LCalum

Semi state would be a 1 day tourney between region and state. Best kids still make it to state. You could wrestle a true 4th if you want.

Create a semi state. Top 4 from two regions wrestle for 4 spots. Match regions up by # of entrants. Region with the most wrestlers pairs up with the region that has the least competitors. Host is whatever school has the largest facility. So if region 1 has the most wrestlers and region 3 has the least (just as an example) then they create one semi state. Then the 2nd biggest region and the second smallest region wrestle. So on and so forth. 8 man brackets for semi state to get to a 16 man bracket at state. The kids still get to be “state qualifiers”. They still get the opportunity to advance. Pairing the regions like that isn’t perfect but it seems like a good way of leveling the playing field. Some kids would have an easier region but then a tougher semi state. Others would be harder at regions but then face a thinner region at semi state. just a thought. I

Move the 6 teams to different regions for one year. Let the top 5 in for state (6 remaining regions x 5 placers for a total of 30). Two regions champs chosen at random get a first round bye. All else remains the same.

#3 in the state Watkins is a great wrestler. Desales had a awesome season and Watkins making finals was a great accomplishment and he was well deserving. Tucker Shelton wrestled the past two weeks with a separated shoulder, won his 4th region title and finished in 3rd place wrestling injured. There were a lot of top kids in the state wrestling inured this weekend. Seen a lot of gutsy performances by kids wrestling hurt.

So some people have access to them already?

And some of them still adding to their resume.

Is that the Virginia Beach tourney? Great tourney. Quite a few KY kids go. They probably invite more kids than they should. If you’re a kid who can win a couple matches at state you’ll be competitive as a freshmen and sophomore. If you’re a junior or senior you should probably be a state placer if you want to be competing at Virginia Beach. Probably about 50 kids or so from Kentucky each year. Maybe more. At least 10 schools represented. Maybe more. There have been several placers in recent years from KY.

Didn’t Woodford lose by single digits to Ryle on Saturday without Yost? Seems like they’re coming in under the radar going into regions and state.

Herron has beat Fuji twice already and only has one loss on the season.

Don’t sleep on Simon Kenton. Also, sounds like you’re downplaying Ryle a little. Both those teams are stronger than most in their weaker weight classes. In a dual tourney that’s important. I think Woodford is much better in individual this year than they are duals. Ryle and SK are dark horses that other teams should be worried about.

Agreed ha ha ha. My only point was there are several small schools who also didn’t want the split and want there to be a “True” champion as there is at individual state. You can still have best small schools and best big school. To your other question, about union being big and challenging small schools. If you think the small schools would feel bullied, hell union has been beaten on us for several years as is. I truly believe the small schools who have finished 2nd over the last decade or so would welcome the opportunity to wrestle the best big school either way. Maybe I’m wrong. Ultimately we all want to see good hard wrestling and grow the sport. Competition and rivalries and all that just add to it.

There was no distinction between small and big school until 2001. In the early years i believe LaRue was one of if not the smallest school with a wrestling program. Since 2001 more small schools have won than large. The distinction between small school and big school is just a list starting with the biggest school by enrollment down to the smallest school by enrollment cut directly in half. The biggest growth in the sport with new programs has been at the small school level so you can’t just compare those old days when there were probably only 10 small schools with teams. With woodford being on the smaller end of large schools back then they very likely would have been in the bottom half of schools by enrollment at around 1200 when you had schools with 2000 students back then and LaRue sitting at 750. Those numbers get real bad if woodford is a small school In the 90’s. Simply staTing you can’t just take the schools that are now considered big and just apply that list to what happened 30 years ago. to your point that what’s best for the sport is best for everyone, i agree. But it’s always implied that big schools did a favor for the small schools or that the small schools wanted to be separated so they “had a chance” and that simply isn’t true. The campfire stories in some areas of the state are that it was the big schools who pushed to separate state duals. Either way there were several small schools (whom you’ve named above) that did not want it to be separated. Since 2001 when there was a designation of big vs small i believe the tally would be something to the effect of 12 wins for small and 5 for big (if my memory of Unions success since the split is correct). I sure do wish we could have seen who would have won those two years there was bad weather. I guess we can only speculate. my opinion which means very little to most and even less to others is that small school champ wrestling the big school champ at the end of the day is good for the sport and would like to see that be part of the event instead of just an option.

Except small school won just as often if not more before the split. And the small school champion almost every year since the split would and / or has beaten the big school champ. Many of the top small schools stay competitive with the top big schools. I’m not sure i understand the part about if you didn’t split the event fewer small schools would compete in regionals?

Region 2 small school sectional was tonight. LaRue will be the 1, John Hardin will be the 2.

Top 5 team total was: LaRue County 236.5 Trinity 219 Madison Central 173.5 Lafayette 157 Woodford 150 followed by north Hardin, male, Franklin county, Scott county, central Hardin to round out the top 10 there was an error in the computer system that resulted in trophies being given to the wrong teams and it was only corrected after several teams had already left. i do not remember all of the individual champs, so I will wait for someone with more info to post those. The Lawrence kid from Franklin county won in overtime against Gianonne (spelling) from Lafayette in a great match with a couple calls that could have gone either way. It was a very exciting match and both wrestlers wrestled well. The Fuji kid from Central Hardin won MOW after beating Hite from LaRue in finals by 1 with a late takedown. Lot of good competition with some great matches.

132 looks stacked

I believe some teams preach team first. And others may focus more on individuals. If you were raised in the sport of wrestling with a team first mentality that sticks with you for life. Some teams feed off of each other during a dual and use momentum to keep winning, while others just watch and wait until it’s their turn to wrestle. On some teams wrestlers will wrestle at the weight that makes the team better even if it might not be what’s best for them as an individual, and other teams every kid does what’s best for them. I guess what I’m saying is that wrestling can be an individual sport. Or it can be a team sport. It’s more about what you make of it and what type of atmosphere the team has. I know which i prefer.

Is this Tennessee?

Thomas Hoppes not mentioned above also competed as a sophomore

126 deck 14 160 brown 13 220 Ervin 12 170 Ervin 11 113 Pye 10 120 Martingly 9 195 Deprest 8 132 Yost 7 HWT Shelton 6 138 Deck 5 106 Thomas 4 145 Carr 3 152 Gianonne 2 182 Blanton 1 union 193 points Dark horse: Griffin Hall #11 152

In region 2, three different teams had the lead in team points during the last 5 matches. The region title was decided in the last match of the day.

That’s awful. Thoughts and prayers to a speedy recovery.

This will lead to some very good first and second round matchups at state. 2 seed from somewhere is gonna get a top 3 kid in the first round.

I was thinking Miller’s strength might be too much for Herron. He definitely doesn’t want to stay on bottom for very long. Herron is already a very good wrestler likely on his way to becoming one of the greats, but Miller has been here before. I think the nod goes to Miller.