The Intermountain Champion
Series was created to recognize the finest athletes in the Intermountain
West. Why is the Intermountain West so deserving? Because
the Mountain States have — by far — the highest rates of male wrestlers
as a percentage of total high school athletes in the USA, according to
Real Pro Wrestling.
The top states, in terms of
number of male wrestlers as a percentage of total high school athletes
in 2004-05:
1) Utah (6.6%)
2) Wyoming (6.4%)
5) Nevada (5.8%)
7) Idaho (5.2%)
7) Arizona (5.2%)
14) Montana (4.7%)
Ryan Hansen
2009 Intermountain Champion
Of the eight Mountain States in the U.S., six are in the Top 14
in the country.
(Okalahoma came in 37th by
this measure, which put them behind every western state except for Texas
and Hawaii.)
On the collegiate level,
Utah Valley State, Northern Colorado, SDSU, and NDSU will all either
compete at or be transitioning to the NCAA Division 1 level in the
newly-minted Western Wrestling Conference (WWC) in 2006–07. Based on
this data, the Intermountain West looks to be wrestling's biggest growth
region going forward.
Application to Join the Intermountain Champion
Series
