2019-20 NCAA DI Rankings

197 Moore-tal Kombat

There's a joke we like to tell at Guild meetings, that if you want to make the Ranking Gods laugh, tell them your plans for 197-pounds. Every week we place the best 197-pounders in what we think is the proper order and every week we are taught a new lesson in humility by the NCAA D1 197-pounders.

This week's lesson came by way of Brandon Whitman, who, with a 12-12 season record, defeated the former #3 ranked Ben Darmstadt. This was followed up by upset of Lucas Davison by Jaron Smith, as well as Greg Bulsak beating Ethan Laird, Tanner Sloan defeating Nathan Traxler, and Jake Woodley beating Dakota Geer. 

Needless to say, it was an educational weekend.

Darmstadt, who has a win over Brucki, falls two spots, and stays ahead of Brunner, who has been inactive lately. Davison, who has wins over Brunner, Rasheed and Pagano, but losses to Brown, Orndorff and now Smith, falls just one spot. Laird, who lost to Pagano last week and whose best win this season is Geer (whose stock is also falling) moves down to #15, behind Woodley, who moves up after avenging his loss to Geer. Woodley also split matches with Sloan (Sloan won the most recent bout) and has a win over Schultz, though he also has a loss to Pagano. 

Bulsak and Sloan make the biggest gains this week, as Bulsak also has a win over Sloan and Aiello from CKLV (though he also has losses to Lane and Braun), and Sloan has a recent win over Woodley. As a result, Bulsak and Sloan move up to #11 and #12 respectively.  

Jaron Smith earns a the 23rd spot after his win over Davison. Smith has a win over Pagano from earlier in the season but has losses to May, Striggow, and Young. Brown of Army and Koser of Navy fall out of the rankings after respective losses to Phipps and Young. 

All the usual caveats to the rankings apply, so heed them at your own risk!

Questions or comments about the rankings? Get in touch with Andrew Spey (Twitter: @speywrestle; email: andrew.spey@flosports.tv).

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