WIN announces first Dual Rankings; previews Vegas Invite

Photos: Cornell’s Yianni Diakomihalis (left) and Ohio State’s Sammy Sasso (right) are ranked No. 1 and 2, respectively, at 149 pounds in WIN’s Nov. 29 rankings. They could meet at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational this weekend.

NEWTON, Iowa — Following a one-year interruption, the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational is returning this weekend and the Nov. 29 WIN national rankings and Tournament Power Index are serving as a preview for the 39^th annual event that will feature six teams from WIN’s top-15 teams according to the WIN’s recent TPI rankings.

Among the teams wrestling Dec. 3-4 at the Las Vegas Convention Center — according to WIN’s latest TPI — are No. 5 Michigan, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 9 Northwestern, No. 10 Cornell, No. 11 Minnesota, and No. 13 Nebraska.

There are two weight classes where the top two wrestlers could meet in this year’s event: No. 1 Yianni Diakomihalis of Cornell and No. 2 Sammy Sasso of Ohio State at 149 pounds; and at heavyweight where No. 1 Gable Steveson of Minnesota and No. 2 Mason Parris of Michigan could meet in a rematch of their 2021 NCAA final. The Wolverine has not competed for Michigan yet this semester.

There are three other weights where Top-5 wrestlers could meet in Las Vegas:

125 – Princeton’s No. 2 Pat Glory and Utah Valley’s No. 4 Taylor Lamont;

157 – Northwestern’s No. 2 Ryan Deakin, Minnesota’s No. 4 Brayton Lee and Nebraska’s No. 5 Peyton Robb;

165 – Cal Poly’s No. 2 Evan Wick and Stanford’s No. 4 Shane Griffith.

Meanwhile, WIN also announced its first Dual Rankings of the season. The first five schools are Iowa, Penn State, Oklahoma State, Missouri and NC State. The Hawkeyes travel to instate rival Iowa State on Dec. 5; the Nittany Lions travel to Penn on Friday and host Lehigh on Sunday; the Cowboys are off until Dec. 12 when they face Bedlam-rival Oklahoma; the Tigers host both Northern Iowa and Virginia Tech on Saturday, Dec. 4; and the Wolfpack hosts Gardner-Webb on Thursday, Dec. 2.

The following is WIN’s Tournament Power Index, which predicts approximately how many NCAA points a team could score in Detroit in March at the Division I Championships based on where their individuals are ranked at this point in the season. Excluding bonus points, the TPI is based on numbers associated with individual placements/rankings based on our current rankings below: 20 for 1^st, 16 for 2^nd, 13.5 for 3^rd, 12.5 for 4^th, 10 for 5^th, 9 for 6^th, 6.5 for 7^th and 5.5 for 8^th. Wrestlers ranked 9-12 earn two points each, followed by 1.5 points for wrestlers ranked 13-16 and 1 point for those ranked 17-20.

WIN’s Nov. 29 Tournament Power Index (TPI)

WIN’s Nov. 29 Dual Rankings

WIN’s Nov. 29 Individual Rankings

125 pounds

133 pounds

141 pounds

149 pounds

157 pounds

165 pounds

174 pounds

184 pounds

197 pounds

Heavyweight