Kansas Wrestling Forums General Discussion High School Best wrestlers in Kansas that failed to qualify for state.

Every now and then there are wrestlers that were back ups to studs during High school, or were studs in there own right, but just couldn't get to the state tournament, but may have moved on to do well in their post high school wrestling career...do any names come to mind?

I don't know how you could honestly say anyone was a stud and didn't qualify for state. There MAY BE(probably not) one or two of these cases.

Maybe I should have stated it, are there any former wrestlers that were middle of the road wrestlers in High School and are doing better in college?

Believe it or not, there are some STUDS out there that have failed to qualify for state. Eastern Kansas wrestlers (particularly 3A & 4A) fail to validate the depth of talent in the western Kansas regionals and often times, very good kids are left at home. A 20-15 record out west would equal 30-5 in the east. In 1989 for example, Kevin Dogget, a stud out of Beloit didn't qualify for state because Kendal Hahn, John Dong, Bruce Doris & Brandon Cruth finished ahead of him. To no coincidence, those same four placed in that order in state.

Redstorm,

Thank you for understanding where I was coming from. In 4A as well as 3-2-1A there are a lot of great wrestlers left home, and contrary to what people may say on this website people in those towns aren't all related.

matt shields of chanute and the ft scott kid were both studs this year and didn't make state, b/c they were in the toughest regional, which by the way, was in burlington-an east kansas regional

I have coached several wrestlers that I thought could have placed in the top 6 at the 3-2-1A state tourn. but could not get out of the always tough western regionals. The one that comes to mind first is Zane Engelbert. Zane has wrestled for FHSU the past 4 seasons splitting time on varsity. In college he has a winning record which includes all of the open tournaments.
But in high school Zane was never able to qualify for the state tourn. To show you how good he was, in 1997 when someone dropped out of the East/West Classic, I volunteered Zane to wrestle Chad Flores of Silver Lake. Flores did win the match but Zane was able to take the 2 x State Champion down twice and make the match much closer than most thought it should be. Zane also had a win over Brandon Pfienmeier (sorry for spelling ?) of Clay Center in Freestyle. Granted that was not high school wrestling, but we are talking about a 3 timer -vs- someone that never even qualified for state. I try to remind Coach "Charby" of that match every time I see him.

I remember in '88 defending state champion Brett Bedore of Stockton failed to qualify for State in one of the uppper weights (185 if memory serves.) The field was loaded with eventual State champion Paul Gastley from Beloit, Ryan Bornholdt of Lyons and 2 others that slip my mind, but believe placed or made it very deep into the State Tournament.

The defending 1987 state champ at 185, Brett Bedore of Stockton, was knocked out of the regional tournament his senior year. He didn't wrestle poorly - the bracket was just that tough. The other two qualifiers from the central Kansas regional were Dan Wessel of Plainville and Chad Ditto of Herington.

Gastley won the state title; Wessel placed second - after upsetting me in the semi-finals and giving me my first loss in two years; I placed third; and Bornholdt placed fourth.

Another tough wrestler in that bracket was Jeff Vrbas of Atwood - who was just a sophomore at the time. He lost in the consolation semi-finals at state in 1988 - one win short of the medals. In 1989 Bornholdt won his state title by defeating Vrbas in the finals. And Vrbas won his state title - and placed 6th at Pittsburg - in 1990 at 275 lbs.

I remember in 1998 at the Concordia Regional the Heavyweight class was stacked. John Paul Shepherd was among some of the studs that sat home for state that year. Also James Ores a 2 time qualifier at 130?, failed to qualify being eliminated by a tough Hiawatha kid(asian looking guy, name slipped my mind).

His name is Kevin Sloop. Kevin is tougher than nails. He qualified four times, and placed twice.