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It has been fascinating to watch the team race in Kentucky this year (based on tournament rankings, not dual rankings). Union County started the year in the lead but was surpassed in early December by Walton Verona. Johnson Central took over the top spot shortly after that, and then Christian County held the lead in mid-December. Union County reclaimed the top spot right after Christmas and has held on to it since then. Christian County just overtook Madison Central for #2 after this past weekend. The race is very tight, and there will certainly be more changes as the season progresses. Should be an exciting state tournament! As of today, here are the current team standings on RankWrestlers.com: Union County Christian County Madison Central Walton Verona Johnson Central Woodford County Meade County La Rue County John Hardin Male

It is still early, and a lot will change as the new wrestlers get more opportunities to show their stuff. Some freshmen have already shown that they will be forces to be reckoned with over the next four years. Following are the freshmen who have made the biggest early impression, as ranked by RankWrestlers.com (columns are: wrestler name, school, weight class, state, wins, losses, win %, adjusted win %, top 3 wins, head to head adjustment, and total score): Ethan Tomerlin Fort Campbell 170 KY 13 2 86.7% 98.7% 96.6% 0.0% 97.6% Keelan Dick Wayne County 106 KY 12 0 100.0% 100.0% 93.6% 0.0% 96.8% Thomas Ketchen-Carter Campbell County 132 KY 13 1 92.9% 99.4% 93.8% 0.0% 96.6% Gage Fowler Christian County 106 KY 15 1 93.8% 97.9% 95.0% 0.0% 96.4% Payne Carr Union County 132 KY 3 0 100.0% 100.0% 91.1% 0.0% 95.5% Scotty Vilums Male 126 KY 12 2 85.7% 98.6% 90.8% 0.0% 94.7% Isham Peace Walton Verona 106 KY 12 3 80.0% 96.3% 88.9% 0.0% 92.6% Branson Smith Sheldon Clark 195 KY 10 0 100.0% 100.0% 85.1% 0.0% 92.5% Matthew Meyer St. Xavier 106 KY 8 1 88.9% 96.8% 85.5% 0.0% 91.2% Jacob Grandstaff Conner 120 KY 13 1 92.9% 97.3% 85.0% 0.0% 91.2% Seth Slayton Caldwell County 160 KY 15 2 88.2% 97.4% 84.9% 0.0% 91.1% Samuel Grandstaff Conner 113 KY 7 0 100.0% 100.0% 66.3% 5.6% 88.7% Jack Latherow Ashland Blazer 160 KY 7 2 77.8% 95.2% 80.8% 0.0% 88.0% David Conner McCracken County 138 KY 14 0 100.0% 100.0% 75.9% 0.0% 87.9% Eli Peyton McCracken County 120 KY 9 2 81.8% 96.9% 70.1% 1.5% 85.1% Thomas Hoppes La Rue County 120 KY 11 4 73.3% 86.7% 86.2% -1.5% 84.9% Zach Cowan Madison Central 126 KY 13 4 76.5% 91.9% 77.3% 0.0% 84.6% Thomas Boone La Rue County 170 KY 8 3 72.7% 76.5% 87.4% 0.0% 81.9% David Gerkin Apollo 113 KY 9 1 90.0% 85.2% 77.4% 0.1% 81.4% Brennon Conrad Simon Kenton 126 KY 7 6 53.8% 90.9% 56.9% 7.4% 81.3% Yahir Menchaca Harrison County 113 KY 13 3 81.2% 94.6% 68.1% -0.1% 81.2% Ethan Futrell Trigg County 126 KY 13 2 86.7% 90.7% 86.4% -7.4% 81.1% John Paredes Caldwell County 170 KY 14 4 77.8% 83.5% 75.8% 0.0% 79.7% Dylan Preston Woodford County 120 KY 7 1 87.5% 98.8% 58.7% 0.0% 78.8% Keaton Elliott Calloway County 126 KY 4 1 80.0% 78.0% 78.0% 0.0% 78.0% Asher Jones McCracken County 106 KY 4 1 80.0% 98.4% 57.1% 0.0% 77.8% Devin Sanders Wayne County 195 KY 12 2 85.7% 91.7% 60.2% 0.1% 76.1% Brandon Richmond Campbell County 182 KY 12 4 75.0% 87.1% 53.0% 5.8% 75.9% Jayssen Hanson St. Xavier 106 KY 6 2 75.0% 91.9% 55.7% 0.0% 73.8% Dalton Russelburg Union County 132 KY 4 2 66.7% 76.3% 57.3% 6.6% 73.4% Hunter Vlach McCracken County 145 KY 9 5 64.3% 66.2% 73.5% 3.4% 73.3% Zachary Pledger St. Xavier 132 KY 4 1 80.0% 97.6% 48.2% 0.0% 72.9% Cameron Baker Apollo 145 KY 7 7 50.0% 64.9% 86.2% -4.1% 71.5% Kolby Koepp McCracken County 126 KY 13 3 81.2% 94.2% 39.3% 4.6% 71.3% Alexei Royar Fort Campbell 113 KY 11 5 68.8% 73.9% 68.5% 0.0% 71.2% Herve Blode Fern Creek 138 KY 17 7 70.8% 69.5% 69.0% 0.0% 69.2% Jerry Simpson Fairdale 132 KY 6 4 60.0% 79.4% 55.4% 0.0% 67.4% Everett Marret St. Xavier 170 KY 6 2 75.0% 74.3% 57.8% 0.0% 66.1% Gavin English Ohio County 160 KY 9 4 69.2% 79.6% 51.9% 0.0% 65.7% Henry Marchal Atherton 138 KY 5 1 83.3% 90.0% 36.2% 0.0% 63.1%

There will certainly be weight class changes before then, but for fun, we ranked the toughest weight classes to place in state as determined by the average total score on RankWrestlers.com of the top seven wrestlers for each weight class (we assign weight class by where they wrestled most frequently over the past seven matches): (1) 120 (98.0%) (2) 145 (97.8%) (3) 132 (97.7%) (4) 138 (97.5%) (5) 126 (97.4%)

Eleven Kentucky wrestlers have achieved the status of RankWrestlers All-American (complete national list here). Congrats to the following, who are among the best of the best in the country: Brady Wells (Campbell County) Derrick Smallwood (John Hardin) Geordan Blanton (Johnson Central) Zane Brown (Male) Casey Cornett (Simon Kenton) Saul Ervin (Union County) Zeke Escalera (Union County) Bryce Sheffer (Union County) Ryan Moore (Walton Verona) Chase Yost (Woodford County) Max Andreoni (Woodford County)

He does not have any matches recorded on TrackWrestling. The RankWrestlers.com rankings are based on TrackWrestling results. If he is coming back soon, I am sure he will show up on the rankings as soon as he gets the opportunity to face some good opponents.

The season is still young, but already some freshmen have made a huge early impression. While others will certainly join the list as they accumulate more matches, following are the highest-ranked freshmen in Kentucky at this point according to RankWrestlers.com: Chase Yost (Woodford County) Thomas Deck (Madison Central) Micah Ervin (Union County) Colin Stevens (Trigg County) Jake Insko (Appolo) Jakerion Merritt (Christian County) Klemmer Nicodemus (Ohio County) Matthias Ervin (Union County) Cayden Graham (Scott County) Zlatko Skuljan (Hopkinsville) Chase Fink (Anderson County) Seth Lutes (Scott) Noah Kirkman (Owensboro)

None of the Johnson Central wrestlers have any matches on TrackWreslting yet. As soon as some matches are recorded, they will be in the rankings.

RankWrestlers.com provides objective, algorithm-based rankings that consider the type of win, quality of opponent, best three wins and head-to-head results. The rankings are updated daily during the season, and they include every wrestler in the state with at least five varsity matches on TrackWrestling. It costs $25 per year for full access, but there is a one-day free trial to see what it entails. In addition to individual / team rankings, there is lots of other information, such as pound-4-pound rankings, rankings by grade, team rosters, big wins this week, etc. The rankings correctly predicted over 80% of all the state tournament matches over the past three seasons. This is not intended to replace great resources like KentuckyWrestling.com, but it may make the season more interesting / fun to have another resource to investigate.