By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FAYETTE, Iowa – The National Wrestling Coaches Association released its 2019-20 preseason rankings for NCAA Division II on Wednesday (Oct. 30). Fort Hays State starts the year ranked No. 17, while Brandon Ball<\/a> (141 pounds) and Efe Osaghae<\/a> (165 pounds) rank individually. By FHSU SPORTS INFORMATION FAYETTE, Iowa – The National Wrestling Coaches Association released its 2019-20 preseason rankings for NCAA Division II on Wednesday (Oct. 30).… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7349,784],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-wrestling"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50150"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50151,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50150\/revisions\/50151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Ball will start the year ranked No. 2 at 141 pounds. He enjoyed a stint as the No. 1 ranked wrestler in the nation last year from February 4 through the end of the season in March. He was champion of Super Region 4 and went on to a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships, finishing 2018-19 with a record of 28-2. Ball was 27-0 all the way up to the national semifinal match, where he lost to eventual national runner-up Isaiah Royal of Newberry. Royal begins this season as the No. 1 ranked wrestler at 141. Ball is a two-time All-America performer for FHSU, also claiming a sixth-place finish at the NCAA Championships in his redshirt-freshman year of 2016-17. He has an impressive career collegiate record of 114-21 entering his senior season.
Osaghae will start the year ranked ninth at 165 pounds. Last year he was ranked at 157 pounds, moving all the way up to No. 2 in the nation by early February. However, the 2017-18 All-America performer fell short of qualifying for nationals last year by getting knocked out of the Super Region tournament in a pair of close matches. Osaghae finished last year with a 24-5 record and has an overall collegiate record of 70-23 entering his junior year.
Team rankings are based on the tournament-power index rating. As a team, FHSU generates 20 points in the preseason rankings. The 20 points ties FHSU with Adams State and Limestone for a ranking of 17th<\/sup> in the rankings. The tournament-power index rating is explained below.
This is a tournament-power index ranking. The poll is not based on a team’s dual strength. TPI Point Totals are broken down by the following individual rankings: 1st=20pts, 2nd=16pts, 3rd=13pts, 4th=12pts, 5th=10pts, 6th=9pts, 7th=7pts, 8th=6pts, 9th=4pts, 10th=3pts, 11th=2pts, 12th=1pt. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"