Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School 321-A Regional assignments

was just informed on one of the regional assignments

The northwest regional will be hosted in Norton this year will have the following teams:

Norton, Hoxie, St. Francis, Atwood, Hill city, Stockton, Phillipsburg, Plainville, Osborne, Belleville, Minneapolis, Beloit, Lincoln, Kensington, Eastern heights, St. John's milt, Silvan Grove. There maybe one or two teams i accidently left out, i apologize.

seems the toughest teams in the state will meet in regionals, perhaps tougher than the state tourney will be.

If Sainty, Norton and Hoxie end up knocking each other off in regionals, it may leave one or all of these teams vurnable at state, and a chance for another team that qualifes a larger number of wrestlers from a weaker regional to make a shot at the state title.

just another wrinkle to make things interesting....its awhile away, but alot can happen in 2 months...

There are two sides to this arguement and one could probably successfully support either side, depending upon which side of the fence they wanted to sit on.

With a regional like this one or Abilene's 4A regional this year, there will certainly be some kids capable of competing well at state sitting in the stands the last weekend in February.

But by the same token, one could argue that in many of the weights the qualifiers (1st - 4th) from the tough regional could hurt the top seeds from the other regionals early on in the state tournament (eg several 3rd & 4th place finishers from a tough regional could displace the top finishers from a different regional) thus impairing their team's ability to score big points out the front side of a bracket.

A couple of examples of success, despite a reduced number of qualifiers caused by a tough regional are last year's western 4A regional and the 1998 Phillipsburg regional.

Last year many people were speculating the same thing about the tough regional tournament in Goodland. But in the end, the Goodland regional produced 7 of the top 10 team finishers -

1st Abilene
2nd (tie) Goodland
4th Clay Center
7th Colby
8th Pratt
9th Ulysses
10th Concordia
(Columbus tied for 2nd, Mulvane placd 5th and Fort Scott placed 6th)

In 1998, the Phillipsburg 3-2-1A regional was divided much like the Norton regional is this year. That year Phillipsburg accounted for
1st Hoxie
2nd Norton
4th Stockton
5th Smith Center
9th Osborne
(3rd Trego, 6th Plainville, 7th Hoisington and 8th Oakley came from the Ellis regional, which is similar alignment to this year's Hoisington regional. ACCHS rounded out the top 10)

That year, the P-burg regional accounted for
10 of the 14 championships,
8 of the runner-ups,
10 of the 3rds,
6 of the 4ths,
5 of the 5ths and
1 of the 6ths

This equated to 40 of the 56 qualifiers from that regional going on to win state medals.

The flip side to the arguement would be whether Norton's attempt to derail Hoxie last year was impaired by a more consistently competive regional placement.

Bottom line is that, barring injury or a really poor regional tournament, the most talented and deserving kids are still going to qualify and be given the opportunity to score points for their team at state.

There will certainly be exceptions - note in 1988 when the defending 185 pound state champion, Brett Bedore of Stockton did not qualify in what was an incredibly difficult weight.

The difference maker for team points could be those good kids capable of scoring team points at state that don't make it through. But in this case you'd have to wonder if the top dogs wouldn't still have the ability to distance themselves from the rest of the pack.

The real intriguing part of this situation is that western KS opponents/rivals could end up facing each other in the first or second round (eg a Baker or Loyd could end up with a Younkin or Weatherbee in the quarterfinal round even if all four were in the finals at their respective regional).

But who knows how it will turn out? All we do know is that it will be a great year for wrestling! Good luck to all.

I think the tournament works to Hoxies advantage. They will get their people through.

interesting point Les, the cream will rise to the top. so i guess everyone is forewarned...fail to prepare..prepare to fail...so lace up the running shoes, wear out the take down dummy, and push a little more iron...

whom ever makes it through will definately earn it!

interesting point Les, the cream will rise to the top. so i guess everyone is forewarned...fail to prepare..prepare to fail...so lace up the running shoes, wear out the take down dummy, and push a little more iron...

whom ever makes it through will definately earn it!

As I said in another post in 321A the toughest regional will be the one that has the most NWKL and MCL teams. It has always been that way and it seems it always will be. In my humble opinion the states position of getting "...the best wrestlers from the four regions of the state" is wrong. Would it not be better to have just the best wrestlers in the state at the state tourny? When some of the very best wrestlers knock each other off and some must sit in the stands and watch people they have beat in the state tourny. that does not seem right.

Thats why its called "REGIONALS" its that way in all sports it has been this way for a long time, I think most people have come to relize that. Is it unfortunate, yes, but a fact of life, it gets the best kids from ALL parts of the state not 16 kids from a certain part of the state. That is another reason I was told we ahve Sat. tournaments.