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First of all congratulations for a great tournament at Walton-Verona. Top notch competition was definitely present. Everyone got to see some really great matches with some kids that give their hearts everyday. Which leads me to my point. Our kids give their all everyday for a sport that they love so much. The pain, the sacrifice, the long days spent learning all the things for offense and defense. And the coaches who give their all by giving up family time and relaxation time and weekends for several months to teach our kids about a sport that they also love. Kudos coaches! But it seems that there is an issue with what will be called and when it will be called. I have a wrestler that had done her best to get down to a lower weight for this competition. All the wrestling families out their know what our kids go through for this. She made weight and was ready for her chance to show what she could do win or lose. It wasn't to be because of one official who brought it upon himself to make a call that had not been made all year. All the tournaments, weigh ins, match inspections. This call caught everyone off guard. Females wear under shirts for obvious reasons and I am sure that there are bylaws for this somewhere. The wrestler in question was called for loose sleeves that had the potential for broken fingers as it was explained to me, the father, and the coach. With this being a non issue all year we were unprepared and the clock was wound and the rest is history. Devastation for the wrestler who wanted to give their all and wrestle. The official in question started his day off with the very first match before it even started by deducting a point for loose shoe laces on the mat that we were sitting beside. After the issue of loose sleeves and a match that was lost we went and got a tighter shirt. Upon returning we heard that this official had gone to the lead official and asked about the issue and was told that what she was wearing would have been fine. So we found the official that made the call to be sure that his approval was given for her new shirt and questioned him about his decision which came with a shrug. My beef is that with all the things that these kids go through we should treat officiating in a more professional way. Some of these guys treat it as their weekend extra money job while the majority are also lovers of this sport. Consistency is what all of these kids need for the whole year. Consistency by all officials on what they will call. Consistency so these kids have a chance to compete. There were many ways this issue could have been handled but hind sight is twenty twenty. My point is consistency, consistency, consistency so we all follow the rules year round not just at the end of the year and not just for certain officials.

Gosh look at me agreeing with the ol NatureBoy a lot lately.... Woooooooo!!!

Good luck you actually asked good questions rather than attacking a ranker. Still funner just reading someone saying how in ne he'll is my boy not ranked higher he whomped everone.

I say the referee should slap the mat. If a kid taps, even if the danger is real or made up. Slap the mat and this kind of foolishness will end. jm2c

Thanks for your Comment ukpridewrestler11 , again I would like to apologize to the Central coach's and anyone else I offend. I could care less if my son wins or loses , he's not in it for that. Truly a great sport that seems to teach great life lessons.

Spoke with some folks from Caldwell and Union today, who were there yesterday. Nikolao barely pulled off a win against Snyder from Union. So a healthy Nikolao may be lucky to get a Region title. If he places at state it will be a surprise. If his knee is that bad he might want to stay off the mat. The top guys in the state are not going to concern themselves with his obvious injury. From what I saw at the Christian County Tournament he uses his size to win not much technique. When he matches up with someone his size that knee will become the stumbling block. Sounds like a great young man but with that knee issue this may be another season the stay off the mat. Watched him last year prior to his injury and then he did have a legitimate shot at a title. I wish him the best and pray no further damage falls upon the young man this season.

Cox should be fine. He had knee surgery in August to repair torn meniscus. I think Mizzou as a whole will be fine come NCAAs assuming they are healthy. I guess asking about health of team and giving ex Ohio St asst props gets one labeled a "tp", whatever that is. Mizzou has been dinged up most of the season.

For sure, a good win!

I remember Goldman (IU) did the same tactic for his son, too. Still an an awesome win for TJ.

Not sure. I have been hearing rumblings of problems in the room, but who knows. It was nice seeing Hunter on the bench as well. He will be a fine coach someday!

When will Mizzou get back to full strength? Happy to see Roselli doing good things.

As a former official in TN and KY and a current Dad of 2 wrestlers, there are a couple of things that i would encourage regarding your discontent with wrestling officiating. Get involved. Get certified to officiate and call a couple of matches. Show up to the meetings. It's not difficult to do. You simply go to a website, register, and take a test. After that you are eligible to officiate matches. The best way to drive change is to be proactive in the problem that you perceive. Make your voice known to KHSAA administration and strive to make other officials better. If you don't want to be an official, get copies of the rules book. The rules book is available for $5.99 on iTunes or from the NFHS. There is also a case manual that can be had for the same price/method. Read the rule book and understand the rules. If you have questions ask your coach or an official at a tournament. I can't tell you the times I had great conversations with parents/spectators. Most simply want to understand and are receptive to questioning. On to your issue at hand, i would point to the rule book: SECTION 1 WRESTLERS’ UNIFORM ART. 1 . . . Wrestlers shall wear: a. a one-piece singlet cut no lower in the back or front than the level of the armpits and under the arms no lower than one-half the distance between the armpit and the belt line. If sufficient reason is determined by the referee, a tight-fitting, short-sleeved or sleeveless undershirt of a single, solid color unadorned with no more than one “manufacturer’s logo/trademark/reference may be worn under the one-piece singlet;” ART. 3 . . . Wrestlers shall wear light heelless wrestling shoes, reaching above the ankles. If the shoes have laces, the laces shall either be taped to the shoe or secured by a locking device on the wrestling shoe in an acceptable fashion. Your statement said that the sleeves were loose and the official was worried about broken fingers. Not being present or seeing pictures, I will say that if the official was airing on the side of safety of participants - you will lose that argument 10/10 times. While it can be frustrating (my youngest son lost a match he was winning due to an illegal slam in the finals), safety comes first. Especially with young wrestlers and especially at this time in the season. NikeMan - delaying a match by protesting on the mat (as a coach or spectator) is a good way to get ejected from a wrestling competition. Want to stay past your ejection? - The local police department will be happy to remove you. I unfortunately had this happen in TN with an unruly parent in the late 90's. The last call that I wanted to make, but the only one that I could. I'm sorry to hear about the poor officiating you all received up North. That being said, if the only issue you had with the official was the official enforcing proper wrestlers uniform, it sounds like you had a great day. The officiating I have seen this year for my sons has been average so far (really slow to call stalling - on both my sons and other wrestlers! Good luck to all the rest of the year.

It does, thank you FalconWrestling.

When there appears to be a rankings discrepancy there are a couple things it usually turns out to be 1. Result in question was never upload to track Ranger can't know what isn't made available to him. For this talk with your head coach about making sure results are uploaded to track. For example we have been hurt in rankings because we haven't really been uploading our results to track but at the end of the day we are one of those teams that try to ignore rankings. Our wrestlers of course make a big deal out of them despite our best efforts, I know I did when I competed. As a ranker myself I believe that rankings should be made as accurate as possible so I get a tad annoyed when coaches try to "hide results" or "hide wrestlers" which I've seen happen many times. or perhaps 2. You didn't beat who you thought you beat This is very common with newcomer parents. For example you may have wrestled someone's backup or the person in question may have been at a different weight class, or you misread what the school was. You would hope coaches would be reliable in knowing exactly who their kid is wrestling but I know that even I've made mistakes in exactly who my wrestler is competing against from time to time. if not that then 3. Your wrestler has losses making him unrankable This can be frustrating to watch as a coach and parent, your wrestler losing to someone they have no business losing to. For some this happens more than others. Such results mean that even a good win can get drowned out by bad losses. So if you get a big upset win that doesn't immediately mean you will shoot up the rankings, if you have bad losses it will hold you back. Best thing to do is to keep improving and make the wins over ranked wrestlers the norm and not an exceptional exception. Now there are cases where none of these three general rules apply but in my years of rankings I have found confusion over the rankings often comes from one of those three things. Hope this helps

I am Coach Founder from Central. First off I would like to apologize for your interpretation of the match. Coach Hayes, myself and Faridale's coach spoke after the match on what occured. Although Coach Hayes or myself didn't see what happened, your son's coach said that what happened was not malicious in any way and was an accident. His kid reacted like anybody would and that is what was saw by the ref. I do take offense in you impplying that anybody at Central would teach such tactics. I have stopped matches for smaller offenses that I have seen. Although everybody likes to win, we would rather our wrestlers win in life. We teach that this will be accomplished not by cheating or taking short cuts but by working hard.

Just to play Devil's Advocate, wouldn't that "encourage" more wrestlers to try holds that potentially hurt or choke their opponents?

Wow, just looked at the brackets and they dropped several teams. There will still be some good matches. 106, 138 should be good finals. 113 could be Adams but not sure Hall can come out to meet him in the finals. Bacon and Carr for Union could make 120 and 126 interesting. Would like to see Micah pull a win over King at 152. 160 semifinals should be good with Gray and Ryder going at it again. That was the best match at the CCI last weekend I thought. I think Leavell and Ervin meet in the finals at 170. Avery takes 182 most likely. I think Tennessee side takes 195-285. Kentucky over all should run the table with Union most likely pulling out the overall win. I am still not going to make it down for the tournament tomorrow. Hope someone shoots out some updates as the day goes by. It does stink knowing the five match rule will hit some guys.

I wish that I was able to make it down to Father Ryan for the Johnny Drennan Classic. There will be some great matches on day 2 but I know day one will provide some excitement as well. I am sure our Region 1 guys will go and show the TN folks what KY wrestling is all about. Best of luck to all our teams!

Kind of curious, how can you rank, Alex Thompson (South Oldham) and Malik Cunningham (Trigg) above two individuals they just finished behind at the Christian County Tournament on 30 Dec?

Trinity is down this year. Not used to seeing them ranked that low.

Totally agree. We need consistency. And as a coach, I would have held up the entire tournament if need be, and had the "head official" come to the mat and make the call. Stand in the middle of the mat if you have to. Twice this year, we have had officials make very inappropriate statements to not only us, but also our wrestlers. Enough is enough. I like most refs, but some can be overbearing, stripe wearing, jack asses that are so "little" in their day to day lives, that they need to be "big bad" tough guys on the weekends. We also need to get rid of pansy refs who can't make a call to save their life! C'mon KHSAA, pay for some classes for Pete's sake!

MUCH TO LEARN . YOU STILL HAVE .

WD try not to be so harsh. In Austin defense he simply hasn't faced this type of competition in KY. Specifically quality wrestlers his own age. He did attend grade level event, but was a year older than the competition. Eventually he attended flo and Fargo, but only as junior and senior. It will take time to make up for those years. I am confident he will a strong AA candidate his senior year after he's done with the weight adjustment. I think he is closer to 285 than you think. I believe NB has mentioned around 265. With that being said, the smaller quicker heavys are doing pretty well these days.

I'll just slip these in before the new year. As expected we have some big weight changes, some help teams/wrestlers and some have hurt teams/wrestlers. As time goes on wrestlers will find the weight class that is the best fit for them. I remember Coach Walls at Calloway always had an uncanny ability to pinpoint the exact weight he needed his guys at. Christian County with a victory at CCI seems to cement itself as the #2 team in the region but a lot of the match ups I was hoping to see ended up not happening. I also still have empty weight classes, which at this point in the year shouldn't be happening. But discussing numbers issues in our sport is a conversation for somewhere else. 106 1. Zeke Escelera, Union County (1) 2. Daniel Knight, Christian County (UR) 3. Keaton Elliot, Calloway County (3) 4. Dylan Walls, Caldwell County (4) 5. Nathanial Jenkins, McCracken County (5) 6. JaRon Nicholas, Hoptown (UR) With the christmas two pounds we have state finalist threat Daniel Knight back at his weight class. Also dropping with the two pounds is Nicholas of Hoptown with a convincing win over Clark from Ohio County, we will see if he can break into a really solid top 4. CCI didn't have as many of the matchups I was hoping it would here so that is all for now 113 1. Austin Grant-Hall, Christian County (1) 2. Gabe Adams, Union County (2) 3. Ethan Furtrell, Trigg County (3) 4. Eli Peyton, McCracken County (4) 5. Jack Probus, Ohio County (6@120) 6. Colin Walls, Caldwell County (5) Probus cuts down from 120 and puts himself right into a position to challenge for third place in the region. Should be a good battle between 3-6. 120 1. Sam Bacon, Union County (1) 2. Devonta Turner, Trigg County (3) 3. Jakerion Merritt, Christian County (2) 4. Ray Hamilton, Paducah Tilghman (4) 5. Ethan Wells, UHA (5) 6. Shane Grey, Ohio County (4@126) Turner turns in a fantastic performance at CCI with a title and win over Merritt bringing him into the second place spot behind Bacon. The battle between 2-5 should be very exciting to watch. Wells appears to be the odd man out right now but is a very tough wrestler, I would not count him out. I will be interested to see how Grey does down at 120, potentially making the 2-5 battle a 2-6 one. 126 1. Dylan Martin, McCracken County (1) 2. Payne Carr, Union County (2) 3. Nick Dickerson, Calloway County (3) 4. Isaac Aguier, Trigg County (5) 5. 6. So I'm a little frustrated. On the one hand Martin, Carr, and Dickerson are as tough as they come and that's not even counting Aguier. But the fact that I can only find four teams honestly fielding a 126 is ridiculous. I hope it's just an injury bug or weight issue and gets resolved soon. 132 1. Saul Ervin, Union County (1) 2. Cameron Dearmond, Hoptown (2) 3. Ishmael Griffie, Christian County (3) 4. David Conner, McCracken County (5) 5. Jordan Snyder, Trigg County (4) 6. Damien Crisp, Fort Campbell (6) The second-third place battle should be interesting as Conner from McCracken had a coming out party at CCI putting his name in the contenders list. 138 1. Bryce Sheffer, Union County (1) 2. Louie Regaldo, Fort Campbell (2) 3. Kestin McClain, McCracken County (5@145) 4. Kaleb O'Campo, Caldwell County (4) 5. Joe Fernandez, Christian County (5) 6. Ikeem Lawson, Trigg County (UR) The top 3 at this weight has gotten interesting with McClain and Regaldo making the drop. They have a long way to go if they want to actually unseat Sheffer but both McClain and Regaldo can make top 4 runs at state. O'Campo is the best of the rest but there are some tough matchups at play here. 145 1. Chance Oxford, Union County (1) 2. Zlatko Skuljan, Hoptown (UR) 3. Cameron Coleman, Christian County (2) 4. Rey Vela, Fort Campbell (3) 5. Justin Crabtree, Trigg County (4) 6. Klemmer Nicodemuc, Ohio County (3@152) As soon as last rankings were posted a couple people privately asked me about Skuljan and I explained he was the last guy out of one of the toughest weights in the region. Well apparently Skuljan took that as a challenge and tore through the CCI bracket picking up wins over Vela and Coleman. I give Coleman the nod over Vela based off of their mutual results against Dwayne Johnson, Coleman with a win while Vela had a loss. By any means those three are literally neck to neck, I'd imagine one points matches will be the difference in their battles. Oxford is number one for now but bets are off come regional. 152 1. Micah Ervin, Union County (1) 2. Colin Stevens, Trigg County (2) 3. Jack Hanes, Calloway County (2@160) 4. Seth Slayton, Caldwell County (4) 5. Bailey Conley, Fort Campbell (5) 6. Jordan Hopson, Hoptown (UR) Hanes drops down to 152 to offer a challenge to Stevens and Ervin but Stevens gets the first match up win. Stevens v Hanes is a match up to watch especially in regards to the team race. 160 1. Dylan Gray, Caldwell County (1) 2. Corbin Ryder, Fort Campbell (3) 3. Antonio Abren, Christian County (4) 4. Landon Moore, Union County (5) 5. Trevor Tilley, McCracken County (6) 6. Malik Cunningham, Trigg County (UR) Gray and Ryder remain at the top with a four-way battle for third involves the likes of Abren and Tilley with a few more contenders waiting in the wings. 170 1. Diion Leavell, Christian County (1) 2. Matthias Ervin, Union County (2) 3. Logan Deasal, McCracken County (5@182) 4. Ethan Tomerlin, Fort Campbell (3) 5. Kolby Morris, Hoptown (4) 6. John Predes, Caldwell County (5) In a big weight drop Deasal puts him self into a potential region finals match. There is a lot of young talent at play in 2-4 which will be very fun to watch in the next couple years. Otherwise this looks like Leavell's year to really reach his potential. 182 1. Avery Buckman, Union County (1) 2. Katayvon Anthony, Hoptown (3) 3. Niko Bussell, Christian County (2) 4. Colton Stoner, Trigg County (4) 5. Jesus Avila, Fort Campbell (UR) 6. Tyler Barnard, Calloway County (UR) Anthony picks up a win over Bussell as the top three here remain solid. 195 1. David Woods, Calloway County (3) 2. Raequan Lester, Paducah Tilghman (4) 3. Nautica Bonds, McCracken County (5) 4. Nick Owens, Hoptown (6) 5. Raven Knight, Christian County (UR) 6. Dylan Lynn, Ohio County (UR) With me moving Hicks up to 220 where has been wrestling and Major out of the rankings entirely, Woods shoots up to #1. The whole weight has some interesting match ups someone who intrigues me a lot is Raven Knight who has been wrestling some tough kids really well. What was the Owens/Knight match like leading up to the result? 220 1. Colby Culver, Calloway County (2) 2. Ross Hicks, Union County (1@195) 3. Jackson Fitzgerald, Paducah Tilghman (UR) 4. Deion Lane, Hoptown (3) 5. Markus Green, Christian County (UR) 6. Jordan Ware, McCracken County (6) I'm unfortunately removing Orr from the rankings, it's one of those things I see all the time but I'm never happy doing. With that said Culver is now shooting for a state title at a wide open weight class. Hicks continues to be at 220 so I put him at his weight class and he immediately threatens Culver. Fitzgerald is also a threat that can't be ignored. 285 1. David Nikolao, Fort Campbell (1) 2. Payton Snyder, Union County (2) 3. Gavynn Davis, McCracken County (3) 4. Seth Riley, Christian County (5) 5. Jay Emerson, Calloway County (6) 6. The king is back so to speak. Happy to see Nikolao return to the mat and in dominating fashion winning the CCI. Snyder leads a small pack of heavyweights who seek to dethrone the dominant force that Nikolao has been at heavyweight. Some weight drops to 220 have left heavyweight bare of a placing spot. Team Rankings 1. Union County (51) 2. Christian County (25.5) 3. Calloway County (17) 4. McCracken County (16.5) 5. Fort Campbell (14.5) 6. Hoptown (12.5) 7. Trigg County (12) 8. Caldwell County (9) 9. Paducah Tilghman (6) 10. Ohio County (2) 11. UHA (0.5) 12. Mayfield (0)

MISSOURI DOWN 3 STARTERS FROM LAST WEEK AND FORFEITING 157 .AUSTIN UP AGAINST A TOP 20 RANKED GUY ABOUT TO BREAK OKL PIN RECORD GETS PUT DOWN IN THE 3RD PERIOD TRAILING 5 TO 0 WHO KNOWS EITHER WAY LARSON A RS SR NO BIG DEAL. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK WILDCAT YOU TRULY ARE A FIRST CLASS PIECE OF $H!T.and Otto your the tp