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NCAA Wrestling – Pre-Season Power Rankings – Can anyone compete with Penn State?

By Chris Snyder

Mar 19, 2022; Detroit, MI, USA; The Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling team poses with the trophy after taking first place at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Little Cesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 19, 2022; Detroit, MI, USA; The Penn State Nittany Lions wrestling team poses with the trophy after taking first place at the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Little Cesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: Raj Mehta-USA TODAY Sports /
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It’s time to take a look at the NCAA wrestling landscape and rank the top five teams based on the results from the prior season and the returning wrestlers for each team

With the 2022 NCAA Wrestling Championships slowly fading away in the rearview mirror, now would be a perfect time to take a look at the top teams, their returning starters, any high impact transfers, and put together some NCAA Power Rankings.

All rankings are as of the postseason InterMat rankings.

Here are our 2022-2023 Pre-Season NCAA Wrestling Power Rankings.

5. team. 811. . . . Wolverines

2022 Dual Meet Record: 12-1
2022 NCAA Finish: 2nd (95.0)
Returning All-Americans: 4

157 Will Lewan (5th)
165 Cameron Amine (4th)
174 Logan Massa (5th)
285 Mason Parris (5th)

This past year was supposed to be “The Year” for Michigan in terms on winning their first ever NCAA wrestling team title. Even after convincing Myles Amine to come back for his super-super senior year and retaining the services of wrestling mercenary Nick Suriano, the best the Wolverines could do was finish 36.5 points behind the Nittany Lions for their fifth runner-up team finish in program history.

Chin up Michigan fans, maybe one year the stars will align, you’ll win the Powerball, and make a deal with the devil to win your allusive team title.

But one thing’s for sure, this coming season isn’t going to be it.

The Wolverines are losing NCAA Champion Nick Suriano and NCAA runner-up Myles Amine, and even though Michigan returns four All-Americans from the 2021-2022 campaign, it’s going to be incredibly difficult to replace that kind of production.

However, all signs do point towards Michigan unleashing a duo of highly ranked recruits from the 2021 class. Chance Lamer (No. 7) and Zack Mattin (No. 20) only wrestled in opens and invitationals this past season and they put together a combined record of 21-3. Their presence in the lineup will certainly help, but it will be just enough for the Wolverines to barely crack the top five.

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