2020-21 NCAA Division III Rankings

NCAA DIII 125-Pound Rankings

November usually marks the start of the competition schedule for collegiate wrestling. Due to the ongoing pandemic, collegiate wrestling is in a limbo state. Lately there has been unfortunate news circulating in the Division III community with conferences and schools making the call to cancel winter sports. With that being said, I wanted to produce a set of preseason rankings to highlight the top individuals returning at each weight class. I decided to extend the rankings to 18! This was a bold decision but I made the move to 18 because that is how many wrestlers are in each bracket at the DIII NCAA Championships. 

I released an article back in September about the preseason #1 at each weight class; click here to check it out if you missed it. Usually, the preseason rankings are the easiest set to produce because you have the results from the NCAA Championships. This was obviously not the case this year because the NCAA Championships were canceled. Therefore, the six super regionals results were big influences in how these rankings shook out since it was the last competition to go off. Other factors for the rankings were the NCAA seeds, 2020 championship field, 2019-20 season record form, and previous accomplishments. I also took the liberty to rank individuals from programs that have already decided not to compete this season. These individuals earned their national ranking and I didn’t want the pandemic to take that away from them.

Ranking 180 wrestlers is quite the challenge — with that being said let’s take a look at the top 18 at each weight class. 

Precin and Arborio are the clear cut #1 and #2 at the weight, and potentially could have met in the semi-finals last year at the NCAA Championships. Samuel Braswell had a head-to-head win over Matt Caccamise at the New Standard Invitational last season. Braswell comes in at #4 with Caccamise right behind him. Carlos Champagne was the #1-ranked wrestler heading into regional week last season but failed to qualify for the NCAA Championships. He was an All-American in 2019 and I expect him to be a contender again at this weight; he comes in at #8.

Brady Kyner was another wrestler who was in the top 10 all of last year but could not make it out of the tough Lower Midwest Regional. He starts the year at #11 and I expect him to make some noise for the Knights this season. It’s worth noting the Mideast Regional has five individuals ranked making it one of the deepest regionals in the country at 125. 

Questions or comments about the rankings? Get in touch with the ranker Anthony Bonaventura (Twitter: @coachabon; email: abonaven@stevens.edu)