Jaxon Joy moves up to 157 in InterMat's rankings
The 2025 NCAA No. 2 seed at 149 lands in a 157 field stacked four deep, with the man who ended his season waiting there too.
Cornell's Jaxon Joy is moving up to 157, per @justinjbasch, after InterMat updated its preseason Division I rankings.
Joy entered NCAAs last March as the No. 2 seed at 149 with just one loss, then fell in the quarterfinals 12-9 and went out in the blood round, one win short of All-American. The wrestler who beat him 7-2 in that blood round, Virginia Tech's Collin Gaj, is at 157 this season as well and sits at No. 8.
A top four that does not leave much room
The 157 field Joy walks into is the one everyone has been circling. Basch lists No. 1 Landon Robideau, No. 2 Tyler Kasak, No. 3 Antrell Taylor and No. 4 Brandon Cannon stacked at the top, with Gaj at No. 8. That is before Joy is even in the conversation, and it is the sort of weight where a seed in the top eight is going to require beating somebody with a national finals résumé.
For Cornell it reshapes the lineup math. Joy was the Big Red's best bet for points at 149 a year ago and carried a No. 2 seed into Philadelphia, so moving him a weight up is not a small lever to pull. Nobody has said why the move was made.
The other moves in the update
Joy is not the only one on the move in InterMat's update. Lehigh's Matty Lopes drops from 133 to 125, and Chattanooga's Cody Chittum goes the other direction from 157 down to 149, which thins the field Joy is entering by one name while adding to the one he is leaving.
Basch framed the question the same way most of the weight will. He asked whether Joy can break through and All-American up at 157, which is the plain version of the problem. He was a quarterfinalist at a lighter weight and still did not get on the podium, and the group above him at 157 is deeper than what he faced at 149.
Our take is that the Gaj rematch is the one to watch for. The two met with an All-American spot on the line in March, Gaj won 7-2, and now both are listed at the same weight with Gaj ranked No. 8 in the preseason. Cornell and Virginia Tech sharing a bracket line gives that one a clear setting at the conference and national level.
What to watch: where Joy lands when the first in-season rankings come out, and whether the 157 top four of Robideau, Kasak, Taylor and Cannon holds its shape once duals start.
Can Joy break through and AA up at 157?
he entered NCAAs as the #2 seed at 149 with just one loss, but fell in the quarters 12-9 and then in the blood round, one win short of All-American.
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