InterMat Staff

University

Southeast Polk

Wheeling Park

Middleton

Deptford

Wauseon

North Summit via Northeasten JC

Richmond-Burton

Pitman

Antioch

Wauseon

Brother Rice

It’s May and we’re getting close to the end of the high school year. Graduations will come soon and the Class of 2025 will be moving on to college. At the DI level, some schools are trying to fill out their Class of 2025 recruiting, but most have moved on to the Class of 2026. Because of the current landscape of recruiting, a lot of the top current juniors/rising seniors are already off the board. 42 of the top 50 wrestlers from the Class of 2026 have already given verbal commitments. So, who are the biggest names left on the board for 2026? We have the answer to that question along with some information about each - along with any sort of current recruiting insight we have obtained. #6 Jayden Raney (Union County, Kentucky): #2 at 132 lbs #7 Jordyn Raney (Union County, Kentucky): #1 at 138 lbs The Raney’s appear to be a package deal and are easily the most coveted Class of 2026 recruits still on the market. I would expect their landing spot to have some sort of built-in Greco-Roman infrastructure as both twins have won U17 world championships and Jayden has secured a spot on the 2025 Senior World Team at 55 kg. The pair have combined to win four UWW U17 national titles and five in Fargo. Illinois and Iowa have had the most buzz surrounding these two. They have visited both campuses along with Nebraska and Oklahoma State. Should the Raney’s pick Illinois it would be a huge coup as the other three choices are perennially among the top recruiting schools in the country. #23 Coby Merrill (JW North, California): #2 at 285 lbs The last time we saw Coby Merrill in action he finished fifth at the U20 Open in freestyle. Merrill was able to get a 9-0 win over the opponent who finished third (Koy Hopke/Minnesota). Earlier this year, Merrill ran the table and went undefeated to be the first California state champion for his high school. With an older brother (Cody) as a freshman at Oklahoma State, it’s easy to assume that Coby would be a shoo-in for the Cowboys. I don’t think that’ll be the case. During the fall, Merrill took visits to Cornell, Princeton, and Stanford. With those types of options, Coby might opt for a school that is Ivy or Ivy adjacent. #28 JayDen Williams (Roseville, Michigan): #2 at 165 lbs Of the top-30 type recruits, JayDen Williams does not get the hype that many others get. Williams is a three-time Michigan finalist and a champion for the first time in 2025. Last summer, he was a 16U freestyle runner-up in Fargo. In the preseason, he’s made the finals of the last two Grappler Fall Classic’s. Earlier this week, Williams posted a graphic on Instagram that includes his offers thus far. They come from: Arizona State, Chattanooga, Central Michigan, Harvard, Indiana, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, Morgan State, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Princeton, and West Virginia. That’s a wide array of potential suitors. During the preseason, Williams took a visit to Michigan if you can read anything into that. #46 Jon Rulo (Belleville East, Illinois): #7 at 285 lbs Another big man on this list, Jon Rulo, is someone we might lose to football. Rulo was a first-team All-State honoree this year and has received interest from Big Ten schools on the gridiron. Who knows, we have seen a few big men try to mix both of late. On the mat, Rulo won an Illinois 3A state title in 2025 - after taking third the previous year. Last summer, in Fargo, Rulo was a double 16U national champion. As of now, we’re not aware of any visits or anything wrestling-wise associated with Rulo. The following three wrestlers will probably drop a bit - perhaps out of the top 50 during the next Big Board update. They are currently uncommitted and still among the best rising seniors without a collegiate home as of yet. #36 Lincoln Sledzianowski (St. John Neumann, Florida) Lincoln Sledzianowski started his high school career at Bishop McCort but moved back to his native Florida and captured a 1A state title at 132 lbs in 2025. Sledzianowski is not currently ranked, but is a past Greco world team member and has earned All-American honors in Fargo on two occasions. #41 Walker Turley (St. Christopher’s, Virginia) An NHSCA Freshman National title helped Walker Turley get noticed and a spot on the Big Board, initially. Turley has made the All-American stand at the National Prep Championships in each of his first three years of high school. He was eighth as a freshman and third in the two years that followed. Turley is the younger brother of Rutgers All-American Jackson Turley. I’d expect Rutgers to be in the mix for the younger Turley, among others. #43 Denari Mickell (Erie McDowell, Pennsylvania) Denari Mickell was an Iowa state runner-up in each of his first two years of high school. He moved to Pennsylvania and competed for Erie McDowell, but didn’t finish the 2024-25 season due to injuries and has been sidelined for a few months now. Before his injury, Mickell was consistently ranked in the top 15 via MatScouts. Right now, we don’t have any hints on possible landing spots for Mickell or even when he might return to the mat.

We are now more than one month past the final whistle of the 2025 NCAA Championships, which I think has been enough time to recover from the festivities and digest the events and experiences Philadelphia had to offer. So, in this quick article, I’ll give my thoughts and critiques of this year’s host city based on a few usual criteria: Hotels Even though you might spend a couple hours awake in one, you still need somewhere to put your bags. With the amount of people coming into the host city, hotels (and ones within a reasonable budget) can disappear fast. Air Fare/Travel - To and From Being that the tourney was happening on my home mat, I didn't have to fly out of the beautiful PHL. Still had to get into the city though…. Food and Drink The fuel to keep you going all day and night. Walkability Getting around to and from the venue as well as getting to restaurants, attractions, and stores when not watching wrestling. Wrestling Venue Seats, Food, and WiFi signal. The holy trinity of a venue. On to the evaluation: Hotels: Maybe because it’s Pennsylvania, but once the calendar opened up to start booking it seemed like every hotel jumped up their prices per night by 75%.As will be talked about in another part of this evaluation, Philly is set up differently than most other sports cities. The sports complexes sit way south with really nowhere to stay except for the oddest-looking Holiday Inn you could ever imagine. Live! Casino is also a short walk away from the stadiums, but those prices jumped to ridiculous rates (something like $750+/night for a standard room) as well. I was lucky to find the Cambria Hotel near City Hall for about $200/night on average (a Choice Hotel property). Good hotel with, a nice bed and pillows, a very nice stay. “B+.” The room itself was better than the one I had in Kansas City a year prior. Lots of hotels to choose from, but unless you got in early they weren't necessarily budget-friendly. Airfare/Travel For me, I live about 40 min outside the city (30 depending on traffic and if no cops are on Rt 95). I got a ride into Philly and got a ride out from Philly. Very low cost for me. I am interested to hear from others and their experience flying to one of America's top airports (annually rated as one of the worst airports in America) For me, Travel was an “A+”, but I'm going to assume for others it was more of a “C”. Food and Drink If you attended NCAAs in 2011, the last time Philadelphia hosted, you might remember there being basically nothing outside the stadium for food and refreshments.. Well, now there's Xfinity Live! and Live! Casino…. And a Chickie’s and Pete’s if you’re ok with walking 15 minutes. But other than that, still basically nothing. If you were willing to brave the packed bars in Xfinity or at the Casino, good on you. For others looking to savor all the culinary treats Philly had to offer, there were plenty of options for any palate. Even though it was a 10-15 min rideshare or subway ride back to center city, it was close enough to find a place, sit and eat, and get back in time for the next session. From the Reading Terminal Market, the tourist traps that are Geno’s and Pat’s, or for the real ones who knew better and went to Angelo’s and/or John’s Roast Pork, to those who hit up one of the many bars splattered around the city. No one should have gone hungry this year. On top of the number of options, unlike in the Midwest, things stayed open until at least 2am… like a normal functioning city does. We don't operate like Detroit where bars close at 10pm on St. Patrick’s Day weekend. Put me down for an “A-”. Philadelphia had a cuisine and budget for everyone, but the (-) hit comes with location. A city gets a big bump from me when there's food and drink readily available outside the venue, whereas in Philly it requires a short trip from the stadiums (costing money with rideshare or subway) to get to the wide array that was available. Walkability Going hand-in-hand with the Food review above, you could basically copy-paste it. Even with the Hotel section comes into play. It wasn’t terrible, and if your goal was to drink and get something to fill your belly (like a $20 Super Pretzel), then Xfinity Live was your place and you could walk there quicker than saying “I can’t believe Gable Steveson lost that match.” But if you wanted to hit the best bars, restaurants, and other notable food/attractions spots (which would probably be most of you), then at least four times a day you had to get some sort of transportation. The subway was a close walk to the arena, rideshares were easy to get, and if you had in-and-out privileges with your hotel’s valet or garage, you could also get free parking at the Casino (a slightly longer walk, but still not bad). I can't speak for the coaches and athletes, but I would assume they may not have liked the accessibility. I’ll give walkability a “B” even with needing to take some sort of costly transportation. Wrestling Venue This is always a little difficult to judge. There were seats in an arena that pointed to the floor where eight mats were rolled out. We as fans are very simple creatures when it comes to the wants and needs of a wrestling venue. That said, Wells Fargo Center seemed to provide a very good experience when it came to entering through security checks and exiting from the end of a session. Even on Saturday night with the President in attendance, security checks seemed to go quickly and smoothly. As for the food and drink selection, it was varied… and expensive ($20ish for a domestic pounder). Pizza, shack burger, cheesesteaks, ice cream, and all the other usual suspects marked up 2-3X normal pricing. WiFi signal is also an important feature to have for the fans, and unlike last year where phones checking Trackwrestling or Twitter were lagging hard, the Wells Fargo Center had very little if any issues with connectivity. As previously noted, Philly has its sports stadiums away from the heart of the city, which was one downside. Overall though, it did the job. Venue I will give an “A.” No complaints from me. ***************** Maybe it's hometown bias, but I thought Philly was a great host city. Aside from the location of the arena to hotels, there were bars, restaurants, and entertainment available throughout the whole day and nights when you were not occupied by watching wrestling. Hopefully, it doesn't take another 15ish years before Philly hosts again.

Clovis North

Teurlings Catholic

Avon

Toms River East

Grand Rapids

Council Rock North

Brunswick

Earlier today, we reported on the move by Dylan Fishback to transfer back to his home state and the Ohio State Buckeyes. With another piece of the puzzle in place, it seems like a good time to check out a potential lineup for the Buckeyes in 2025-26. In past years, Ohio State hasn’t hit the transfer portal as hard as some of their fellow college wrestling superpowers. That changes in 2025 with the addition of an All-American and two others that have been close to that status. Those new faces, combined with existing talent, potential weight changes, and freshmen off redshirt have the Buckeyes in position to contend for an NCAA team trophy. Ohio State tied for fifth place in 2025 and, surprisingly, has only earned one NCAA team trophy in the last five tournaments. Could this be the lineup that propels Tom Ryan’s team back into the trophy mix and keeps them there? Let’s find out: 125: Nic Bouzakis/Brendan McCrone/Vinny Kilkeary Yes, I was surprised when I heard that Nic Bouzakis to 125 lbs could be a possibility for the Buckeyes in 2025-26. We’ve got about six months until the first competition, so we’ll see if this ends up materializing into “a thing” rather than a rumor. Bouzakis has been one of the more unpredictable wrestlers in DI during his two years of official competition. At both the 2023 CKLV and the 2025 Big Ten Championships, Bouzakis lost in the opening round of the tournament and then wrestled back for third. In 2024-25, Bouzakis scored wins over four eventual All-Americans and downed four other past All-Americans. If he can make the weight, and do so on a consistent basis, he could be an interesting addition to the weight, nationally. Of course, outside of Bouzakis, the Buckeyes have the two-headed monster of Brendan McCrone and Vinny Kilkeary. Kilkeary came in as the more heralded of the two, but McCrone has been able to wrestle away the reins for the starting role in both seasons. While McCrone pinned super freshman Luke Lilledahl in dual competition, he hasn’t been able to consistently beat those typical All-American-caliber opponents. That being said, he is probably a solid bet to return to the NCAA Tournament. Kilkeary only appeared in two events last year, but did post a win over NCAA qualifier Spencer Moore. 133: Ben Davino The Buckeyes have a potential star-in-the-making at 133 lbs with Ben Davino who redshirted during his first year in Columbus in 2024-25. Despite being a true freshman, Davino made his presence felt immediately with a win over Bouzakis at the Clarion Open. He would end up winning 19 of his 20 bouts and eight of those victories came against national qualifiers. Davino recently finished fourth at the US Open against Senior-level competition. He scored wins over Nico Megaludis, Daton Fix, and Austin DeSanto. The wrestling community has fallen victim to overvaluing freestyle wins by collegiate wrestlers; however, Davino has passed every hurdle presented to him and doesn’t appear to be a freestyle specialist. There will be plenty of veteran talent atop the 133 lb weight class, so maybe some tempered expectations might be in order; however, I’d expect Davino to compete with those top contenders by the time March of 2026 rolls around. Of course, we could also see Bouzakis back at this weight and an interesting wrestle-off situation. 141: Jesse Mendez Jesse Mendez will attempt to become only the third three-time national champion in Ohio State history - joining Logan Stieber and Kyle Snyder. Mendez was one of the centerpieces of the Buckeyes top-ranked recruiting Class of 2022 and, to date, he’s been the best of the bunch. Never redshirting, Mendez was sixth at 133 lbs, as a true freshman, and then reeled off back-to-back NCAA titles at 141 lbs. In order to complete his title trifecta, Mendez might have to go through his 2025 finals opponent, Brock Hardy, multiple times. 149: Ethan Stiles The biggest offseason acquisition for the Buckeyes has been Ethan Stiles who earned All-American honors as a freshman for Oregon State. He finished sixth in this weight class despite starting the year off the radar and up at 157 lbs. Stiles’ addition helps mitigate the loss of two-time All-American Dylan D’Emilio, the Buckeyes previous starter at this weight. D’Emilio actually defeated Stiles at the NCAA Tournament, 7-3. Buckeye fans have to be happy for the long-term prospects of their new addition at 149 lbs. Stiles will have three years of eligibility remaining. A lot of transfer portal activity has involved graduate students seeking to use their final year of eligibility - Stiles should be able to shore up the middle of this lineup for the foreseeable future. 157: Brandon Cannon/Cody Chittum One of the positive developments for the Buckeyes in 2024-25 was the emergence of Brandon Cannon at 157 lbs. Cannon only saw action in six duals before the postseason, but that didn’t prevent him from advancing to the finals of the Big Ten Championships as a redshirt freshman. Cannon ended up receiving the fifth seed at his first NCAA Tournament and made the bloodround before his elimination. Cannon’s bid to become an All-American was halted by Northern Colorado’s Vinny Zerban, 11-6. Ohio State does have options at this weight as Cody Chittum was the first wrestler to join the Buckeyes via the portal this offseason. Chittum was a 2024 Big 12 champion and has twice qualified for the NCAA Tournament. In his most recent trip, Chittum went 2-2 and missed the NCAA podium. Chittum is available to redshirt during the 2024-25 campaign. That could provide some flexibility as he might move up to 165 lbs in the future. But, if needed immediately, Chittum is a great insurance policy. 165: Paddy Gallagher/e’Than Birden Will this be the year that Paddy Gallagher finally gets to key in on one weight and stays there for the entire season and postseason? Gallagher has been the team player in the past and moved in between 157 and 165 based on the needs of the team. He made the NCAA tournament last season and went 0-2 at 165 lbs, but only after spending the first two months at 157 lbs. Gallagher is now a two-time national qualifier but has yet to find the NCAA podium. With a full offseason to prepare for the 165 lb weight class, this could be his time. Of course, Ohio State also has a promising redshirt freshman in e’Than Birden. During his redshirt season, Birden went 9-6 for the Buckeyes. His most notable win came over Illinois’ redshirt freshman Braedon Scoles who was the 11th seed at nationals and lost in the bloodround. 174: Carson Kharchla We just got word last week that Carson Kharchla has another year of eligibility. Without him in the projections, this looked like a huge hole for the Buckeyes or, at least, a place where they might need to do some lineup shuffling. Kharchla’s 2024-25 got off to a late start as he made his debut in late-December, but appeared to be as good as ever by winning his first 11 bouts. Kharchla stumbled a bit down the stretch and finished fourth in the B1G and went 0-2 at nationals. The disclaimer regarding Kharchla has always been “if/when healthy.” When he is healthy, Kharchla has shown he could be a high podium threat but has battled multiple ailments throughout his collegiate career. 184: Dylan Fishback We wrote earlier today about Fishback’s decision to transfer to Ohio State. The local kid who was deemed the #6 overall recruit in the Class of 2022 is coming back home. He’s hoping that a change of scenery and some new training partners might help him get over the hump and onto the NCAA podium. Fishback has finished in the bloodround in both of his trips to the NCAA podium. Before Fishback’s announcement, 184 lbs wasn’t seen as a pressing need due to the presence of two-time national qualifier Ryder Rogotzke. Rogotzke had a bit of an up-and-down sophomore year as he finished 10-11 and went 0-2 in Philly. Rogotzke has long been known as someone who can end a match in an instant, but also put himself in danger. He does have a redshirt available, so Fishback could go this year and let Rogotzke simmer and grow for a year. The odds are one of the two will need to go up to 197 lbs in 2026-27. 197: Seth Shumate/Luke Geog Last season marked the first time that Seth Shumate has been a starter for Ohio State over an extended period of time. Shumate had a strong NCAA debut going 2-2 at his first national tournament and downing a returning All-America (Isaiah Salazar) in the process. His only two losses at nationals came to the eventual champion (Stephen Buchanan) and to the eventual sixth-place finisher (Stephen Little). Ohio State also has two-time national qualifier Luke Geog in the mix. Geog started the year with an 8-2 record and was injured in Vegas and never resurfaced. With 197 lbs clearing out significantly, whoever Ohio State sends out should be a podium threat. 285: Nick Feldman The lynchpin of the much-ballyhooed Class of 2022 was top recruit Nick Feldman. Feldman made the B1G finals and the NCAA podium as a redshirt freshman. Feldman dealt with injuries in 2024-25 and wasn’t quite as sharp as during his freshman campaign. He wound up finishing fifth in the Big Ten and lost in the bloodround in Philly. Like 197 lbs, heavyweight has cleared out significantly with the top three finishers all having exhausted their eligibility - along with six of the top seven. Despite the slight step back in 2024-25, if healthy Feldman should factor into the NCAA title hunt at heavyweight.

On Sunday evening, Ohio State received word that one of their home state’s best recent products was coming home to wrestle for the Buckeyes. Two-time NCAA qualifier Dylan Fishback announced yesterday that he intends to transfer from NC State to Ohio State. Fishback redshirted during his initial campaign in Raleigh and then jumped right into the NC State starting lineup at 184 lbs. He has finished as an ACC runner-up in both years of competition. Fishback also has been a match shy of All-American honors in both seasons, as well. His 2024-25 campaign came to an end with a 4-0 loss to Nebraska’s Silas Allred in the bloodround. For the year, Fishback went 16-8 with wins over past All-Americans and conference rivals - Gavin Kane (North Carolina) and TJ Stewart (Virginia Tech). His two-year mark for NC State was 36-17. With Fishback in the fold, the Ohio State staff could redshirt returning 184 lb starter Ryder Rogotzke and one of them could move up to 197 lbs in the 2026-27 season. In years past, Ohio State hasn’t been as aggressive in the transfer portal as other national powers; however, that’s changed in the offseason of 2025. Tom Ryan’s team has added All-American Ethan Stiles at 149, and 2024 Big 12 champion Cody Chittum at 157 lbs before getting Fishback. Barring head coaching changes, the portal has closed down for the offseason. There are still some notable names that can take as long as they need to announce a transfer destination - just no others can enter.

Sussex Central

Shawsheen Tech