Sonny Amato, highly touted 2027 wrestling recruit, reveals Top 7 schools

Sonny Amato, the No. 4 157 pound recruit in the country per MatScouts, narrowed his school list down to a Top 7 on Saturday. Hailing from Rumson-Fair Haven (N.J.), Amato is the top ranked junior (2027) in his weight class nationwide.

Amato won an NJ State title at 144 pounds in 2024 as a freshman, beating current Rutgers wrestler Alex Nini in the finals. Amato finished third in 2025 and is the second-highest ranked NJ wrestler at this weight with Penn State commit Jayden James (2026) coming in at No. 1 in the country and No. 5 pound-for-pound.

Amato originally released a list of 12 schools back in June, but eliminated Penn, Cornell, Oklahoma State, Nebraska and Pitt. His finalized list can be seen below.

Amato’s top seven schools include Virginia Tech, Arizona State, Rutgers, Iowa, Oklahoma, Iowa State and Ohio State. There is currently no timeline for a decision for the incoming high school junior. 

The young star showed lots of resilience back in March when he was upset by eventual state champion Blase Mele (Princeton commit) in the semifinals. Amato won out to take third and ended with a win.

“Not going to lie, I was in a real deep mental state (Friday) night. I hardly got any sleep and I didn’t think I was going to wrestle today like I did,” Amato said, via Shore Sports Insider. “But I honestly feel better that I wrestled. My dad even said, you’ll be happier taking third than forfeiting out and taking sixth.”

His head coach Elezar DeLuca, who ended his college career as a 2018 NCAA qualifier for Rutgers, was proud of his highly touted prospect. It was about getting the next best thing.

“He brushed it off and got back to work and came back to get the next best thing, and that’s what a lot of these (college) programs are looking for,” DeLuca said. “They don’t want to see a kid lose and drop out of the bracket or lose and take sixth. They want to see them come back. He showed a lot of character doing so, and I’m proud of him for that.”

Amato’s final schools all have had recruiting wins lately. As far as how those 2025 classes stack up against each other, they are as follows: No. 4 Virginia Tech, No. 5 Iowa, No. 10 Rutgers and HM Oklahoma, per MatScouts.