125 lbs: How Did We Get Here?

I imagine you’ve seen a movie or TV show where the main character finds themselves in a precarious predicament and says “You’re probably wondering how I got here.” Or perhaps that’s made it across your screen in a meme format. Either way, that character usually narrates all of the events that led up to the mess they find themselves in. 

Well, for more than two months now, wrestling fans/coaches/media members have lamented about how crazy the 125 lb weight class has been this year. InterMat has gone through four different #1’s this year and has gone back to the original one (for now) in Matt Ramos. Other sites have had two and three other #1’s. #2’s have suffered a similar fate. Luke Stanich ascending to the second spot this week makes six different wrestlers who have held that ranking for some length of time. The craziness isn’t limited to the top of the weight class, they’ve happened up and down the entire weight class. I stopped being shocked at anything this weight had to offer a few weeks ago. 

That leads us to the question I’m seeking to answer today. “You’re probably wondering how we got here.” In my 16 years of covering collegiate wrestling, I’ve never seen a weight class like this. How did we get to the point where chaos and unpredictability are well, predictable? 

photo courtesy of Tony Rotundo; WrestlersAreWarriors.com

Graduation

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