Evan Bates went into Fargo last summer unranked after a third-place performance at the Indiana state championships. After beating returning champion Noah Pettigrew on his way to a runner-up finish in Cadet freestyle and following that up with a third-place finish in Greco-Roman, Bates left the FargoDome ranked #8 in the country at 195. This week I caught up with the 35th-ranked prospect on the Junior Big Board to find out which schools he's considering. 

Evan Bates School List (listed in alphabetical order)

• Cornell
• Indiana
• Northwestern

Bates followed up his incredible Fargo performance with a fifth-place finish at Super 32 and state championship in Indiana which has just one division. It will be interesting to see how Bates grows over the next year. The Hoosier state champ wrestled 195 the majority of the season before bumping up to 220 the second half of the year. For all three schools that made the final cut for Bates, I'll break down how both 197 and 285 looks moving forward. 

Watch Bates take out Fargo champ Noah Pettigrew. 

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Ben Darmstadt and Brendan Furman currently are the starters at 197 and 285 for Cornell and will be seniors when Bates would be a freshman, should he take his talents to Ithaca. However, the Big Red have two wrestlers who competed for the Finger Lakes RTC last year who could make things crowded in the upper weights. Jacob Cardenas was 24-4 last year and picked up a win over Ethan Laird who finished the season ranked #16. Lewis Fernandes at heavyweight put together a 26-4 campaign and had wins over #8 Yaraslau Slavikouski and #22 Cary Miller. Cardenas and Fernandes would be just sophomores when Bates arrived on campus. Cornell also signed the #40 recruit in the class of 2020, Ethan Hatcher, who projects as a 197-pounder.

When it comes to the home state Hoosiers, Angel Escobedo is trying to turn things around at his alma mater, and landing a homegrown hammer like Bates would certainly be a big help. Indiana hasn't had an NCAA qualifier at 197 since the 2013 NCAA Championship when Lucas Sheridan earned a spot at the big dance and hasn't had a qualifier at heavyweight since 2014 when Adam Chalfant earned All-American honors. The Hoosiers did sign Santos Cantu at 197 and Andrew Irick at heavyweight in the class of 2020, but the path to the lineup is much clearer in Bloomington than Ithaca.

Watch Bates take out Minnesota commit Bennett Tabor. 

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Finally, there are the Northwestern Wildcats, who have a big connection to Bates. Current Northwestern 197-pounder Lucas Davison went to Chesterton High where Bates attends and Davison's father, Keith, is an assistant coach at Chesterton high. If Bates were to choose to head to Evanston, Davison would be a junior during Bates' true freshman season. At heavyweight, however, the Wildcats currently only have one on the roster and did not sign one in the class of 2020 either.

Keep it locked on FloWrestling throughout the spring and summer as we continue to bring you the best recruiting news in the country such as school lists for the nation's top uncommitted wrestlers in the class of 2021 and breaking news when wrestlers make their college decisions.