BOONE, N.C. — Two App State wrestlers have top-33 national rankings within their weight classes in the Division I Coaches Rankings that were released Thursday, and the RPI Rankings include three Mountaineers.
NCAA COACHES RANKINGS
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Jarvis Little, No. 32 at 133 pounds
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Tomas Brooker, No. 21 at 184 pounds
NCAA RPI
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Anthony Conetta, No. 31 at 165 pounds
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Tomas Brooker, No. 25 at 174 pounds
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Stephan Monchery, No. 23 at heavyweight
The rankings are relevant when determining at-large berths within the 33-wrestler brackets for each weight class at the NCAA Championships, which will be held March 19-21 in Cleveland.
Only the champion in each of the 10 weight classes at the SoCon Championship tournament from March 6-7 in Asheville will qualify automatically for the NCAAs. According to the NCAA pre-allocations announced Thursday, the league did not receive any automatic bids beyond the champion at each weight, after having three automatic bids for non-champions last year, followed by four wrestlers who earned at-large bids for a total of 17 representatives from the SoCon.
Of the 330 wrestlers (33 for each of the 10 weight classes) ranked by the NCAA Coaches, only seven are from the SoCon, after five SoCon wrestlers qualified bids (including Brooker and Monchery). The league has no wrestlers in the NCAA Coaches' Rankings at 141 pounds, 149 pounds, 174 pounds, 197 pounds or the heavyweight division.
Brooker is 23-8 overall after going 7-0 in SoCon duals leading into the postseason, while Little is 19-12 overall with a 5-3 record in SoCon duals.
Included in the top 33 of the RPI, Monchery has a 20-6 overall record after going 8-0 in SoCon duals, and Conetta is 23-10 overall thanks to a 6-2 record in SoCon duals.
App State's
Kaden Keiser (25-9 overall, 7-1 SoCon duals) is ranked in the top 33 at 149 pounds by both FloWrestling and Intermat, and he was No. 29 in the previous set of NCAA Coaches' Rankings.
The Citadel's Carson DesRosier (the 2025 league champ), Keiser (the 2025 league runner-up) and Davidson's Anderson Heap (16-9 overall, 8-0 in SoCon duals this year) are not ranked in the latest set of NCAA Coaches' Rankings, with one automatic bid available to the league champion in Asheville. Keiser is listed at No. 39 in the RPI, which factors in winning percentage, strength of schedule and opponent's strength of schedule.
There are between four to five at-large berths available at each weight for the NCAA Championships, including five apiece at 125 and 165 pounds. That gives wrestlers (primarily ranked ones) who don't earn NCAA automatic berths chances to reach Cleveland, in the cases of upsets and bid-stealing wins from unranked wrestlers at conference tournaments.
The pre-allocations were determined by using a sliding scale of the three standards (win percentage, coaches ranking and RPI ranking) while never going below the base of .700 winning percentage, top 30 coaches ranking and top 30 RPI ranking until reaching the maximum of 29 wrestlers per weight class. For each wrestler that reached the threshold in at least two of the three categories, his conference tournament was awarded a qualifying spot in that weight class.
There are eight Division I wrestling leagues. The Big Ten, for instance, will get as many as 10 automatic qualifiers in two different weight classes and at least seven automatic qualifiers in every other weight class. The Pac-12, with only four teams, received 13 pre-allocations.
SOCON PRE-ALLOCATION OUTLOOK
| Weight Class |
Automatic allotments out of 33 spots nationally |
Automatic SoCon allotments |
SoCon wrestlers ranked in top 33 by coaches |
| 125 |
28 of 33 (5 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
| 133 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
2 |
| 141 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
0 |
| 149 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
0 |
| 157 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
| 165 |
28 of 33 (5 at-large) |
1 |
1 |
| 174 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
0 |
| 184 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
2 |
| 197 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
0 |
| 285 |
29 of 33 (4 at-large) |
1 |
0 |
| Conference |
125 |
133 |
141 |
149 |
157 |
165 |
174 |
184 |
197 |
285 |
Total |
| Atlantic Coast Conference |
5 |
3 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
39 |
| Big 12 Conference |
5 |
8 |
7 |
5 |
5 |
4 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
6 |
63 |
| Big Ten Conference |
9 |
8 |
7 |
9 |
8 |
9 |
10 |
8 |
10 |
9 |
87 |
| EIWA |
2 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
4 |
26 |
| Ivy League |
2 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
23 |
| Mid-American Conference |
2 |
4 |
2 |
4 |
4 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
2 |
2 |
27 |
| Pacific-12 Conference |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
13 |
| Southern Conference |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
| Pre-Allocations |
28 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
28 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
29 |
288 |
| At-Large |
5 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
4 |
42 |
After all the conference tournaments have concluded, the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee will meet in-person to select the remaining 42 at-large qualifiers, who will be announced on March 10. Brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com at 8 p.m. on March 11.
The coaches' rankings are determined by a vote of 16 coaches in each weight class with two head coaches from each of the eight conferences. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. Wrestlers must have eight Division I matches in the weight class to be considered with at least one within the last 30 days.
The RPI is a calculation that consists of three factors: winning percentage, opponent winning percentage (strength of schedule) and opponent's opponent winning percentage (opponent's strength of schedule). Only matches against Division I opponents at the designated weight class count towards the RPI and a wrestler needs to have wrestled 15 matches to be ranked.
The coaches' ranking and RPI are two of several criteria that will be evaluated during the at-large selection and seeding process along with head-to-head competition, quality wins, conference tournament placement, results versus common opponents and win percentage.
