When does a tourny becomes too big for one day?

[blackfoot07]

As we approach over 500 wrestlers for this Sundays' middle school state when does a tournament become too big for one day?  I bring this up since the last two years the middle school state has run very late into the night.  Some weights will have 50+ wrestlers and others will be well into the 40's (I wish all the weights had that many).  If the tourny was on a Saturday the time is less of an issue.  I only ask the question just to get a feel if 14+ hours of wrestling is pushing it.  It gets to be a logistics problem for the toruny directors since they have to arrange for table help, referee's, facilities maintenence, security, and of course match flow. 

Food for thought.
Have it over two days?
Limit amount of entries from schools to two per weight class?
Have a middle school regionals?

I think Illinois has qualifiers, can somebody comfirm that?

 

[TossYaHard]

It would be nice to have it over 2 days...but you have High school semi-state the day before.

[AJ]

I would say that MS State is close to being a 2 day tourny with their numbers, but the first round this year will go a lot faster than in years past, thus speeding up the entire tournament.

[PROPOWER]

Rex or Anyone,
How many surfaces will be use to run the tourney.  I was trying to remember the set up from last year but my mind isnt working real well and i cant remember.

[blackfoot07]

Maybe a qualifiers type setup would come into play.  This may actually get more wrestlers involved since it would be regional at the start. I'm pretty sure Illinois does it that way but not 100%.  I would agree we are close to being a two day event.  Crossing my fingers that we are done before midnight.

[AJ]

Rex or Anyone,
How many surfaces will be use to run the tourney.  I was trying to remember the set up from last year but my mind isnt working real well and i cant remember.

I believe that they had about 14 surfaces last year.  I know they used both gyms and had the mats divided.

[TossYaHard]

AJ.... keep certain weight classes in one gym and the rest in the other??

[AJ]

AJ.... keep certain weight classes in one gym and the rest in the other??

Not sure.  I remember having a kid who wrestled in both gyms.

[103Cousin]

I don't remember the exact numbers, but I'm sure there were 3 spots in the smaller gym. Then in the field house I believe there were 6 or 8 spots.

[BIGJOESCOUT]

We will see how this works with preregistration but I think that everyone is going to see this thing has grown way to big to either need to go 2 days or several regionals one weekend and Championships the next .  if it goes too large and to late it will start making people NOTwanting to go because of this problem. especially if you have to drive far. After all there is school/work on Monday.

[AJ]

No school for us on Monday!   

I do agree that the tournament is outgrowing a 1 day event.

[allyourbase]

On a side note.

We had a freestyle tournament at Delta in the early 90's in which John Smith put on a clinic. You can imagine how many people that drew.

My last match was at 1 o'clock...AM.....Sunday morning.

A 2nd day would have been nice.

[PROPOWER]

Some numbers at this point of registration. 
507 Wrestlers
969 Bouts (not including bouts needed for true 2nd bouts)
10 Mats (per Rex)
Average of 97 Bouts per mat over whole day
Tourney should take bewteen 9 to 10 hours to complete (if things go smoothly).

[blackfoot07]

Is registration closed?  I think some people got the idea it is open until midnight tonight.  Trackwrestling has it closing at 11:59PM.

[PROPOWER]

Is registration closed?  I think some people got the idea it is open until midnight tonight.  Trackwrestling has it closing at 11:59PM.

It does close at mid-night.  i was thinking it closed at noon for some reason.  i will adjust the nubers after registration is closed. 

[cceagle]

Am I correct the registration is open until 11:59CST tonight? Also, the length of this tournament is the past is one reason we have not signed up yet. I have always told my kids that your education is the most important and wrestling comes second. I hope this will become a two day tournament or have regional qualifiers. Good luck to all wrestlers!!!

[PROPOWER]

Ok now that registration is closed I have some estimtes on how long this years Middle School State will take to complete.
542 Wrestlers
1041 total bouts
104 bouts per mat
10 - 10 1/2 hours to complete 
if all goes well including start time last match should be around 7:30 pm

[BIGJOESCOUT]

final match didnt go off till way later than 7:30 we left at 7 and they hadnt even started the final 4 for any weight class. Folks you need to think 2 days or satelites :
1 you will get more wrestlers.
2 it will be more enjoyable and you dont have to worry about school on Monday.
 We didnt get back to the SW corner till way after 1 am Eastern time. and yes he had school today.
you need to plan for school then if they dont have it EVERYONE should be happy. by the way
THE HOSTS and Staff were GREAT thanks to All of them!

[PROPOWER]

final match didnt go off till way later than 7:30 we left at 7 and they hadnt even started the final 4 for any weight class. Folks you need to think 2 days or satelites :
1 you will get more wrestlers.
2 it will be more enjoyable and you dont have to worry about school on Monday.
 We didnt get back to the SW corner till way after 1 am Eastern time. and yes he had school today.
you need to plan for school then if they dont have it EVERYONE should be happy. by the way
THE HOSTS and Staff were GREAT thanks to All of them!

Numbers were based on going line brackets and using 10 mats all day.   I spoke with the head of paring and he said they need to run the tournament with what system they are comfortable with.  They were most comfortable with vertical paring and trackwrestling, so that is the system they went with.  I think by using line brackets and mat side paring several hours would have been able to be shaved off the lenght of the tourney.