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.
Rank | Wrestler | School | Weight | NCAA Titles | NCAA Placer | NCAA Finish | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Spencer Lee | Iowa | 125 | 3X | 3X | 1, 1, 1 | 78-5 |
2 | Yianni Diakomihalis | Cornell | 149 | 3X | 3X | 1, 1, 1 | 94-1 |
3 | Roman Bravo-Young | Penn State | 133 | 2X | 3X | 8, 1, 1 | 81-9 |
4 | Carter Starocci | Penn State | 174 | 2X | 2X | 1, 1 | 56-2 |
5 | Aaron Brooks | Penn State | 184 | 2X | 2X | 1, 1 | 59-3 |
6 | Keegan O'Toole | Mizzou | 165 | 1X | 2X | 3, 1 | 44-1 |
7 | Max Dean | Penn State | 197 | 1X | 3X | 8, 2, 1 | 114-19 |
8 | AJ Ferrari | Oklahoma State | 197 | 1X | 1X | 1 | 30-1 |
9 | Shane Griffith | Stanford | 165 | 1X | 2X | 1, 2 | 83-8 |
10 | Mekhi Lewis | Virginia Tech | 165 | 1X | 2X | 1, R12, 2 | 90-6 |
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.