NCAA 184lb Rankings

Willie Saylor on October 16, 2012, 6:00am | More Posts

Rank	Year	Name	School	Last
1	JR	Ed Ruth	Penn State	1
2	SR	Robert Hamlin	Lehigh	3
3	SR	Steve Bosak	Cornell	4
4	SR	Ben Bennett	Central Michigan	2
5	JR	Jimmy Sheptock	Maryland	6
6	JR	Ryan Loder	Northern Iowa	8
7	JR	Ethen Lofthouse	Iowa	12
8	JR	Kevin Steinhaus	Minnesota	5
9	SR	Mike Larson	Missouri	10
10	SO	Max Thomusseit	Pittsburgh	14
11	SR	Josh Ihnen	Nebraska	7
12	JR	Jacob Swartz	Boise State	11
13	SR	Chris Chionuma	OK State	9
14	SR	Dan Rinaldi	Rutgers	13
15	JR	Boaz Beard	Iowa State	16
16	SR	Mason Bailey	Navy	17
17	SR	Cody Magrum	Ohio State	19
18	SR	Casey Newburg	Kent State	15
19	JR	Tony Dallago	Illinois	20
20	SO	Kevin Radford	Arizona State	18

Christian Pyles, College Analyst

An apology for getting these out late. I wrapped up my end of season awards before I did these, and my wife and I had our 2^nd little child 8 days ahead of schedule which threw the timing for these off.

These rankings will be different from a lot of others in that we are not simply going to regurgitate the NCAA placements as rankings. Rather, we are going to rank still considering guys entire bodies of work from the season as opposed to presenting the final 3 days in March as The Gospel as it pertains to rankings.

So basically the rankings are still considering the wrestlers entire body of work. You’ll notice that there is heavy pull from the NCAA results, but they are not the end all be all for these. These will also serve nicely as a “preview” for next years rankings.

If you think that the final rankings should be the exact NCAA placements, that’s fine and anybody can look those up at anytime. These won’t be that though.

I will say our Pre-NCAA rankings fared quite well against the NCAA seeds placing 62 of 80 All Americans compared to the seeds 59. That success gave me some faith that the system we’ve been ranking with is fairly effective and accurate.

I know I normally give the reasoning behind most of the ranking changes, but with so much movement, it would be an insanely long read (even by my standards). As always I’m more than happy to answer any questions/complaints you might have.

Email/Tweet your questions, comments, complaints to Christian.pyles@flowrestling.org

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Updated on May 18, 2013, 1:26pm

26 comments

R Law 4 months ago

We finally got to see what Ed Ruth can do when he's mad. Ihnen is a really great wrestler that made the mistake of getting Ruth angry. Scoring 18 on Ihnen is unthinkable.

Christian Pyles 4 months ago

Magrum was ranked 9th in the final season rankings last year before an injury took him out at the Big Ten tourney. Magrum is now down from 197 and has only been back for a week or two. #18 is a bit low dont u think?

Based on his ability? Probably.

Based on his results? No.
Kind of like Chionuma earlier in the year. You knew it was only a matter of time before he blew his ranking out of the water, but you had to let him earn it since he didn't have the results to justify it.
He did, and Cody will definitely have his chances to do the same.
I didn't rank him 9 at the end of the year though, for the record.

Ben 4 months ago

Don't know why the rankings are even here we all know who is number 1

OSU 4 months ago

Magrum was ranked 9th in the final season rankings last year before an injury took him out at the Big Ten tourney. Magrum is now down from 197 and has only been back for a week or two. #18 is a bit low dont u think?

Christian Pyles 5 months ago

why did Ihnen fro neb. drop he is much better than lofthouse?
BECAUSE lOFTHOUSE IS FROM iOWA

Or the fact that Sheptock beat Ihnen, who Lofthouse has a win over.

Anonymous Coward 5 months ago

why did Ihnen fro neb. drop he is much better than lofthouse?
BECAUSE lOFTHOUSE IS FROM iOWA

Anonymous Coward 5 months ago

why did Ihnen fro neb. drop he is much better than lofthouse?

Anonymous Coward 5 months ago

Bryson still at 17 with showing at Vegas??

Greff Fondacerro 6 months ago

What about it? I said wins over guys who were aa's last year. That wouldn't include Grant Gambrall.
you are right and he probably will never be an AA again overrated big time with a freak 3rd place finish at the 2011
NCAA's sorry IOWA

Christian Pyles 6 months ago

what about Loders win over Gambrall at the NCAAS last year

What about it? I said wins over guys who were aa's last year. That wouldn't include Grant Gambrall.

Greff Fondacerro 6 months ago

I disagree(obviously). Loder is tough, but wrestled 7 guys who were AA's last year and lost 6 of them. That win was over Bennett who beat Loder in their next meeting.

Lofthouse had 5 wins over AA's last year
what about Loders win over Gambrall at the NCAAS last year

Christian Pyles 6 months ago

Loder should be higher than Lofthouse as Ethan will not excell at this weight

Anonymous Coward 6 months ago

Loder should be higher than Lofthouse as Ethan will not excell at this weight

Tim Edwards 6 months ago

cowboys need points here, ruth is a beast, every aa spot here will he hard earned

Iowa 6 months ago

Iowa announced that Lofthouse and Gambrall are switching weights this year. So both of those guys need to be moved in your rankings.

Christian Pyles 6 months ago

ok so you rank dake lower based on weight, yet you put ruth 1st too? no bias here at all?

Dake wasn't ranked lower because he was moving up a weight.

Jerry Morris 7 months ago

Mangrum has moved up to 197 this year....In addition I saw the Ruth vs. Hamlin match last summer at Lehigh...Ruth toyed with Hamlin, and put him on his back as time ran out....

Anonymous Coward 7 months ago

how can it even be argued that ruth shouldn't be ranked number one? complete dominance last year and only two losses in his career. just imagine bosak trying to wrestle ruth...

Christian Pyles 7 months ago

Taylor isn't number 1 because he's the returning champ at that weight.

He's number 1 because of the dominance he showed AND he's the returning champ.
Ed Ruth laid waste to an entire weight class last year, and I think it's silly to rank him behind someone simply because he's the highest returner of that current weight.
I've talked about Ruth's accolades at length in the p4p. Ed dominated a 2x finalist and did not have a close match all year. Their years were not all that comparable from a dominance stand point. 0 losses compared to 4(one being a loss to Ben Clymer). All things being equal Bosak gets the nod. All things aren't equal though.

Really? 7 months ago

Have Taylor over dake...I can take that because dake is up a weight.....why not apply the same theory here. Seems silly

R Law 7 months ago

Yes, Ruth at #2 or even #3 would have been appropriate for preseason rankings but Ruth already had a preseason (folkstyle) match in which he dominated Robert Hamlin. I've never seen Hamlin struggle that hopelessly against an opponent....Ruth rode him for the entire 2nd period.

Ruth jumps to #1 because of that match.

Christian Pyles 7 months ago

Regarding Magrum: Rumors are he is going up to 97. I'm waiting to see who to rank for Ohio State at 84 as Courts(who is talented but unproven collegiately) may be the guy.

Taylor over Dake for the same reason Ruth over Bosak. Better seasons more dominance. I'll elaborate more in a bit.

Anonymous Coward 7 months ago

Ruth only has two losses ever and was 3rd as a freshman, wrecked everyone last year en route to a title. Bosak although returning champ came out of a multitude of potential champs in that wide open 184 last year. He was 4th as soph but DNP as a freshman making him less of a lock at 184. Taylor has 1 career loss and is defending hodge winner so I get the 165 ranking. And if you wanna talk dake over taylor in the trials I understand that but its still freestyle which is close but not same thing where as Ruth pounded Hamlin in folk style this summer which probably cemented him at #1 this preseason. That being said its PRESEASON which means nothing and Dake v Taylor issue will be solved in first 3 days of competition so Hakuna Matata(no worries) everyone it'll shake out soon enough and I doubt Dake or Bosak are pissed they aren't ranked #1 so neither should any of us.

Eric 7 months ago

While Bosak over Ruth looks terrible on paper, he is the champ at that weight. I think Ruth would DESTROY Bosak, but until he loses, Bosak is #1.

Jason Jackson 7 months ago

Just wondering if you chose not to rank Cody Magrum from Ohio State or if he slipped your memory because of his injury at the Big Ten tourney last year.

Other than that, thanks for these. With the Buckeyes facing a football bowl ban and the Steelers sucking a$$ this year, I'm more excited for wrestling season than ever. Can't wait for the Ohio State-Penn State match in February. Every weight but heavy features a top 5 wrestler!
GO BUCKS!!!!!

CaliCoachN 7 months ago

Two returning NCAA Champs at 165 and 184. At 165, the returning champ, at weight, gets the nod. I understand that. But, at 184, the guy moving up gets the nod...? Any reasoning on the inconsistency, or just a personal preference?