2023-24 NCAA DI Rankings
125 - Drake Ayala
125 continues to be the most challenging weight to rank. With all of the upsets in the top 5 this week, we reordered the weight to reflect this year's results. We'll attempt to explain our logic below for the top 8, but with so much parity this year at 125, we know there are varying opinions and several wrestlers have a case at the number one spot.
We attempted to reward wrestlers who wrestled the toughest competition while taking the least amount of losses and recording quality wins. Drake Ayala and Luke Stanich rose to the top. Ayala takes over the number 1 spot based on his wins over 6 ranked wrestlers - two in our top five. Beyond that, Ayala's only loss on the year was in November to Brandon Kaylor and he's won 9 straight matches since then.
Like Ayala, Luke Stanich has only one loss on the year while racking up 6 ranked wins. Stanich doesn't have wins over any wrestler in our top 5 so that fact, and the loss to Spratley keeps him just behind Ayala.
Noah Surtin is the only other wrestler in the top 10 with 1 loss and he has quality wins on the year over Jore Volk, Nico Provo, and Conrad Hendriksen. Having only 3 ranked wins keeps him behind Stanich and Ayala.
Jore Volk might have the best wins over any wrestler at 125 with victories on the year over Caleb Smith (2), Troy Spratley, Richard Figueroa, Brendan McCrone, and Anthony Molton. However, Volk also has losses this year to Drake Ayala, Noah Surtin, Nico Provo, and Brandon Kaylor. That many losses keep Volk from cracking the top 3 for now.
Caleb Smith's two losses to Jore Volk plant him firmly at the number 5 spot. Smith's only other loss on the year is to Drake Ayala and his wins over Matt Ramos, Brandon Kaylor, Troy Spratley, and Trever Anderson solidify him even more at the number 5 spot.
Cooper Flynn has notable wins over Noah Surtin, Brett Ungar, and Nico Provo this year but his losses to Luke Stanich and Eric Barnett keep him just outside the top 5.
Nico Provo won the CKLV, the toughest in-season tournament of the year, by defeating Matt Ramos, Jore Volk, and Brett Ungar. However, he's since lost to Cooper Flynn, Stevo Poulin, and Noah Surtin. Suffering three losses in less than one month are cause for dropping Provo to the #7 spot despite his win over #4 Volk.
Matt Ramos' win over Spencer Lee is obviously the best career win of anyone in the field. However, this year Ramos has losses on his ledger to Nico Provo, Caleb Smith, Jakob Camacho, and Marcus Blaze. Beyond that, Ramos has good wins this year but not as good as Ayala, Stanich, or Volk. This year, Ramos has tallied ranked victories over Anthony Noto, Dean Peterson, Tanner Jordan, Diego Sotelo, and Ethan Berginc.
Again, this isn't an easy weight to rank but hopefully our explanation of the top 8 helps give some clarity into our ranking process.
Do you have questions or comments for the rankers? We welcome and encourage your feedback. Hit up Jon Kozak (email: Jonathan.Kozak@flosports.tv; Twitter: @KozakJon) and JD Rader (email: jd.rader@flosports.tv; Twitter: @rader_jd).