California High School boys wrestling rankings (1-13-2024)

Plenty of shifts in rankings after the Doc B Wrestling Invitational in Clovis
Sonny Ling of Canyon Springs last year won the state 190-pound weight class with an 11-2 win over Brokton Borelli of Los Banos, who is seeded No. 2 again in 2024-25.
Sonny Ling of Canyon Springs last year won the state 190-pound weight class with an 11-2 win over Brokton Borelli of Los Banos, who is seeded No. 2 again in 2024-25. / Photo: Joe Bergman

It's the middle of January, the heart of the wrestling season.

With the postseason about six weeks away, here are the best wrestlers from California per age group according to Bill Buckheit, a long time national expert on the sport, who often serves on the seeding committees for many of the top tournaments in the country.

According to Buckheit, the huge Doc B Wrestling Invitational in Clovis provided major shake-ups, the biggest one being Buchanan-Clovis' Ashton Besmer (132) going from No. 28 to No. 6 after downing No. 6 Moses Mendoza (Gilroy) and No. 7 Manuel Saldate (SLAM! Academy, NV) in successive matches to win the title.

  • BUCHANAN WINS 3 | Doc B Invitational results

The Doc B also provided the emergence for a few California wrestlers who went from unranked to now occupying spots in our latest list such as Merced’s Nathaniel Granados (106), Buchanan’s Iva Arias (150), Birmingham’s Slava Shabazyana (165), and two from the hosts, Clovis High School, Anthony Garza (106) and Raymond Rivera (138). Shabazyana shocked previous No. 7 Joseph Antonio (St. John Bosco). In all fairness, it should be noted that Garza had been at 113 Freddylbs where he was unranked but would have been ranked at 106.

Leo Contino - Ashton Besmer - Paul Ruiz - Buchanan wrestling
(from left ) Leo Contino (160), Ashton Besmer (135) and Paul Ruiz (116) all sport the famed Cowboy Hat given to champions at The Doc B. Besmer was named Outstanding Wrestler and Buchanan won the team title. / Buchanan Wrestling Instagram

Here are rankings from SBLive's Billy Buckeit with some help from calgrappler.com

2024-25 California High School Wrestling Rankings

106

1-Samuel Sanchez (Esperanza) FR

2-Anthony Garza (Clovis) SO

3-Nathaniel Granado (Merced) SR

4-Jorge Rios (St. John Bosco) FR

5-Tyler Sweet 9 (Clovis North) FR

113

1-Paul Ruiz (Buchanan) FR

2-Henry Aslikyan (Birmingham) JR

3-Jadyn Wren (Clovis East) JR

4-Zach Hoover (Laguna Creek) SR

5-Aaron Meza (St. John Bosco, CA) FR

120

1-Rocklin Zinkin (Buchanan) JR

2-Sean Willcox (St. John Bosco) JR

3-Paulo Valdez (Hesperia) SR

4-Caine Martin (Camarillo) SO

5-Caleb Rivas (Mission Oak) SR

126

1-Ronnie Ramirez (Walnut) SR

2-Antonio Rodriguez (Los Gatos) JR

3-Isaiah Cortez (Gilroy) SR

4-Nathan Carillo (St. John Bosco) JR

5-Edwin Sierra (Poway) SR

132

High school wrestling; Bakersfield California, CIF state championships
Photo from the 2024 CIF State Wrestling Championships in Bakersfield. Buchanan's Ashton Besmer made a major jump up at 132 pounds going from No. 28 to No. 6 nationally after beating a pair of Top 10 ranked wrestlers on his to winning a title at the The Doc B Invitational in Clovis. / Photo: Joe Bergman

1-Ashton Besmer (Buchanan) JR

2-Moses Mendoza (Gilroy) JR

3-Jeff Lopez (Clovis West) SR

4-Billy Townson (Poway) SR

5-Leo Macias (Kingsburg) SR

138

1-Jesse Grajeda (St. John Bosco) SO

2-Elijah Cortez (Gilroy) SR

3-Paris Ruiz (Buchanan) SR

4-Raymond Rivera (Clovis) JR

5-Jacob Perez (Monache) SR

144

1-Nikade Zinkin (Clovis SR

2-Joseph Toscano (Buchanan) JR

3-Michael Romero (St. John Bosco) SO

4-Arseni Kikiniou (Poway) SO

5-Braden Priest (Bakersfield) SR

150

1-Daniel Zepeda (Gilroy) SR

2-Ivan Arias (Buchanan) JR

3-Niko Valenzuela (Fountain Valley) SR

4-Matthew Luna (Saint Francis) SR

5-Max Del Bosque (Clovis North) SR

high school wrestling; Gilroy high school
Daniel Zepeda of Gilroy won the state 138-pound championships last season as a junior. / Photo: Gilroy high school

157

1-Leo Contino (Buchanan) Sr.

2-Beau Priest (Bakersfield) SR

3-Alias Raby (Anderson) JR

4-Mark Del Bosque (Clovis North) SR

5-Tigran Greyan (St. John Bosco) JR

165

1-Mario Carini (Poway) SO

2-Slava Shabazyana (Birmingham) JR

3-Travis Grace (Gilroy) JR

4-Joseph Antonio (St. John Bosco) SR

5-Wyatt Lewis (Clovis) SO

175

1-Jonathan Rocha (Clovis North) JR

2-Mason Ontiveros (John H Pitman) JR

3-Isai Fernandez (St. John Bosco) FR

4-Adrien Reyes (Clovis) SR

5-Dylan Pile (Los Gatos) Sr

190

1-Levi Bussey (Granite Bay) SR

2-Brokton Borelli (Los Banos) SR

3-David Calkins (Liberty-Brentwood) JR

4-Carter Vannest (Pitman) JR

5-Jonathan Rocha (Clovis North) JR

high school wrestling; California high school wrestling
Sonny Kling of Canyon Springs last year won the state 190-pound weight class with an 11-2 win over Brokton Borelli of Los Banos, who is seeded No. 2 again in 2024-25. / Photo: Joe Bergman

215

1-Angelo Posada (Poway) SR

2-Khale McDonnell (Fountain Valley) SR

3-Wes Burford (Oakdale) JR

4-Brock Rios (Frontier) SR

5-Noah Bode (Vista Murrieta)

285

1-Nicholas Sahakian (St. John Bosco) SR

2-Coby Merrill (John W. North) JR

3-Mark Marin (Clovis), SR.

4-Daniel Moylan (Poway) SO

5-Adam Stanley (Bakersfield)


Published |Modified
Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.