Multiple Penn State wrestling stars left out of first NCAA Coaches’ Rankings

Penn State wrestling is off to a 6-0 start and is gaining momentum as the Big Ten dual season ramps up. Today, the NCAA released the first Coaches’ Rankings for the 2024 D1 Wrestling Championships. While multiple Nittany Lions made the cut, several of Penn State’s biggest stars were left off the initial rankings. Why were these Nittany Lions left out of the rankings, and will that change as the season progresses?

Multiple Penn State wrestlers not ranked in first NCAA Coaches’ Rankings

The Coaches’ Rankings are voted on by 14 coaches per weight class. Coaches can only rank wrestlers who are designated as starters in a weight class. Wrestlers must have eight D1 matches in the weight and must have wrestled at least once within the last 30 days to be considered eligible.

Because of these guidelines, Penn State wrestling had multiple wrestlers not even make the first iteration of the list for 2024, including multiple defending national champions. The Coaches’ Rankings look a lot different from the InterMat Rankings. The Nittany Lions ranked by InterMat but are missing from the Coaches’ Rankings include No. 12 Tyler Kasak 6-1 (149), No. 1 Levi Haines 9-0 (157), No. 1 Carter Starocci  6-0 (174), No. 5 Bernie Truax 7-1 (184), No. 1 Aaron Brooks 8-0 (197), and No. 1 Greg Kerkvliet 7-0 (285).

Out of the 10 Penn State wrestlers currently ranked by InterMat, only four are ranked in the initial Coaches’ Rankings. It’s important to note that we typically see this every year, as Cael Sanderson doesn’t wrestle his top guys heavily in the early part of the season. Therefore, a large portion of his lineup doesn’t meet the qualifications until later in the year. While the rankings were released on Monday, they didn’t take into account the results from the weekend, which explains why Haines, Truax, and Brooks aren’t on the list despite reaching the 8 match threshold.

Four Nittany Lions crack the initial rankings

Penn State wrestling did have four wrestlers make the initial Coaches’ Rankings: No. 11 Braeden Davis (125), No. 2 Aaron Nagao (133), No. 2 Beau Bartlett (141), and No. 7 Mitchell Mesenbrink (165).

While many Penn State wrestlers can still jump into the rankings, the same can be said for wrestlers from other teams jumping currently ranked Nittany Lions. None of these rankings matter much this early in the season, but it is something to keep an eye on as it is one of the criteria used to determine seeding for the NCAA Tournament.

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