Final 2025-26 Top 35 National High School Wrestling Team Rankings

Florida’s Lake Highland Prep did us no favors by rolling into the National Prep Wrestling Tournament with a slightly reconfigured lineup and blowing the roof off of the place. Easily ascending to a second consecutive National Prep Championship. The Highlanders are without a doubt the best squad on the East Coast.

Over in the west, California’s Buchanan has proved to be the best that region has to offer as they went unscathed through their dual and tournament schedule. And that is where the quandary for the final number one comes from.

Buchanan was perfect. Lake Highland Prep was not.

Based on that alone we could say, “That’s it, cut and dry”, and it is a factor, but the team the Bears put on the mats all year was relatively consistent. The Highlanders on the other hand, were a different team by the time the season concluded.

One thing we will say up front is that, while a schedule and its difficultness matter, saying Team A is at more bigger events than Team B is not something we use for rankings. All that really means is you wrestle a tougher schedule. It does not equate to being the best.

There are five teams in the nation that consistently hit the top events this year (and most years): Lake Highland, New Jersey’s No. 3 Blair Academy, Pennsylvania’s No. 6 Malvern Prep, and two you won’t find in our team rankings, Layton (UT) and SLAM! Academy (NV).

Three of those teams are in the top five, the others are not. If wrestling a challenging schedule automatically equated to being the best, then Layton and SLAM! would/should be at the very least, top ten teams. But they are undeniable proof that train of thought is flawed.

The Case for Buchanan:

They have been near the top of our rankings since the preseason. We speculated early on that Lake Highland’s lineup was better than Buchanan’s and had the Highlanders in front of the Bears as Ironman dawned.

After Lake Highland finished fourth there, we promoted Buchanan to the number two spot just behind our preseason number one, Faith Christian Academy, who won Ironman.

Meanwhile, Buchanan was destroying Cali teams, including No. 12 Clovis at Arballo Hammer and the Zinkin Classic. They packed up their gear and headed to Ohio over the Christmas Break for the Brecksville Holiday Tournament.

There they finished ahead of the highest rated Ohio team on our list, No. 14 Perrysburg and other national powers from Ohio including No. 20 Dublin Coffman, No. 21 Massillon Perry and the hosts. Michigan’s No. 38 Dundee was also in the field.

Their biggest test came in the high-octane Doc Buchanan Tournament hosted by their neighbors Clovis High School. This year, some of the nation’s toughest teams made the westward trek including, Faith Christian and No. 4 Delbarton from New Jersey.

When Faith Christian arrived in the Golden State it did so as the number one team in the land and Buchanan kicked them out of that spot, finishing well ahead of the Lions with a very comfortable margin despite some injuries plaguing their lineup.

While Doc B is not quite at the Ironman level, it is easily in the top five and probably the second or third most difficult this year. But it wasn’t just Faith Christian that the Bears outpointed so easily, they left Delbarton in the dust too. Finishing ahead of those two teams is a linchpin in the rankings debate.

Following Doc B, Buchanan cruised through its dual meet schedule (CA does not have a dual meet state tournament) with wins over Clovis, Poway, and a 72-0 spanking of No. 13 Clovis North.

The Central Section D1 and Central Section Masters were won by a wide margin over Clovis and Clovis North. At states, they cruised to the state title over No. 8 Poway.

The Case Against Buchanan:

Only national competition outside of the California teams in the rankings was at Brecksville and Doc B.

The Case for Lake Highland Prep:

The final lineup destroyed the National Prep Tournament field. It was very impressive to say the least. Malvern Prep was second at Preps with Blair in third. The Highlanders easily beat the Friars in a January Dual Meet at their place.

Lake Highland captured team crowns at PowerAde and Escape the Rock. At PowerAde it was over Malvern, with Blair in third, and Escape saw Blair finish second. No 10 Christian Brothers Academy of New Jersey was also in the PowerAde field.

The Case against Lake Highland Prep:

They were not perfect. Yes, their hiccups happened early, but they happened. At Ironman, they were missing Charlie DeSena and placed fourth behind Faith Christian, Blair, and Delbarton.

The Ironman standings suggest, without any analysis, that Buchanan should be ahead of Lake Highland for the simple reason that they beat two squads at Doc B that placed ahead of Lake Highland at one juncture of the season (Faith Christian and Delbarton).

If that were their only blemish it would be easier to set aside, but Blair won the Beast of the East ahead of the Highlanders and later beat Lake Highland straight up in a dual meet in January.

So, that’s three losses to Blair in some form, plus tournament losses to Faith Christian and Delbarton.

The Final Rationale

We ran a “Fantasy Dual Meet” simulation a few times and most of the scenarios favored Lake Highland Prep. But as we know, upsets happen and we never know from where they will come, so it’s difficult to use a simulation to justify rankings changes based on what ifs and speculation.

It’s not really fair to decide something in a hypothetical manner when there is hard factual evidence to use. It’s unfortunate that there is no Super Bowl like tournament for all to compete in at the end to decide a “final” champ.

As much as one camp may not like the decision, we are not in the business of speculating. We are in the business of analyzing the actual results and we could argue for days about who is better on paper, but when papers got set aside and the action ensued, there was one team in the country that never tasted defeat, and that was Buchanan.

While they may not have been in the thick of it every week, when they were, they handled their business. No one questioned Faith Christian being number one when they ran into Buchanan.

Buchanan took out FCA and Delbarton. If we were breaking this down like we do for individual rankings it would look like this: Buchanan>FCA>Delbarton>LHP.

Later in the season, Delbarton beat FCA in a dual and pulled them farther down. We are already acknowledging the Lake Highland improvement by having them ahead of FCA and Delbarton, who they never beat. So, in reality, a case could be made for LHP to be farther down, and with that hanging on their resume, they simply can’t jump the undefeated Buchanan team.

It would not be fair to the Bears, and we need to do what’s right and fair. The only argument for Lake Highland to be ahead of Buchanan is a hypothetical one. In sports, your losses count and sometimes they come back to haunt you, and this is simply where we are when it comes to the final decision to leave Buchanan in the top spot.

Final 2025-26 Top 35 National High School Wrestling Team Rankings

1-Buchanan, CA

Previous No. 1

The season ended with them as CA state tournament champs for the 9th time in the last 10 years and, now, a National Championship.

2-Lake Highland Prep, FL

Previous No. 2

Season ended with them winning their second straight National Prep Tournament.

3-Blair Academy, NJ

Previous No. 3

Finished third at the National Prep Tournament but beat Lake Highland on three occasions.

4-Delbarton, NJ

Previous No. 4

Won the NJ State Tournament and state duals as well.

5-Faith Christian Academy, PA

Previous No. 5

Ended with a fourth straight PA AA State Tournament Title. Were also AA Dual Meet Champions.

6-Malvern Prep, PA

Previous No. 6

Season has ended. Were second in the National Prep Team Race.

7-Wyoming Seminary, PA

Previous No. 7

Finished season by placing fourth in the NP Team Standings.

8-Poway, CA

Previous No. 9

Season is over with them finishing second to Buchanan at the state tournament and ahead of St. John Bosco.

9-St. John Bosco, CA

Previous No. 10

Landed third in the state tournament standings as their season is now complete.

10-Christian Brothers Academy, NJ

Previous No. 8

Slipped to third at the NJ States behind St. Joseph Regional, whom they’ve beaten in a dual. Overall, we feel the body of work supports them as a top ten team despite the state tournament finish as they were just one point behind St. Joseph.

11-Bishop McCort, PA

Previous No. 11

Finished second at the AA states to Faith Christian but ahead of Bishop McDevitt.

12-Clovis, CA

Previous No. 12

Their season is now over with them ending in third fourth in the state tournament hierarchy.

13-Clovis North, CA

Previous No. 13

Season is over. They were sixth in the state standings behind Gilroy but have outperformed Gilroy at every other stop.

14-Perrysburg, OH

Previous No. 14

Locked down the DI State Tournament Crown over St. Edward.

15-Bishop McDevitt, PA

Previous No. 15

Came in third in the PIAA AA State Tournament team standings.

16-Stillwater, OK

Previous No. 16

Season ended. They were 6A State Tournament team champions.

17-Bixby, OK

Previous No. 17

Season is now complete. Were second at the 6A State Tournament.

18-Edmond North, OK

Previous No. 18

The campaign closed with them third in the 6A states.

19-St. Edward, OH

Previous No. 19

Placed second at DI States behind Perrysburg.

20-Dublin Coffman, OH

Previous No. 20

Tied Massillon Perry for third in the DI Team Race.

21-Massillon Perry, OH

Previous No. 20

Tied with Dublin Coffman for third at states.

22-St. Joseph Regional, NJ

Previous No. 24

Finished second in the state tournament team standings.

23-Bergen Catholic, NJ

Previous No. 23

Finished fourth at states ahead of St. Peter’s Prep.

24-St. Peter’s Prep, NJ

Previous No. 22

Landed in fifth at the NJ State Tournament.

25-Greens Farms Academy, CT

Previous No. 25

Ended the year 5th in the NP Team Standings.

26-Broken Arrow, OK

Previous No. 26

Finished their season by landing in fourth of the 6A State Tournament standings.

27-Mustang, OK

Previous No. 27

Season ended. Despite earlier finishes ahead of some of top teams, they were fifth behind Broken Arrow at 6A States.

28-Marmion Academy, IL

Previous No. 28

Season is now complete. They were 3A State Dual Meet Champions.

29-IC Catholic Prep, IL

Previous No. 29

Campaign ended with them being 2A state dual champs.

30-Gilroy, CA

Previous No. 30

Ended their season by placing ahead of Clovis North in fifth at states.

31-Crown Point, IN

Previous No. 31

The campaign is over. Crown Point won the dual meet state championship over Center Grove and Brownsburg. We feel that should hold more weight than a third-place finish at individual states, where brackets are single elimination until the semifinals.

32-Center Grove, IN

Previous No. 32

Finished their year by capturing the first-place trophy at the Indiana States.

33-Brownsburg, IN

Previous No. 33

Season completed with them in second in the state tournament team standings.

34-Grassfield, VA

Previous No. 34

The campaign has ended with them as Class 6 State Champions.

35-Brecksville, OH

Previous No. 35

Were the fifth place team in the DI State Tournament standings.

36-Allen, TX

Previous No. 36

Season over. Won the 6A State Tournament Crown over The Woodlands, 199.5-112.5.

37-St. Michael-Albertville, MN

Previous No. 37

Season ended. Won a AAA state dual title.

38-Dundee, MI

Previous No. 38

Competed at the 3A State Tournament where team scores were not tabulated.

39-Shakopee, MN

Previous No. 39

Season over. They were second in the AAA pecking order.

40-Stillwater, MN

Previous No. 40

Season ended. They lost a dual to Shakopee at states.