You are currently viewing Pound-for-Pound BEST College Wrestlers this Season [Official Rankings]

Pound-for-Pound BEST College Wrestlers this Season [Official Rankings]

Who are the pound for pound best college wrestlers right now? Out of the entire NCAA Division 1 wrestling field, certain wrestlers stand above the rest based upon their overall career achievements.

This list compiles individual career stats to rank the current best pound-for-pound (P4P) college wrestlers of the 2022-2023 season.

Ranking Criteria

These Fanco Wrestling P4P rankings are based on a few criteria and will likely differ from other sites such as FloWrestling.

Fanco’s criteria includes: 1) number of NCAA titles, 2) All-American finishes, 3) Hodge Trophy wins, 4) dominance/bonus percentage, 5) current win streaks, 6) head-to-head, and 7) other criteria such as recency and strength of competition.

Special thanks to WrestleStat for these in-depth statistics.

Best P4P Wrestlers

Below is a list of the top ten pound for pound wrestlers in NCAA Division 1.

RankWrestlerSchoolWeightNCAA TitlesNCAA PlacerNCAA Finish
1Spencer LeeIowa1253X3X1, 1, 178-5
2Yianni DiakomihalisCornell1493X3X1, 1, 194-1
3Roman Bravo-YoungPenn State1332X3X8, 1, 181-9
4Carter StarocciPenn State1742X2X1, 156-2
5Aaron BrooksPenn State1842X2X1, 159-3
6Keegan O'TooleMizzou1651X2X3, 144-1
7Max DeanPenn State1971X3X8, 2, 1114-19
8AJ FerrariOklahoma State1971X1X130-1
9Shane GriffithStanford1651X2X1, 283-8
10Mekhi LewisVirginia Tech1651X2X1, R12, 290-6

Explanation for Rankings

Both Spencer Lee and Yianni Diakomihalis are seeking their 4th NCAA titles in 2023. They have similar career stats, but Spencer holds a higher overall bonus percentage.

Roman Bravo-Young holds the edge over Carter Starocci and Aaron Brooks just based on experience; however, all three will likely go down as Penn State GOATs.

Mizzou’s Keegan O’Toole has only one career loss; so, he ranks ahead of Max Dean and AJ Ferrari, who are interchangeable until their inevitable head-to-head matchup.

Former NCAA Champions Shane Griffith (2021) and Mekhi Lewis (2019) round out the bottom two best pound for pound college wrestlers. Just missing a spot are David Carr and Daton Fix.