Here we go! Preseason rankings heading into the 22-23 season! I’m hoping to be able to knock out three to four of these throughout the season, with the final ranking coming right before the individual state tournament. Now, who am I?
My Name is Andrew Warren; the past two seasons I was an assistant coach for Ocean Springs and last year I also helped coach the Gulf Coast Wrestling Club. I’ve been involved with wrestling for the last 16 years as a coach or competitor so I’m not new to the sport. I’m active duty Navy, currently deployed to Spain, so unfortunately I will not be coaching this season. That’s why I’m doing these rankings! This is my way of actively staying involved with the growth of wrestling in the great state of Mississippi.
I'm looking at these rankings unbiased and unattached. They will be based strictly from the statistical stand point so you won’t see any emotional reasoning, no favoritism or special treatment from me. This is probably the easiest ranking I’ll do all season because it preseason. We don’t know where these kids are going to be wrestling at this year and I wasn’t looking to speculate on where I think these kids will be sitting weight-wise, so my next rankings will be more accurate. For these rankings I played the safe bet. I went into the brackets from last year’s state tournament, removed the seniors who graduated and boom, here’s your rankings. We have 9 State champions who are eligible to come back so they obviously are going to sit at the top of their rankings…at least for now… because in order to be the man, you got to beat the man. Some of these kids in this ranking may not compete this season, I know of at least one state champion I’ve ranked who does not plan to come back to defend his title (hopefully he does). Additionally, we have added new teams to the state!!!! So I have absolutely no idea what those guys are going to bring to the table competition-wise. So let me tell you a couple big things I’ll be looking at for rankings:
Head to head matches. Self-explanatory right? If wrestler A has beaten wrestler B three times this season then it wouldn’t make a ton of sense to place wrestler B ahead of him/her.
Strength of matches. If I have a kid that’s 15-4 wrestling tough kids at varsity tournaments I’m going to throw him over a kid that is 12-0 winning round robin JV tournaments. Iron sharpens iron and we aren’t here to play patty cake all the way to the state tournament.
The big meat and potatoes of these ranking and I really need to hammer this down. THEY DO NOT MEAN ANYTHING. These rankings will not be affecting your tournament seeding, these won’t help you get scholarships or anything like that. These are just my opinion, and who am I? Nobody! Just a fan. So if you’re a parent and you’re upset where your child is ranked or that they aren’t ranked just remember that. When I wrestled in high school we had these rankings ever year and we loved them and always looked forward for them to come out. Wrestlers, keep grinding, keep competing, stay aggressive, stay hungry! That's how you get on this ranking and that’s how you stay on these rankings. I look forward to following everyone’s season and watching everyone compete from overseas. These do not have women’s rankings. As the season progresses and I can gather some data for the women I’ll throw those up but for now and the lack of numbers in the state we are going to hold off a bit. Now shut up Andrew and let’s get to the rankings.
106
1. *Quinton Carroll, 8th Vancleave
2. Sam Bishop, 9th St. Andrews
3. Easton Stark, 8th North Pontotoc
4. Cameron Blume, 8th East Central
113
1. *Garner Taylor, 8th Ocean Springs
2. Eli Sheffield, 9th North Pontotoc
3. Elijah Marble, 8th East Central
4. Colton Gilbert, 8th Vancleave
120
1. *Gabe Shanks, 11th Ocean Springs
2. Justin Pierce, 10th East Central
3. Chase Alspaugh, 9th Vancleave
4. Luke Hale, 9th North Pontotoc
126
1. *Lucas Hall, 11th Ocean Springs
2. Garon Murley, 11th Center Hill
3. Logan Daugherty, 10th Vancleave
4. Chris Ross, 10th St. Martins
132
1.*Gabe Beemon, 11th Ocean Springs
2. Braxton Patricola, 11th East Central
3. Cooper Warren, 9th North Pontotoc
4. James Jacobs, 10th Vancleave
138
1. *Blayne Patrick, 11th Vancleave
2. Jared Barr, 11th Ocean Springs
3. Reid Jones, 10th South Pontotoc
4. Johnathan Hopes, 10th Center Hill
145
1. *Jarret Scott, 12th Ocean Springs
2. Cole Daugherty, 11th Vancleave
3. Landon Ward, 11th North Pontotoc
4. Colby Cooley, 8th East Central
152
1. Seth DeParro, 10th St. Martin
2. Austin Morgan, 10th St. Andrews
3. Mike Wilbanks, 11th North Pontotoc
4. Will Angle, 11th South Pontotoc
160
1. Steven McDonald, 11th East Central
2. Reid Patterson, 9th South Pontotoc
3. Dre Villareal, 10th North Pontotoc
4. Clayton Jacobs, 9th Vancleave
170
1. *Elijah Carwyle, 12th North Pontotoc
2. Randall Wilson, 11th Vancleave
3. Hunter Hilbun, 11th East Central
4. Collen Evans, 12 th St. Martin
182
1. Frank stark, 12th North Pontotoc
2. Barrett Dempsey, 12th Center Hill
3. Hunter Rainer, 12th Vancleave
4. Johnathan Steele, 12th St. Martin
195
1. *Trent Schlosberg, 11th Ocean Springs
2. Nate Taylor, 12th Center Hill
3. Malik Payton, UNK St. Martin
4. Alexander Hardy, 11th East Central
220
1. Anthony King, 12th Center Hill
2. Elijah Thompson, 12th Ocean Springs
3. Trenton McNeer, 9th Vancleave
4. Bryce Rainer, 11th North Pontotoc
285
1. Landon Fairbanks, 11th Ocean Springs
2. Blayne Brawner, 11th Center Hill
3. Aidan Reed, 12th East Central
4. BG Peterson, 9th Vancleave
(*) denote returning state champion.