA) Maryland: #25 Dario Lemus (Clovis, CA) Michigan: #7 Beau Mantanona (Palm Desert, CA), #11 Sergio Lemley (Mt. Carmel, IL), #14 Joel Adams (Millard South, NE), #16 Dylan Gilcher (Detroit CC, MI), #38 Caden Horwath (Davison, MI), #51 Hayden Walters (Crescent Valley, OR) Michigan State: #98 Luke Vanadia (Brecksville, OH), #121 Remy Cotton (Davison, MI), #129 Max Vanadia (Brecksville, OH), #163 Dy’Vaire Van Dyke (Walsh Jesuit, OH) Minnesota: #15 Max McEnelly (Waconia, MN), #20 Gavin Nelson (Simley, MN), #145 Ethan Riddle (Germantown, WI), #180 Brandon Morvari (Simley, MN) Nebraska: #41 Ethan Stiles (Conant, IL), #44 Camden McDanel (Teays Valley, OH), #52 Weston Dalton (Pueblo East, CO), #66 Alan Koehler (Prior Lake, MN), #79 Kael Lauridsen (Bennington, NE), #94 Christopher Minto (Mariner, FL), #114 Matthew Moore (Mesa Ridge, CO) Northwestern: #58 Sam Cartella (Hudson, OH), #97 Jake Bostelman (Ponderosa, CO), #191 Dedrick Navarro (Nampa, ID) Ohio State: #3 Rocco Welsh (Waynesburg, PA), #22 Ryder Rogotzke (Stillwater, MN), #33 Vinny Kilkeary (Greater Latrobe, PA), #35 Brandon Cannon (Ponderosa, CO), #53 Brock Herman (Brecksville, OH) Penn State: #4 Josh Barr (Davison, MI), #9 Tyler Kasak (Doylestown, PA), #46 Braeden Davis (Dundee, MI), #93 Cael Nasdeo (Williamsport, PA), #175 Brendan Wentzel (Montoursville, PA) Purdue: #17 Joey Blaze (Perrysburg, OH), #29 Greyson Clark (Kaukauna, WI), #118 Orlando Cruz (Crown Point, IN), #177 Ashton Jackson (Portage, IN) Wisconsin: #31 Zan Fugitt (Nixa, MO), #82 Lucas Condon (Poway, CA), #115 Dylan Russo (Olentangy Liberty, OH), #126 Julian George (Christian Brothers, NJ) The Big Ten is a conference that stands alone from the other six DI leagues. Nowhere is that more evident than in recruiting. While most other conferences saw some sort of drop from 2022 to 2023 in recruiting Big Boarder’s the Big Ten rose…significantly. In 2022, 40 of the top 250 high schoolers chose one of the 14 schools in the Big Ten. This year 55 of the top 200 chose the B1G! With NIL becoming more widespread, I’d guess that this number only increases going forward. Not only did the Big Ten dominate on sheer numbers, their member schools signed an incredible amount of top-end talent. 13 of the top 20 recruits in the Class of 2023 chose Big Ten schools. Just under half of the top-50 (24) signed with a Big Ten school. 12 different schools signed at least one recruit in the top-60 nationally. Top Transfers Indiana: Danny Fongaro (via Columbia) Iowa: Michael Caliendo (via North Dakota State), Jared Franek (via North Dakota State), Victor Voinovich (via Oklahoma State) Maryland: Seth Nevills (via Penn State) Michigan: Chris Cannon (via Northwestern), Lucas Davison (via Northwestern), Michael DeAugustino (via Northwestern), Shane Griffith (via Stanford) Nebraska: Owen Pentz (via North Dakota State), Caleb Smith (via Appalachian State) Penn State: Mitchell Mesenbrink (via California Baptist), Aaron Nagao (via Minnesota), Bernie Truax (via Cal Poly) Purdue: Joey Milano (via NC State), Marcos Polanco (via Minnesota), James Rowley (via Wisconsin) Rutgers: Jacob Butler (via Oklahoma), Mitch Moore (via Oklahoma), Yaraslau Slavikouski (via Harvard) Wisconsin: Max Maylor (via Michigan), Luke Mechler (via Oklahoma State) Another “sign of the times” is the amount and quality of wrestlers that went through the transfer portal during the spring/summer of 2023. The Big Ten would have been excellent, one way or another; however, the transfer portal saw the conference add four wrestlers that earned All-American honors in 2023 with schools from other conferences. Additionally, four more wrestlers shifted from one Big Ten school to another. Again, with NIL and more rules favoring student-athletes, this number could increase as we go forward. At the same time, one explanation for the incredible number of transfers within the last year or two has been the extra year of eligibility for wrestlers active in 2021. This has led to wrestlers graduating and looking for other academic opportunities not available at their original schools. Under-the-Radar Signees Illinois: Peter Marinopoulos (Marist, IL) Indiana: Joey Buttler (Whiteland Community, IN) Iowa: Koye Grebel (Valley City, SD) Maryland: Clayton Gabrielson (St. Mary’s Ryken, MD) Michigan: Amann Gulacha (Hillfield Strathallen, Ontario) Michigan State: Jaden Crumpler (Niagara Falls, NY) Minnesota: Rhett Koenig (Prairie du Chien, WI) Nebraska: Tanner Frothinger (Eagle, ID) Northwestern: Dirk Morley (Regis Jesuit, CO) Ohio State: Stephen O’Neil (Seton Hall Prep, NJ) Penn State: AJ Fricchione (Bergen Catholic, NJ) Purdue: Cole Solomey (Kankakee Valley, IN) Rutgers: Max Hermes (Milan Edison, OH) Wisconsin: Simon Kruse (St. Clair/Mankato Loyola, MN) As a reminder, this category features wrestlers non on the Big Board (Top 200 in 2023). For most conferences, it’s easy to identify recruits that fit into this category. For the Big Ten, you can have some “under-the-radar” recruits that fall into the top 150-200 range. Even so, we’re going for the totally unranked angle. Big Ten Recruiting Rankings 1. Michigan (2nd nationally) 2. Penn State (3rd nationally) 3. Ohio State (5th nationally) 4. Iowa (6th nationally) 5. Nebraska (7th nationally) 6. Illinois (11th nationally) 7. Purdue (13th nationally) 8. Minnesota (14th nationally) 9. Wisconsin (25th nationally) For more information on each, check out InterMat’s Recruiting Rankings 10. Indiana/Northwestern (Honorable Mention) For more information on these two, check out InterMat’s Recruiting Honorable Mentions Past National Recruiting Rankings (2021-22) Iowa: 2022 (11th), 2021 (4th) Maryland: 2021 (8th) Minnesota: 2022 (HM), 2021 (7th) Nebraska: 2022 (8th), 2021 (13th) Northwestern: 2021 (10th) Ohio State: 2022 (1st), 2021 (9th) Penn State: 2021 (1st) Purdue: 2021 (20th) Rutgers: 2022 (12th), 2021 (17th) Wisconsin: 2022 (14th), 2021 (14th)