2025 New York Recruiting Round-Up

As this recruiting cycle ends for the Class of 2025, there are a total of 17 top 250 recruits making their way to the Evil Empire with 12 New Yorkers staying in-state to compete for a Division I institution. The transfer portal and NIL has times changing now, but what has been proven is that the national big board rankings have been a big indicator of future success.

Statistics that prove this:
- Over the past five NCAA tournaments, every NCAA champion finished in the top 100 on their big board
- Every runner-up at the NCAA tournament finished ranked in the top 20 on their big board
- 73 of the 80 Division I All-Americans this year finished ranked on their respective big board
Statistics Credit: Willie Saylor, MatScouts‍

Analysis: Cornell knocked it out of the park this year and picked up 8 top 100 recruits while reloading on their lightweights and adding the #1 and #4 heavyweight prospects in the land with Jude Correa and Rocco Dellagatta. Anthony Knox is the top 125 lb prospect in the class of 2025 and should be a prime candidate for an All-American run as a true freshmen. Elijah Diakomihalis is now the third and final Diakomihalis brother to go to Cornell, and fully expect him to make an impact for the Big Red. Cornell has three top 50 recruits already committed and six total in the top 250 and should be a regular name that's mentioned in team title trophy contention for several consecutive years.

Analysis: 4 top 200 recruits for Army while grabbing a top 10 Illinois recruit, top 15 Indiana recruit, and an always dangerous in-state threat in Anthony Tresch. Joey Antonio had a super close match with Ladarion Lockett in the Super 32 finals, while Charles Weidman has made the NHSCA finals. Evan Roudebush was a 2x state medalist in Indiana (5-3) and had also previously taken 2nd at Junior Folkstyle Nationals in 2024. Draven McCall was a 3x Florida state champ and 4x placer (3-1-1-1). Some other great additions in Primo Catalano (CA 6th) and Johnny Green (2x OH state placer) alongside Minisink Valley standout Anthony Tresch (2x NY state placer). Looking ahead, Army currently has 8 top 250 recruits in their 2026 recruiting class which is the most out of any Division I institution. While the head coaching job at Army may be in question, what's not in question is how the Army wrestlers perform. 8 returning national qualifiers next year, a top 5 recruiting class looming, and these young men get the job done in four years. Army Wrestling stock continues to go up.

Analysis: Solid recruiting class for Pritzlaff and Co. that addresses a lot of their needs. There are 2 top 250 recruit's in Pritzlaff's inaugural recruiting class while also nabbing 2x state champ Evin Gursoy, who has previously been ranked as high as 12th in the national rankings. Kingston Daniells Silva is the gem of this class being a 2x National Prep All-American, and originally started wrestling in the Beats the Streets junior league. Charlie Scanlan finished his career in 3rd at the PA AAA state tournament after twice qualifying for the tournament. Marco Frinzi and Mark Gray are two other PA natives that will be moving to NYC, both of whom end their careers as 2x PA AAA state placers.

Analysis: Small but mighty class for Hofstra where they fill some holes in their lineup. Chase Hontz is the star of the class where he was a 3x PA state medalist (4-3-3), 2x Beast of the East placer (3-2), and a 2x NHSCA All-American. Hontz finished ranked 20th in the country at 157 lbs and should provide an immediate impact for Hofstra. They also welcome another PA native in Luke Sugalski who should fill in nicely at 174 lbs - he finished his career as a PA state medalist, NHSCA All-American, and landed on the podium at Escape the Rock. Gino Manta will staying close to home and fill in at 125/133. Manta was a 2x state placer (7-6) and managed to land on the podium this year in a monster 124 lb weight class with over 10 returning state placers. Hofstra already has 2 commits in 2026, one of them being a top 250 big boarder.

Analysis: Donnie Vinson now wraps up his inaugural recruiting class at Buffalo where he brings in a top 250 recruit in Mason Ketcham. This recruiting class Vinson and co. bring in is primarily dominated by middleweights, which Vinson has had tons of success in developing. Outside of Ketcham, Buffalo has recruited New York well having picked up state champ Patrick Grimsey and flipped former Army commit Jordan Joslyn over to Buffalo. Out of state, they picked up West Virginia state champ Tyler Roark, 2x New Jersey state medalist Max Nevlin, and another New Jersey state medalist in Zac Belverio. Buffalo's 2026 class is starting to stack up as they have 3 top 250 commits already lined up, and they have a commitment from St. Francis standout Cullen Edwards who has performed well in-state and out-of-state thus far. Keep an eye on the Bulls!

Analysis: While Binghamton didn't have any top 250 recruits, they did pack some firepower in this recruiting class while focusing on their middleweights. Trey Smith was a great pickup for Bing as he finished his career as a 3x state champ out of Wyoming. Another great pickup for the Bearcats was 4x Florida state champ Gavin Nolan - the first 4x'er in school and county history. Luke Geleta capped off his career as a 2x NJ state medalist, and Talan Hubbard took a gap year at Spire Academy where he competed in two college opens notching wins over solid D2 and NAIA competitors. He was previously projected to be a 133 lber, but now may slot in more as a 141/149. And, as always, we welcome New York natives Kayleb Martin and Jacob Hanlon to Bearcat country - Martin had an amazing senior year where he turned the corner and landed atop the podium, taking out Edinboro commit Tavyn MacDonnell in the finals.

Analysis: LIU's premier recruits this year were in state where they keep both Luke Nieto and Tommy Aiello on Long Island. Nieto capped off his career as a state champ and competed at the coveted Beast of the East and Eastern States Classic tournaments, having won Eastern States. Tommy Aiello finished his career as a 2x state champ, and had a super successful senior year where he beat Dylan Reinard, who had previously beaten Anthony LaGala-Ryan (top 150 recruit in 2027).