With the explosive growth of girls wrestling all over the nation, the committee which creates the Girls High School Wrestling Rankings is encouraging people to send in information that will help with the ranking process.

National Wrestling Hall of Fame, USA Wrestling and FloWrestling make the selections, which are done during the regular high school season and into the postseason months. This ranking evaluates all girls enrolled in grades 9-12, and include athletes from all 50 states. Please note that at this time, eighth graders and younger are not eligible for the rankings.

Click to see the current Girls High School Wrestling Rankings

In order for people to assist in the ranking process, the selection committee wants to make sure that those in the wrestling community understand how the rankings are researched and selected.

Currently, the ranking committee has created a watch list of talented girl high school wrestlers, broken down by weight class. For each of these wrestlers, information on their achievements at important competitions is kept, and updated throughout the year. In addition, the committee keeps a watch list of major competitions, where talented wrestlers who should be considered for ranking are monitored. Based upon the results from the event watch list, athletes are ranked according to achievements.

Events on the watch list (in priority order) include:
1. World-level and other international competition
2. Major USA Wrestling National Competitions (Girls Folkstyle Nationals in Oklahoma City; Women’s Nationals in Irving, Texas; Women’s National Duals in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and USMC Junior/Cadet Nationals in Fargo, North Dakota.
3. Girls High School State Championships (official and unofficial), including regionals and qualifiers
4. Major in-season girls high school wrestling tournaments/dual meets
5. Major Spring and summer girls tournaments
6. Major national-level preseason tournaments

One of the key factors in determining a ranking is the concept of head-to-head competition. The committee looks for head-to-head results when available, to determine the ranking of that athlete. It is very important to understand that a head-to-head victory in one of the major events will carry more weight than one at a less-important event, especially when athletes wrestle each other multiple times.

There is also the concept of a “ranked win,” which occurs when two ranked wrestlers compete against each other, or an unranked wrestler beats a ranked wrestler. Ranked wins are truly important in helping an athlete become ranked or improve upon her ranking. These ranked wins can come in smaller competitions, dual meets, etc. which may not be on the watch list, so information on ranked wins (within the past year) coming from the general public is very much appreciated. Please do not assume that the committee knows about every ranked win at the local levels.

Additional information considered by committee
• State rankings during the high school season
• Ranked wins – victories against ranked wrestlers (at any time of the year)
• Recommendations from USA Wrestling National Women’s Coaching staff
• Recommendations from Women’s Directors from USA Wrestling and the Hall of Fame, and other women’s wrestling leaders
• Recommendations from high school coaches, club coaches and parents

At any time, the committee will accept information on a wrestler who should be on the watch list. It is very important that we receive the following information on a talented wrestler:
• Name of the athlete
• City and State where she resides
• High School she attends
• The weight class she currently competes in
• Year in school (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior), in this case for 2018-19

If you are interested in helping the ranking committee learn about a specific athlete, or you have information on competitions and results that would assist in the rankings, please feel free to forward that to the following email address: girlsrankings@usawrestling.org

Your assistance is not only appreciated, but also encouraged. It is not easy getting information on girls high school wrestling, especially at the local levels, so the general public is invited to participate. Information will be reviewed at any time of the year. People who send in information often are thanked in advance.