I've read the arugments pro and con. How about implementing the NAIA system. A team can qualify 12 wrestlers for 10 weight classes, but in no case can they send more than 2 wrestlers per weight class.
Oklahoma City University doesn't have a 125-pounder on the men's team, so it has used Mikali Hutchionson recently. However, they do have two good 113-pounders, two good 157-pounders, and two good 285-pounders. 11 wrestlers from the team have qualified for the NAIA nationals next weekend.
In Oklahoma this past weekend Dallas Bailey from Catoosa wrestled at 171 so a 160-pounder from his school could be in the lineup. Bailey won his 4th state title in an overtime match against Zach White (John Smith's nephew) from Woodward. Bailey's teammate won the 4A state title at 160
Jared Patterson from Cushing won his 4th state title at 130 pounds after wrestling at 125 most of the season. His teammate Garrett Evans won the 125-pound 4A state championship.
I don't know what those coaches would have done if they could have entered two wrestlers at a single weight class, but it would have been interesting.
I think the idea has merit, especially with the scrutiny that weight cutting receives.
It was my first visit to the Kansas High School State Championships since 1978. I served as a volunteer at KMC from 75-78 then moved to AZ. I saw the 5A/6A friday competition at the Kansas Coliseum. The overall quality of the athletes was far superior to what I saw at the 2A/3A and 4/5A state tournaments in AZ the past two weekends. Still not as good of wrestling as I saw at the Oklahoma High School championsips in terms of technical skills, but not that far behind.
BigApple,I think the NAIA system would be a very good one for Kansas high school wrestling. If we were doing two extra over the weight classes that would mean a team could take 16 instead of 14 to regionals and no team would have to fill every weight class. This would help a lot of teams that are loaded in the middle but might be struggling to find wrestlers at the lightest or heaviest weight classes. This would mean a team could take 2 each from any weight class such as 119, 125, 130, 135, 140, 145, 152, and 160 if that was the best combination for them. It would have also meant that Wichita Northwest could have taken both Heithaus and Page this year, and Olathe North could have taken Vincent and Venegas. There would not be as much pressure on coaches to fill weight classes where they are not getting a lot of kids out for wrestling and give more opportunity for weight classes that they do have a lot of kids competing for spots at. It would be less pressure for wrestling out of your best weight so it should result in less excessive weight cutting. Even if you only allowed each team 14 wrestlers like today, I think it would be an improvement to allow up to two at each weight class so you could do 7 weight classes of 2 instead of being to restricted to 1 wrestler for all 14 weight classes. I would think high school coaches would like this option.
