Wisconsin Wrestling 2026-27: By the Numbers

Tenth in our state-by-state preview series: Wisconsin, a Midwestern stronghold with a tournament structure all its own. Last season MatMetrics ingested 227,467 matches from 1,237 Wisconsin events involving 35,239 wrestlers, up from 203,070 matches the year before even as our event count dipped — a reflection of the state's big, bout-heavy invitationals. The WIAA runs boys wrestling in three divisions, D1, D2, and D3, by enrollment, and girls in a single statewide class of twelve weights. It crowns champions in two places: the individual championships at the Kohl Center in Madison in late February, and a separate team-dual championship in early March that moved last winter to the La Crosse Center on the Mississippi. The 2027 individual tournament runs February 25-27; practices open November 16 and the first meets count November 27.

February produced history that will be hard to match: three Wisconsin wrestlers won their fourth individual state titles at the same tournament — Oconomowoc's Kellen Wolbert, Dodgeville's Haakon Peterson, and Lena's Taylor Whiting, who became the first girl in WIAA history to win four. All three were seniors, and all three have graduated, so the 2026-27 season opens with its three biggest names gone and the field wide open behind them.

The returning boys class, though, is loaded with champions nowhere near done. The highest-ranked is Evansville's Tomm Heiser, a Division 2 175-pound champion who enters the winter ranked No. 5 in the country — the top returning boy in the state — and he is not even alone in his own room, as teammate Kolten Bollig won a D2 title at 120 as a sophomore. Across Division 1, Luxemburg-Casco's Carson Neubert (144), Middleton's Reed Falk (190, a national top-30 junior), and Arrowhead's Zahn Beal (120, a champion as a sophomore) all return as defending titlists, as do Union Grove's Camden Rugg (113, ranked in the national top 15) and Kewaskum's Bryston Scoles (D2 157, also a national top-15 wrestler). La Crosse Aquinas's Martez Sheard adds a Division 3 title at 126 as a sophomore. Watch two underclassmen especially: Hortonville's AJ Woerpel reached a D1 final as a freshman, and Stoughton's Kade Splinter followed a third-place state finish with a Fargo Junior national title. And with Wolbert graduated, Slinger's Samuel Gehring — the wrestler he beat in the 150 final — inherits the favorite's role.

The girls side returns even more star power at the top. Wittenberg-Birnamwood's Brooke Huffman is the headliner: a three-time state champion ranked No. 1 in the country at 190 pounds, and in a sport Wisconsin only sanctioned in 2020, with its first state tournament held in 2022, a third title already pushes the ceiling of what is possible. Black River Falls's Riley Hanrahan, a two-time champion, sits No. 2 nationally at 145, and Marshfield's Erika Sleznikow, the defending 138-pound champion, is a national top-five. Add Princeton's Daelin Cody, a champion at 120 with two years of eligibility left, Wautoma/Wild Rose's Brynlee Vaughan (152), and Wrightstown's Chesney Bartoszek, a state finalist ranked in the national top 15, and the single-class girls bracket has a deep, young top tier. The caveat is turnover: three-time champion Madilyn Peach of Milton, Badger's Carley Ceshker, and Menasha's Lillie Banks were among the champions and finalists who graduated.

The team races hinge on transition. Kaukauna won another Division 1 dual-team title to extend one of the sport's longest active dynasties — but does so for the last time under Jeff Matczak, who announced in October that he is stepping down after 34 years and ten team state titles, leaving the state's signature program to open 2026-27 under new leadership. The breakthrough story is Evansville, winner of the first state title in school history in Division 2, and, unlike Kaukauna, it returns its headliners in Heiser and Bollig — making it the team to beat in its class. Aquinas took the Division 3 crown and brings back a champion in Sheard. On the girls side, Milton won its second straight team title but must replace Peach, the three-time champion at the center of it, while the chasers led by runner-up Wautoma/Wild Rose return more.

The honest caveat, and Wisconsin tests it as hard as any state: a large share of the names our ratings surface first are club and freestyle entries, not high school results. Our top raw board mixed in wrestlers tagged only to clubs like Askren Wrestling Academy or to a generic 'Wisconsin' freestyle team, and a few high-rated 'Wisconsinites' turned out to be Minnesota and Illinois wrestlers who showed up at a single border tournament. We also tightened our youth-age classification this week so a birthday falling mid-season stops nudging eighth graders onto the high school boards. The wrestlers named above are the web-verified high schoolers, with graduations and out-of-state names screened out. Career records on our site still include club and offseason matches, so they can run higher than a wrestler's official season record, and weights are where each last competed — expect movement before the first meets.

Search any Wisconsin wrestler, team, or event above to see where they stand heading into the winter, or pull up the state rankings and sort by weight class. One state a day through the fall — the series rolls on.