MR TWISTER
07-08-2008, 11:49 AM
It is a big wrestling world out there, and there are many good wrestlers all over the country. The more exposure and success a wrestler has against top competition from other states, the more likely a wrestler is to be ranked. Folsktyle success counts the most, followed by freestyle and then Greco. Illinois wrestlers don't get as much exposure in folkstyle as they do in freestyle and Greco. The rankings tend to be a bit biased to the east coast, but that is because of the larger body of interstate competition, especially during the wrestling season, among states like Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Virginia, etc. The more Illinois wrestlers compete against top wrestlers from other states, the more prominent Illinois wrestlers will be in national rankings. Illinois has actually done fairly well in national rankings over the last several years. There will always be wrestlers that we, in Illinois, will question why they are not ranked, but every state has those issues. The rankers are not omniscient and can't intimately know every wrestler in every state. The wrestlers who get overlooked most often will be the ones that haven't ventured out of the state and wrestled top competition from other states (or didn't have success doing so). Like it or not, much of the interstate competition is freestyle and Greco in the "off-season". If a wrestler doesn't do freestyle and Greco, they aren't going to be on the radar screen unless there are one of the relatively few Illinois wrestlers who get out-of-state competition during the high school season. Greco also doesn't count for much in the national rankings. A Greco win over a ranked wrestler is not going to carry the weight that a freestyle or folkstyle win will carry. One lone win over a ranked wrestler will also not likely lead to a national ranking; the rankers are looking for consistancy and will discount a a lone result. There are many great wrestlers in this nation. Our Illinois guys have shown they can hang with the best of them, but rankings are reserved for the cream of the crop. One of the best post ever written on this site. And it's all true!