NCAA DI Rankings

Lots of movement here as Marcus Blaze was moved to 141 lbs as he is expected to move up while Masanosuke Ono is expected to move in at this weight for Penn State. We’ll see about Ono once he takes the mat. Blaze’s removal coupled with losses from Jacob Van Dee and Markel Baker make for a bunch of guys moving up in the rankings. Three true freshmen appear for the first time, Moses Mendoza, Keanu Dillard, and Joe Uhorchuk. Mendoza beat Baker and previously ranked Andrew Austin at the MSU Open. Dillard defeated Jackson Blum and has had two weeks of solid results. 

It’s no surprise but we have a new #1 at 141 lbs after Bo Bassett defeated Luke Stanich. Bassett also went on to dominate at the Journeymen Collegiate Classic. Big Ten finalist and NCAA fourth-place finisher Blaze slides in at #3. We’ll have to see how the Minnesota 141 lb situation develops as Vombaur and freshman Tyler Dekraker both competed at that weight on Sunday. 

We also removed Vince Cornella since we’re aware he will not compete during the first semester.

The top half of the rankings were largely untouched, but Tom Crook gets into the #16 spot after a win over Lucas Kapusta. He did lose to Lehigh’s Kelvin Griffin, but for now, we’re still going with Jayden Scott as Lehigh’s starter.

There were lots of changes in the second tier of contenders at 157 lbs. Jackson Arrington moves into the top eight after bonusing his way through the Journeyman and a major over Kai Owen. Owen defeated Rozynski, who beat Gaj, who beat Jaxon Joy. It was actually less convoluted than I thought it might be before sitting down to do the rankings. Paniro Johnson moves up because of a clean resume and a good track record. We didn’t want to continue elevating Daniel Zepeda just yet, as he has a limited resume and is still working his way back from an injury. Charlie Millard jumps a spot after beating Cael Swensen - someone who had beaten him head to head last season.

One of the best showings of the weekend belongs to Cam Catrabone, who defeated previous #2 Nicco Ruiz, along with Ladarion Lockett and Kody Routledge. Neither is ranked as Oklahoma State’s starter, but each would be pretty high, if so. He gets a good bump from eight to four. 

A bunch of wrestlers at this weight moved up as Bryce Hepner was removed from the rankings. He will be unavailable for the first semester and re-instered once he competes. 

We’ll see how the Nebraska situation unfolds. LJ Araujo was injured at U23’s and Meyer Shapiro made his Nebraska debut on Sunday at this weight. Initially, Shapiro planned to sit out the 2026-27 season. 

Mac Church was re-inserted as Virginia Tech’s guy at this weight. He got his second tournament win of the young season, and Noah Nininger is expected to miss some time.

The biggest result at this weight was Colin Kelly defeating Simon Ruiz, who was previously ranked #6 at this weight. Kelly moves up, as does Ryan Burton, who beat Kelly during week one. On the bottom half of the rankings, Ethan Riddle gets a good bump after beating Drake Rhodes.

Since Michael White got the dual start a week after a head to head win over Bennett Berge, White was the Oklahoma State wrestler considered for the rankings. He makes his first appearance at #11. Mikey Dellagatta gets a push up to #12 after three ranked wins at the Journeymen (most notably one over Chris Moore). While Tomas Brooker lost to Dellagatta, he got two ranked wins himself (Dailey/Curtis) and moves up. Ian Bush beat Brooker last week and goes up, as well.

In back-to-back weights, we have Cornell with a freshman who impressed. This time it’s Jude Correa who majored ACC champion Sonny Sasso. Dillon Bechtold moves up slightly after a win at the MSU Open, while Thomas Dineen makes his first rankings appearance after wins over Devin Wasley and Gavin Nelson.

For now we’re sticking with Konner Doucet. He was unavailable during week one and Dreshaun Ross got the dual start against Drexel. Ross responded with a top 20 win and looked very impressive. We’d rather not remove a #1 until we have more information on the situation. 

The big result at this weight was Brady Colbert’s win over Braxton Amos last night. Otherwise, there we’re too many crazy results up and down this bracket.

Cornell and North Carolina both dropped significantly after removing wrestlers ranked in All-American slots (Cornella/Hepner). Cornell also had Joy/Ruiz drop from All-American slots. I’m sure as both respond and their young wrestlers get more mat time, they’ll jump into a position we’re more accustomed to seeing. 

Pittsburgh has one of their most complete teams in a few years, they have some starpower at the back end of their lineup and that pushed them into the tournament rankings for the first time this year. 

With TK Davis up at #6, Gardner-Webb cracks the top 30!

There were barely any changes from a week ago. Michigan get a slight boost as their freshmen appear to be as good as advertised and they might be a much more formidable dual opponent than initially thought.