Wrestling

With the start of the 2018-19 season only a few weeks away, multiple wrestling publications have announced their preseason rankings — and Northwestern can be found all over the lists.

The Wildcats are ranked No. 16 by three different aggregators — FloWrestling, InterMat and The Open Mat. In the FloWrestling ranking, NU is the seventh-highest ranked team in the Big Ten and one of ten in the conference ranked in the top 20.

The highest-ranked individual wrestler is sophomore Sebastian Rivera at 125 pounds. The New Jersey native is the No. 3 ranked wrestler in the weight class by all three publications, behind two fellow Big Ten wrestlers — Iowa’s Spencer Lee and Rutgers’ Nick Suriano.

Also ranked in the top-10 in his weight class is sophomore Ryan Deakin, who wrestles at 157 pounds. InterMat and The Open Mat have Deakin at No. 6, while FloWrestling has the junior at No. 7.

Senior Conan Jennings is featured in FloWrestling’s top-10 at 285 pounds. The senior is ranked at No. 10 by FloWrestling, No. 12 by The Open Mat and No. 13 by InterMat.

Sophomore Colin Valdiviez slots in as high as No. 11 at 133 pounds. The Open Mat puts Valdiviez at No. 11, while FloWrestling has him at No. 15 and Intermat has him at No. 18. Senior Johnny Sebastian is ranked No. 14 by FloWrestling and InterMat and No. 15 by The Open Mat.

Two other wrestlers are also ranked. Junior Zack Chakonis is No. 19 at 197 pounds and freshman Yahya Thomas is No. 20 at 141 pounds by FloWrestling.

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