By Jeff Beshey, Class Rankings Editor
Welcome to the first edition of The Guillotine’s High School Class Rankings. The plan is to publish class rankings every few months moving forward. There isn’t a set publication schedule for now.
Since class rankings don’t necessarily involve a lot of head-to-head competition, the rankings will be subjective. There’s no way around it. But I will let you in on my thought process a little bit.
If I were a college coach, and there was an NFL-style draft for picking wrestlers, this is the order I would pick them. Weight is not a consideration.
The things I look at the most are national tournament placings (folkstyle, freestyle, and Greco-Roman), state tournament placings, and big tournaments during the high school season. Head-to-head results certainly help when available, and recent results hold more weight than older results.
These are folkstyle rankings. Most of these wrestlers compete in freestyle. Many of these wrestlers compete in Greco-Roman. But 100% of them compete in folkstyle.
The number of wrestlers per class is different because the amount of results and information available to separate them is less when they are younger. The numbers are a bit arbitrary, but when I was studying each class, these are the numbers that just seemed to work best.
The weight listed next to each wrestler is the last weight they competed at for their high school team.
The only way to get your name on these rankings is to compete a lot and win a lot. These wrestlers are the best-of-the-best in Minnesota.
The next High School Class Rankings will be published after the USA Wrestling Cadet and Junior National Championships (in Fargo on July 18-25).
After the next Class Rankings, the Class of 2015 will be retired, and the Class of 2019 will appear.
I welcome your input and feedback at jeff@theguillotine.com.
Class of 2015 – Seniors
- Lance Benick, Totino-Grace, 195
- Bobby Steveson, Apple Valley, 195
- Cameron Sykora, Border West, 126
- Andrew Fogarty, Scott West, 160
- Ben Brancale, Eden Prairie, 138
- Louie Sanders, Lake Crystal-Wellcome Memorial Area, 132
- Paden Moore, Jackson County Central, 160
- Alex Hart, Prior Lake, 285
- Quinten Berres, Kimball Area, 138
- Jordan Joseph, St. Michael-Albertville, 182
- Austin Anderly, LeSueur-Henderson, 126
- Hank Friederichs, Chatfield, 145
- Luke Norland, Jackson County Central, 170
- James Pleski, Forest Lake, 145
- Carter Nielsen, Foley, 170
- David Flynn, Scott West, 132
- Paul Fitterer, Cannon Falls, 126
- Garrett Malstrom, Frazee, 285
- Jackson Striggow, Orono, 182
- Matt Njos, Anoka, 160
Class of 2016 – Juniors
- Mark Hall, Apple Valley, 170
- Mitchell McKee, St. Michael-Albertville, 126
- Griffin Parriott, New Prague, 145
- Owen Webster, Shakopee, 160
- Keegan Moore, Jackson County Central, 182
- Taylor Venz, Farmington, 145
- Adam Hedin, Rosemount, 132
- Tanner Vassar, Annandale/Maple Lake, 126
- Jamin LeDuc, Farmington, 120
- Lucas Jeske, St. Michael-Albertville, 152
- Colten Carlson, Willmar, 152
- Brock Morgan, Apple Valley, 145
- James Huwe, Detroit Lakes, 285
- Manuel Garcia, BOLD, 220
- Ethan Cota, Kenyon-Wanamingo, 106
Class of 2017 – Sophomores
- Brady Berge, Kasson-Mantorville, 152
- Brent Jones, Shakopee, 120
- Garrett Aldrich, Albert Lea Area, 120
- Jake Allar, St. Michael-Albertville, 138
- Rylee Molitor, Sartell-St. Stephen, 113
- Wade Sullivan, Lakeville North, 126
- Keaten Schorr, Kasson-Mantorville, 113
- Tucker Sjomeling, Delano, 113
- Tanner Reetz, Frazee, 120
- Noah Bauer, Pine Island, 113
- Kyle Rathman, Apple Valley, 113
- Tanner Pasvogel, Sibley East, 113
- Jared Florell, Totino-Grace, 170
- Brandon Moen, Owatonna, 152
- Cole Jones, Grand Rapids, 113
Class of 2018 – Freshmen
- Gable Steveson, Apple Valley, 220
- Alex Lloyd, Shakopee, 132
- Jake Gliva, Simley, 113
- Peyton Robb, Owatonna, 106
- Tyler Eischens, Anoka, 113
- Jackson Stauffacher, Scott West, 113
- Austin Brenner, St. Cloud Tech, 132
- Michael Suda, Pipestone Area, 120
- Nate Larson, Apple Valley, 106
- Aaron Cashman, Mound-Westonka, 106
