2019 US Open Wrestling Championships

Which RTC Had The Best US Open?

Which RTC Had The Best US Open?

Which regional training center or wrestling club had the best performance at the 2019 U.S. Open? We break down the numbers.

May 10, 2019 by Andrew Spey
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After college, the American wrestling community becomes a bit more disorganized when it comes to teams, which is to be expected in an individual sport. But with the emergence of Regional Training Centers in the last decade, the formerly inchoate environment is rapidly coalescing into something more concrete, so we took a stab at measuring the performance of those RTCs and wrestling clubs at the U.S. Open. 

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After college, the American wrestling community becomes a bit more disorganized when it comes to teams, which is to be expected in an individual sport. But with the emergence of Regional Training Centers in the last decade, the formerly inchoate environment is rapidly coalescing into something more concrete, so we took a stab at measuring the performance of those RTCs and wrestling clubs at the U.S. Open. 

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This study comes with a mountain of caveats. For instance, there is a lot of overlap among membership, sponsorship, and affiliation. Individual wrestlers can and are sponsored by multiple clubs, organizations, and/or training centers. We tried to simplify the process by going with the college-based RTCs and clubs whenever there were multiple attachments. This process very much short-changed Titan Mercury, who easily sponsors the most active competitors in the country. But almost all the TMWC senior men's freestylers are also part of an RTC or wrestling club where it's assumed they do the majority of their training. 

So a special shout out to Titan Mercury for being the actual U.S. Open Club champions, a physical award they received in Vegas from USA Wrestling. Here though, we tried to see which gym was producing the best results at the Open. TMWC and every sponsor is all a big part of the success of those gyms, we just don't have a good way of measuring that (at the moment). 

There were other difficulties in isolating the training club from the sponsorship. For example, we treated Arizona-based athletes as part of the Sunkist Kids WC, but we treated Sunkist Kids sponsored athletes who trained in Lincoln, Nebraska, or Chapel Hill, North Carolina, as Nebraska WTC and Tar Heel WC members, respectively. 

Which is why you should consider the numbers we generated and the corresponding rankings as far from perfect. The numbers, by the way, are NCAA-style placement points, but no bonus or advancement points. Since the U.S. Open places to eight, like the NCAAs, we figured it was the most applicable scoring system, although UWW uses a different system that places the top 10. 

In any event, we went through the results line by line, which took up quite a bit of time, and we did our best, but if you think we messed something up, by all means, drop us a line and let us know!

Below are the team points scored by the senior men's freestylers (SR MFS), senior women's freestylers (SR WFS), senior Greco-Roman wrestlers, (SR GR), junior men's freestylers (JR GR), and junior Greco guys (JR GR), sorted by most SR MFS points then most total points. A zero means the club has athletes entered in that division but scored no points. A blank cell means there were no wrestlers entered. 

Results

TeamSR MFSSR WFSSR GRJR MFSJR GRTotal
Minnesota Storm523311818122
Nittany Lion WC51
2712
90
Finger Lakes WC50
001767
Cliff Keen WC45

0
45
Wolfpack WC41

22
63
Hawkeye WC36

30
66
New Jersey RTC33
1226
71
Cowboy RTC32
10271281
Chicago RTC32

16
48
Nebraska WTC31

29
60
Illinois RTC26
7282687
Oklahoma RTC2422
19065
Lehigh Valley WC23

0
23
Southeast RTC22

29
51
Ohio RTC19
041
60
Sunkist Kids WC17105321644214
Cyclone RTC16

25
41
Pittsburgh WC12

0
12
Unattached1020318657
California RTC10
9221657
Askren WA10

13
23
Pennsylvania RTC9

131032
Blue Blood WC9

009
West Point RTC7
46
17
Terrapin WC7

0613
Missouri WF7

4011
Tar Heel WC6

19
25
Utah Valley RTC6
40010
Michigan State4

104155
Cavalier WC4

7
11
Valley RTC4

0
4
RTC South3



3
Adams State3



3
Titan Mercury WC01851625
226
NYAC04417407225
Army WCAP075147

222
Marine Corps RTC0079

79
Bulls WC0

20
20
Legends of Gold0

01212
Colorado Mesa WC0930
12
Badger RTC0047
11
Panther WC RTC0

3710
Colorado0


1010
Boilermaker RTC0

10
10
X-Factor Elite0
0
99
Nebraska Golden Eagles WC0

099
Air Force RTC0
36
9
Team Nevada0
7007
Orange Crush WC0
0066
Florida Jets0
4
04
CSU Pueblo Wrestling RTC0
3003
California Baptist0
3003
Blue Chip WC0
3003
Bison WC0
03
3
Bakersfield RTC0

303
Olympic TC
161238
66
Northern Michigan

0
5454
Lions Wrestling Club
39


39
MWC

003838
Takedown Express WC


02828
Team Tornado
26


26
Izzy Style


101626
Blairstown WC


25
25
Team Takedown
21


21
Northern Colorado WC


12921
Southern Illinois

49720
Utah Valley WC

19

19
Cumberlands
17


17
Inland Northwest WTC

15

15
Clarion RTC


31215
CYC

70714
Campbellsville
13


13
Williams Baptist

6
612
Jackrabbit WC


12
12
Advance / Ringers


01212
Team Miron


01010
SWC



1010
Suples Wrestling Club



1010
Menlo College
10


10
Burnaby Mountain WC
10


10
Young Guns


099
Western Wyoming

9009
Nevada


099
FordDynasty WC



99
Valkyrie
7


7
Seasons


7
7
PureBred  Wrestling



77
Hoxie


077
Harvard


7
7
Edinboro RTC


7
7
West Virginia RTC

6

6
Wayland Baptist
60006
Team JGold
6


6
SOTLA
0
066
kctc


066
Journeymen WC
6


6
Gomez Wrestling
6


6
Front Range Twisters



66
Cordoba Trained


6
6
Buxton (NJ)


066
Providence
4


4
Pounders
4


4
Missouri Baptist
4


4
Blue and Gold RTC


4
4
3 Style WC

4

4
Southwestern Oregon CC
3


3
Sanderson WA
3


3
Jamestown Taz WC
3


3
Curby 3 Style Wrestling

3

3
C4 Wrestling
30

3
Aviators


3
3


Tremendous performance by the Minnesota Storm, which has a placer in all five divisions. The Wolfpack RTC may have been thinking about that home-mat advantage they'd have at the World Team Trials Challenge Tournament in Raleigh. And a surprisingly good performance was had by the NJ RTC, a club that has only been up and running for a little over a year or so. 

Below is a table of the total participants per gym/club/organization. Please keep in mind that is after reducing the total affiliations per competitor to one, and so the numbers may not correspond with what the clubs themselves would submit.

The full list of clubs is longer, below are just those with 10 or more competitors. 

Participants

TeamSR MFSSR WFSSR GRJR MFSJR GRTotal
Titan Mercury WC82032
33
NYAC35221233
Army WCAP2821

31
Sunkist Kids WC81025429
Minnesota Storm10167226
Air Force RTC3
815
26
New Jersey RTC13
210
25
Northern Michigan

8
1523
Colorado Mesa WC11533
22
Illinois RTC5
19520
Finger Lakes WC6
44519
Pennsylvania RTC6

10218
Oklahoma RTC65
6118
Nittany Lion WC8
36
17
Marine Corps RTC3113

17
Wolfpack WC9

7
16
West Point RTC5
29
16
Navy-Marine Corps RTC6
24315
Cyclone RTC1

14
15
Cowboy RTC7
25115
Valley RTC8

6
14
Orange Crush WC5
17114
Bakersfield RTC8

4214
WCWC7
14113
Ohio RTC6
25
13
Tar Heel WC4

8
12
Lions Wrestling Club
12


12
Nebraska WTC4

7
11
Nebraska Golden Eagles WC4

6111
Bison WC1
19
11
Williams Baptist

8
210
Wayland Baptist
224210
NYC RTC2

8
10
Michigan State1

5410
Hawkeye WC6

4
10
California RTC2
15210
Blue Chip WC2
24210


And of course, what list of numbers and locations would be complete without a heat map, the famous map that we all know and love. Below is the location of senior men's freestyle clubs in a heat map based on points scored at the U.S. Open by placement. 

Heat Map