After state tournaments are completed—yet before the freestyle season begins—emerging talent, late bloomers, and diamonds in the rough get noticed at the three major postseason events.

Let's take a look at the wrestlers who became prized recruiting targets and invariably earned themselves scholarship money over the past couple weekends.

10) Vance VomBaur, Freshman, Colorado

There is a storm brewing in Colorado and it's called Bear Cave Wrestling Club. Run by two-time Boise State All-American Ben VomBaur, the club is producing some hammers such as his sons, Will and Vance. As a freshman, Vance made state finals, placed third at USA Cadet Folk and fifth in the open class FloNationals. Another Bear Cave wrestler is #2 on this list.

9) Jackson Turley, Junior, Virginia

The first of two two-time National Prep runners-up on this list, Turley lost to top 10 guys Andrew Merola and Julian Ramirez, respectively, in the finals the last two years. 

At NHSCAs last month, Turley won the Junior title by besting a great field that included Pennsylvania state champ Edmond Ruth, Illinois state champ Alex Cramer, and eventual FloNats finalist Jared McGill.

8) Jesse Mendez, 8th-Grader, Indiana

Mendez is the first of two eighth-graders on this countdown. And you might be asking, "How much money/scholarship could a kid earn before he even gets to high school?" Well, I'm telling you, Mendez and Joey Cruz are now officially on the map and their every movement will be followed by all the top programs after FloNationals.

Coming into FloNationals, Mendez already had a primetime hit list that including Indiana state champ Jacob Moran, Ohio runner-up Dustin Norris, and plenty of others.

In Cadet Folk, Mendez lost in the finals to fellow eighth-grader Nick Bouzakis (not listed here because he was already a household name). Mendez then backed that up with a third-place showing at FloNats where he lost only to finalist Kai Orine and beat former PA champ Beau Bayless along the way.

7) Joey Cruz, 8th-Grader, California

Like Mendez, Cruz was a junior high/youth whiz who we hadn't yet seen on the high school stage. Any and all questions about just how good he is were answered at FloNationals where he was an unrelenting attacker on his feet. He placed runner-up to the #2 wrestler in America (Richie Figueroa) in an overtime bout in which Cruz scored the only takedown. He has all the makings of a really special prospect.

6) Lewis Fernandes, Junior, New Jersey

The next three wrestlers are all 220s who have head-to-heads and who really jumped off the page at NHSCAs and FloNationals. Fernandes was a virtual unknown before this year when he was a dominant, undefeated state champion in single-class New Jersey—one of the best states in the country. He then went on to place third at NHSCAs and finished it off with a FloNationals title over USA Folk runner-up Aric Bohn.

5) Jacob Bullock, Junior, Illinois

Bullock is one of the most improved wrestlers in the country. Last year he didn't make it to the state tournament. And in the fall he didn't place at Pre Season Nationals.

This year he went 47-4 making the state finals and losing 8-7 to defending state champion and last year's Fargo Runner-Up Luke Luffman, the #6 220lber in the country.

At NHSCA's he beat Fernandes, made the finals, and lost only to our next wrestler on the list.

4) Yaraslav Slavikouski, Junior, Massachusetts 

Similar to Jackson Turley, Slavikouski made two straight National Prep finals, losing in both years to the hammer known as Michael Beard.

The problem, also like Turley, was Slavikouski didn't have any big wins to determine just how good he was at the time.

That changed at NHSCA Juniors where he won the 220lb bracket that included Bullock and Fernandes.

3) Sean Pierson, Junior, Pennsylvania

Pierson placed fourth as a sophomore and third this year in big school PA. During the regular season, Pierson beat both the eventual state champ (Logan Macri) and the eventual runner-up (Doug Zapf), who was a returning state champ.

At FloNationals last week, Pierson turned in a sterling performance that included wins over state champs Jordan Hamdan (MI) and Brock Whorton (WV) after Whorton had just beaten Super 32 finalist Eric Barnett (WI) and Cleveland Belton (CA) with a win over New York runner-up Anthony Sciotto in his run as well.

He's a real scrapper, whose only loss came to #2 on our list.

2) Dominick Serrano, Sophomore, Colorado

Nothing short of a buzzsaw, Serrano had good creds coming into FloNationals with a couple mid-major tournament wins and a runner-up finish in Fargo. But he was at his best at FloNationals, showing a great combo of power and speed with relentless attacks. 

He's just a sophomore, and he's awesome.

1) James Whitaker, Junior, Michigan

While Serrano was as impressive as anyone, he was a bit more of a known commodity than Whitaker.

The Nick Simmons product out of Michigan turned a few heads back in October when he lost first round but won nine straight backside matches in placing fifth.

At FloNationals, he proved that wasn't a one-off performance. The recently crowned state champ beat two top 10s in Jason Kraisser and Princeton-bound Marshall Keller to win the belt. 

He's a gritty kid who wrestles well in all positions and he still has another year of high school in him.