NCAA Wrestling preseason power rankings: Iowa or Penn State at the top?

2021 Stats

Rank: 4
Dual Meet Record: 6-0

NCAA Champions: 0

All-Americans: 5
125 – Brandon Courtney (2nd)
133 – Michael McGee (6th)
157 – Jacori Teemer (4th)
165 – Anthony Valencia (8th)
285 – Cohlton Schultz (4th)

2021 Recruiting
Rank: 2
Recruits: 7
Top 100 Recruits: 5
No. 1 Richard Figueroa (proj – 125)
No. 8 Cael Valencia (proj – 165/174)
No. 77 Carter Dibert (proj – 133)
No. 79 Ramon Ramos (proj – 141/149)
No. 96 Max Wilner (proj – 184)

The 2021 wrestling season probably didn’t end exactly how Arizona State wanted it to, as they crowned zero individual champions, and finished in a distant fourth overall.

Both Kordell Norfleet (197) and Anthony Valencia (165) took perfect records into the 2021 NCAA Championships only to finish in the Round of 12 and 8th overall respectively.

Valencia already indicated he will use his extra year of eligibility and come back to campus, however no word yet from Norfleet or Cory Crooks (149).

The good news for Sun Devils nation? They reeled in the No. 2 overall recruiting class in 2021 which included the overall No. 1 recruit in the nation in California native Richard Figueroa.

It’s hard to say if Figueroa is going to factor into anything in the upcoming season as Arizona State has 2 All-Americans in their lower weight classes (Brandon Courtney and Michael McGee). They could potentially could do some reshuffling in the offseason but I don’t think anything will come to fruition until the 2022-2023 season for the talented recruits coming in.

I’ll say Norfleet comes back and both he and Valencia do some major damage in their respective weight classes in the 2022 NCAA’s. Which will go a long way towards Arizona State finishing the year in the top 3.

Now onto the final 2 teams in my rankings.

Is Iowa or Penn State Wrestling next?