How Wrestler Rankings Work

The RW Score in One Line

Every ranked wrestler has an RW Score. Wrestlers are ranked by it within their state, division, and weight class. It is built from three parts:

Each part is a number from 0 to 100 (head-to-head is a small plus or minus), so the RW Score reads like a percentage. A wrestler who beats strong opponents, and only loses to strong opponents, will score near the top. The sections below explain each part.

Adjusted Win %

A plain win percentage treats every match the same. Adjusted Win % doesn't. Each match is weighted by two things:

• Who you wrestled. A win earns more credit the stronger the opponent is, and a loss costs more the weaker the opponent is. Losing to a state champion barely hurts; losing to a wrestler with a losing record hurts a lot. An opponent's strength is their own RW Score (before head-to-head), so out-of-state opponents count at the strength they show in their own state's rankings.
• How you won or lost. Bonus-point results count more than decisions. A pin counts the most, then a tech fall, then a major decision, then a decision. That works both ways: getting pinned costs more than losing a close decision.

Byes, forfeits, disqualifications, and injury defaults show in a wrestler's record but don't count in Adjusted Win %, so they can't pad (or sink) a score.

Because opponent strength comes from opponents' own scores, and their scores depend on their opponents, the whole state is recalculated together, in several passes, every night. A win in December keeps being re-valued all season as that opponent's record fills in.

Very early in the season, a wrestler with only a few wins could show a perfect Adjusted Win % off weak competition. Until they have a handful of wins, a high early Adjusted Win % is replaced by the stronger of their 3 Best and last season's Adjusted Win %.

3 Best

3 Best is the average strength of the three best opponents a wrestler has beaten. It rewards quality wins: two big wins in a season move it more than twenty easy ones.

• It is always divided by three, so a wrestler with only one or two wins has a lower 3 Best until a third win comes.
• Beating the same strong opponent twice can count twice.
• Wins by disqualification, injury default, or medical forfeit don't count.
• Last season's 3 Best carries forward. A wrestler keeps the higher of last season's 3 Best and this season's until this season's passes it (more on that below).

Head-to-Head (H2H)

Head-to-head adjustments are for wrestlers in the same weight class who have wrestled each other. If the lower-ranked wrestler has more wins than losses against a higher-ranked wrestler, the gap between them is split: the winner moves up by half the gap and the loser moves down by half, which puts the winner just ahead.

An example (made-up wrestlers)

Alex now sits just ahead of Ben. Some things to know:

• The adjustment is limited. When the gap is large, an upset narrows it but doesn't erase it, so one match doesn't outweigh a whole season.
• Adjustments are worked from the bottom of the weight class up, and a wrestler can have several. A later adjustment can move the loser of an earlier one back in front.
• Split series (one win each) don't adjust either wrestler. Forfeits and injury defaults don't count.

Preseason, Sitting Out, and Freshmen

• Preseason. Before the first results come in, wrestlers are ranked on last season's scores, with grades moved up a year.
• Carry-forward. Once the season starts, last season's 3 Best stays with a wrestler until this season's 3 Best passes it. That keeps a returning state placer from dropping out of the rankings after one early tournament, and it helps wrestlers who start late because of injury or eligibility.
• Sat out a year. A wrestler who didn't wrestle last season carries forward from the season before, instead of starting at zero.
• Freshmen and new wrestlers. With no high school history, they start at zero and climb with their first results. A freshman who beats ranked wrestlers moves up quickly.

What Counts, and Where It Comes From

• Varsity only. JV, freshman, sophomore, novice, and scrimmage results are left out, as are events labeled preseason.
• Sources. Most results come from TrackWrestling. States that run on USA Bracketing come from there, and FloWrestling fills in tournaments the other two don't cover. Rankings update nightly during the season.
• Weight class. A wrestler is ranked at the weight they wrestled most over their last 10 matches. A move down counts after two straight matches at the lighter weight. A move up is treated as temporary, unless a teammate with a similar or better score moved down into their weight and bumped them up.
• Division. Wrestlers are ranked within their school's state classification, and some states combine classes the way their state tournament does.
• Active wrestlers. A wrestler whose last match was more than three weeks before their team's last match drops out of the rankings until they wrestle again. Their score is kept.

A Worked Example

Sam (a made-up wrestler) is 18-4 in December. Sam's wins include several pins, and three of them came against wrestlers ranked in the top six of the state. All four losses were decisions to wrestlers ranked ahead of Sam.

If one of Sam's top-six opponents goes on to win a big tournament, that opponent's score rises, and so do Sam's Adjusted Win % and 3 Best, without Sam wrestling another match.

Team Rankings

Tournament team rankings project a state tournament. Each team scores with one wrestler per weight, and each wrestler earns placement points for where they rank, places 1 through 8, like a state tournament. When two teammates are ranked at the same weight, one can be counted at another weight they have wrestled several times this season if that scores more points.

Dual team rankings average the RW Scores of a team's top active wrestlers (11 for boys, 9 for girls), then apply head-to-head adjustments from dual meets the same way as for individuals: a lower-ranked team that beats a higher-ranked team moves up, and the loser moves down.