By The Numbers: High School Rankings

By The Numbers: High School Rankings

We go by the numbers and take a deep dive into the latest high school rankings by state to see where the best wrestlers are coming from.

Aug 10, 2017 by Andrew Spey
By The Numbers: High School Rankings
FloWrestling's post-Fargo High School rankings have been up since late July. They'll change again, after the Journeyman Fall Classic and Super 32, but until then, we can go deep on the numbers and see where the best high school wrestlers are coming from around the country.

Below is a list of the number of ranked wrestlers by their states (please note: rankings are listed by the location of the wrestler's high school, not their hometown).

State # Of Ranked Wrestlers
OH 32
PA 31
NJ 24
IL 23
CA 21
MN 16
IA 16
MO 15
CO 10
WI 9
MI 8
NY 7
FL 7
OK 6
MD 5
IN 5
GA 5
WA 4
UT 4
OR 3
KS 3
AZ 3
AL 3
TN 2
SD 2
KY 2
CT 2
WV 1
VA 1
TX 1
NV 1
NH 1
NE 1
ND 1
MT 1
MA 1
LA 1
ID 1
DE 1

Ohio comes out on top, squeaking by Pennsylvania with one more ranked wrestler. New Jersey, Illinois, and California round out the top five and are the only states with more than 20 ranked wrestlers.

But just counting up the number of ranked wresters doesn't tell the whole story. For a more complete picture, we can weight the rankings on a scale based on NCAA placement points (20, 16, 13.5, 12.5, 10, 9, 6.5, 5.5, 2, 2, 2, 2, 1.5, 1.5, 1.5, 1.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5, 0.5) for those ranked No. 1 through No. 20.

Below is that chart.

State NCAA Pts
PA 228
OH 181
NJ 136.5
IL 128
MN 108
CA 73.5
MO 68
IN 63.5
FL 63.5
IA 60
CO 60
NY 46
MD 42.5
MI 41
AZ 27
WI 21.5
OR 21
WA 19.5
SD 15.5
AL 14.5
WV 13.5
UT 13.5
GA 13.5
ND 10
CT 9.5
TX 9
NV 9
OK 7
MA 6.5
KS 3
TN 2.5
VA 2
KY 2
ID 2
MT 1.5
DE 1.5
NH 0.5
NE 0.5
LA 0.5

By this metric, Pennsylvania comes out ahead, on the strength of its three wrestlers in the pound-for-pound top 14, the most of any state. Minnesota cracks the top five, leap-frogging California, thanks to studs such as No. 1-ranked Gable Steveson.

Finally, to get an idea of which states are strongest at what weights, we can throw our NCAA points on a matrix according to state and weight class, which can be found below.

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Ohio stands out yet again, this time by being the only state with a ranked wrestler at each weight class. Florida wins the prize for the least-balanced distribution of talent, thanks to having multiple ranked wrestlers in two adjacent weight classes.

Those are the numbers for now. that is, until the next reshuffling of rankings!


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