Better in College Than High School

These college wrestlers are having more productive careers than they did even in high school.

Mar 13, 2017 by Willie Saylor

The beautiful thing about NCAA brackets being released a full week before the tournament starts is that you can analyze them ten ways to Sunday.

In this article, we take a look at wrestlers who have become much more of a force in college than they were in high school. Now sure, there are guys not listed here that you could include in this conversation, but I selected here the wrestlers who have made the biggest jumps and mostly tried to stick to seniors, whose stories are all but complete.

125

Seed (5) - Tim Lambert, Nebraska - #5
Although Lambert finished his HS career strong with wins over Cory Clark and Evan Silver, he was just a one-time state champ in Michigan, and without a high national ranking. Though he has yet to AA, he's entering the National Championships fresh off a Big Ten finals appearance and as a top seed.

Seed (9) - Josh Rodriguez, North Dakota St. - #9
Rodriguez won NHSCA's as a Senior, but he wasn't ranked highly and he never won a state title. Despite that, he became a force in Western Wrestling Conference where he won the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler award in '15, before the switch to the Big 12 where he made the finals this year.

133

Seed (7) - Eric Montoya, Nebraska - #6
I got an email from then-high school-senior Eric Montoya saying that he had aspirations to wrestle Division I but that he hadn't received much, if any, contact from coaches. The four-time state champ from New Mexico, with placings at Super 32 (5th) and NHSCA's (2nd) moved in and out at the bottom of the rankings.
It just so happened that around the same time Eric sent me the email, Scott Boardwine, the Head Coach at Campbell at the time, had called to ask if I knew of any under the radar guys. I gave him Montoya's contact info and a couple months later Montoya wrote and said he was signing to Campbell.
As a true freshmen there, Eric turned heads with 33 wins and a trip to the NCAA's. He's now a 4x qualifier seeking All American honors for the second time and has beaten some of the nation's best such as 2x NCAA finalist Cory Clark.

Seed (16) - Kevin Devoy, Drexel - #11
Although Devoy enjoyed a high school career in which he placed at the state tournament four times, he never reached a final and was never nationally ranked. But the senior has been excellent as a Drexel Dragon reaching two EIWA finals and becoming the program's first champion in that conference.

141

Seed (2) Kevin Jack, NC State - #2
I wrote above that I was trying to stick to seniors, but Kevin Jack is an undeniable underclassmen to put on this list. In high school, Jack had a couple ranked wins, but only spent a limited time in the rankings himself in the sub 15 range. It was midway through his true freshmen year when the Wolfpack couldn't keep his redshirt on. And Jack proved them right as he beat perennial contender Devin Carter en route to a 5th place finish. As a Soph he finished the season ranked #4, and he enters his third NCAA tournament as the clear #2 seed.

149

Seed (3) - Lavion Mayes, Missouri - #4
I have a database of kids that I consider for high school rankings. Compiled since 2011, it contains 2,107 names in it. Lavion Mayes isn't one of them.
Mayes earned a state title in 2A as a senior, but a couple months later took 6th in his own state's freestyle tournament and didn't qualify for Fargo.
So who the heck saw this college productivity coming? Maybe Brian Smith.
Mayes qualified for NCAA's as a redshirt freshman before taking 7th and 3rd the last two years while beating Top 10 guys on a regular basis.

157

No one currently in the Top 20 in the NCAA's this year is a real surprise. Those that don't follow high school nationally might not have known too much about Lavallee, who came from Nevada and who has been a constant college force. But he wrestled everywhere and placed in everything in high school. Mid-tier guys like Clayton Ream and Colin Heffernan are also wrestling at, or about, where they were positioned in high school.

165

Seed (5) - Chad Walsh, Rider - #6
From a Camden Catholic program that was a Jersey powerhouse, Walsh was not an unknown commodity. But his highest ranking in HS came in the teens. I had Walsh just #88 in my Senior prospects list, but he's never lost a conference dual, was an All American as a Soph, enters the NCAA's as a 5 seed, and is just a Junior.

174

Seed (6) - Ryan Preisch, Lehigh - #6
I have a difficult time saying Preisch is outperforming in college. A lot of people knew how good he was, and after placings in Fargo and FloNats, he was ranked mid-pack. That being said, Preisch never won a state title in PA's small school division and his college ranking, even as just a Soph, is superior to his high school high water mark. This is the second trip in as many tries to the NCAA's for Preisch, who placed 4th and 3rd, respectively at the Scuffle the last two years.

184

Seed (1) - Gabe Dean, Cornell - #1
Gabe Dean wasn't a state champion as a senior. Please re-read the previous sentence.
He was a 1-time state champion in a state with four divisions and lost (to Jordan Thomas) in state finals as a senior.
Now, part of his relatively pedestrian success could be attributed to the fact that Dean was a part-time wrestler in high school as a mutlisport athlete and freakishly good on the football field where he played quarterback and was Michigan's AP Player of the Year as a senior.
Whatever the case, nothing could have prepared us for Dean's college wrestling success which has been nothing short of dominant.
As a freshman he beat the unbeatable in Ed Ruth. He enters his final NCAA Championships as one of the most recognizable faces of college wrestling and career placings of 3-1-1.

Seed (4) - Nolan Boyd, Oklahoma St. - #6
No predominantly-senior overachiever list would be complete without Nolan Boyd, who was never ranked in either the weight class nor the big board rankings. Early in his college career he looked more like a fighter than a wrestler: someone too hard-headed to accept that he wasn't that good at wrestling. What you had to love was his fight, which despite is inconsistent results, would often lead to upset wins.
Through his first two collegiate seasons, Boyd was 7-15 against ranked competition and 1-4 in two NCAA trips.
Then a funny thing happened. All that hard work paid off. Nolan Boyd became pretty damn good. As a Junior he won a regular season dual bout against Gabe Dean before taking 4th at NCAA's.

197

Seed (2) - Brett Pfarr, Minnesota - #2
No one quite expected this out of Pfarr, who had his moments at Fargo (3rd as Cadet/5th as Junior), but he was never ranked and won just one small school state title. By the time he was a redshirt Soph, Pfarr was in Big Ten finals. Last year at the dance his only loss was to Olympic Medalist J'Den Cox, and as a Senior he comes in as the #2 seed.

Seed (7) - Aaron Studebaker, Nebraska - #6
I mean, talk about completely off the radar. Studebaker was a complete unknown. While finding solid 197lbers from nowheresville Nebraska isn't exactly unprecedented for the Huskers (Craig Brester ring a bell?) Studebaker was a mere 2xer in Nebraska, and a walk on with absolutely zero national creds. It's quite an accomplishment to be a 3x qualifier and a Top 8 seed.

Another point to bring up here, is that it must be pointed out how these under-the-radar guys get their spots. It's not as if they are given to them. No, guys like Studebaker (Derek White) and Nolan Boyd (Jordan Rogers), are beating out blue chippers.

285

Seed (4) - Jacob Kasper, Duke - #4
The strides Kasper made over his career went from incremental to monumental this season. Never a state champ, Kasper made the ACC finals two years ago at 184. After redshirting and moving up two weights, he beat three Top 10 guys to take the Southern Scuffle title.

Seed (6) - Austin Schafer, Oklahoma St. - #6
In a sea of overachievers, this dude warrants his own special column. In almost every case where a wrestler out-produces his high school credentials, the improvement comes as freshman, or sophomore, or junior. But for Schafer, he was completely rudderless until his senior year. Frankly, it's unbelievable. I mean, he's been JV almost his entire career including last season. He entered this season with less career wins than Gabe Dean has this year.
Schafer never won a state title, and never sniffed a national ranking in high school. He took a year at Army Prep, so it was five years into his college career when freshman Preston Weigel beat him out for the 197lb spot in the Cowboy line-up.
Schafer went back to work, putting on weight and taking the HWT spot that lineup mainstay Austin Marsden occupied for four years. In less than a year, Schafer went from backup at 197 to clear AA threat and the #6 seed at the big dance. What a ride.