Beeson & GoArmy,
My name is Steve Mathis. I qualified for 6A state at 167 lbs 3 times (86,87 and 88). If it matters, I placed 2nd and 3rd at State. I didn't have a free pass to state, as I think I had a full bracket. But I'll be honest, it really wasn't that difficult to qualify for state back in the day either. Looks like your comment was pointed at my post, so I'll defend my comment.
I don't think my comments are taking away anything that the state qualifiers have earned. And I wish them all luck, as state is a fun time and good experience for the kids.
I think this is a good time of the year to subjectively discuss what the measure of a state qualifier and what it could be looking forward. As posted earlier, in my very subjective opionion, I think state would be a better experience for the wrestlers, the fans and college coaches, if a smaller amount of wrestlers qualified. The resulting affect would be higher quality level of wrestling. I feel better about my accomplishments when I have to overcome difficult obstacles and really earn it.
I'm with Bockover on Ohio. I lived in Ohio for 4 years and my son wrestled there. To qualify for state you have to win at least 6 rounds in their state series. They have 3 classes with over 500 schools that have wrestling. Its actually more difficult to qualify for state in Ohio than to place in Kansas.
This is also consistent with most of the states in the upper midwest where the wrestling is the best in the country (PA,OH, IA, Il, WI, IN, MI, NY, MN, WI).
