Penn State now features four No. 1s as Holiday tournaments begin

Photo: Mark Hall (right) avenged a 2018 NCAA finals loss to top-ranked Zahid Valencia, 4-0, on Dec. 14 in State College, Pa.  Hall, a 2017 NCAA champ, is now one of four No. 1-rated wrestlers for the Nittany Lions. (Penn State photo)

NEWTON, Iowa — Tis the season for holiday tournaments to begin and there’s a new No. 1-ranked wrestler in WIN Magazine’s Dec. 17 rankings, presented by Cliff Keen Athletic. Penn State’s Mark Hall takes over the top spot at 174 pounds after downing defending champ and rival Zahid Valencia of Arizona State, 4-0, in a dual over the weekend.

Penn State handled Arizona State 41-3 and remains the top team in both the Tournament Power Indexand dual-meet rankings. Penn State (4-0) leads WIN’s TPI rankings with 120.5 points and features nine ranked wrestlers, including four top-ranked wrestlers: Jason Nolf (157), Vincenzo Joseph (165), Hall (174) and Bo Nickal (197).

Penn State will now prepare for the Southern Scuffle, which will be held Jan. 1-2 in Chattanooga. Prior to that event, there will be two other significant regular-season tournaments — the Reno Tournament of Champions, Dec. 20, the Midlands in Hoffman Estates, Ill., Dec. 29-30 — as well as the South Beach Duals on Dec. 29-30 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.

Second-ranked Ohio State has 79 TPI points and eight ranked wrestlers and is off until Jan. 6. No. 3 Iowa (74.5 TPI, nine ranked wrestlers) will head the field at the 56^thannual Midlands, hosted by No. 10 Northwestern University.

No. 4 Oklahoma State, with 66.5 points and 10 ranked wrestlers, will compete in both the Reno TOC and the Southern Scuffle, which also includes No. 9 Virginia Tech.

The South Beach Duals, which will be held at the Ft. Lauderdale Convention Center, is a dual-meet event that features four matches for 16 teams, including four teams that are ranked in WIN’s Top 15 TPI: No. 5 NC State, No. 7 Minnesota, as well as Missouri and Cornell, which are tied for 11^thand 15^th, respectively.

These are the final rankings of 2018. WIN’s next rankings will be announced on Thursday, Jan. 3.

WIN’s Tournament Power Index (TPI) awards team points for individuals ranked in the respective weight classes based on how many potential All-Americans each school could produce at the 2019 NCAA Championships, March 21-23, in Pittsburgh, Pa.

WIN’s TPI point totals are broken down by the following individual rankings: 1st – 20 (16 AA points + 4 advancement points); 2nd – 16 (12+4); 3rd – 13.5 (10+3.5); 4th – 12.5 (9+3.5); 5th – 10 (7+3); 6th – 9 (6+3); 7th – 6.5 (4+2.5); 8th – 5.5 (3+2.5). Additional points for other rankings include: 9th/12th – 2; 13th/16th – 1.5; 17th-20th – 1. TPI points will be lower than the final actual NCAA tournament points because it does not include bonus points.

WIN Magazine’s Dec. 17, 2018 Dual-Team Rankings

WIN Magazine’s Dec. 17, 2018 Tournament Power Index (TPI)

WIN Magazine’s Dec. 17, 2018 Individual Rankings

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133 pounds                                               

141 pounds

149 pounds

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Heavyweight