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Top 12 Indiana High School Wrestling Programs of the Decade (2000-2009)


maligned

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There are probably many ways to determine which are the top programs in the state, but I thought it would be interesting to take a completely objective mathematical approach and see what the results spit out.  Basically, I considered two performance elements in my rankings: 1) Coaches' Trophy points scored in the Individual State Finals for the last 10 years and 2) success in the team tournament over the last 10 years based on a point system.  The point system I developed for team tournament success is based on awarding the team champion approximately the same number of points as the typical Coaches' Trophy winner (90), the team runner-up similar points to the Coaches' runner-up (70), the team semi-finalist losers similar points to 3rd/4th place points for the Coaches' Trophy (55), and so on.  I awarded 45 points for quarterfinal losers, 30 for regional champions, 20 for regional runners-up, and 10 for first round regional losers (for 2009, with the new system, I gave 30 to regional runners-up, 20 to regional first round losers, and 10 to sectional runners-up for consistency in awarding points to 64 teams).

The final results listed below are intended to be a synthesis of individual tournament success and team tournament success, hopefully revealing the true depth and quality of the top programs in the state of Indiana.  There are not many surprises to be found.  Here is the list with some explanation for each.  I give you Indiana's Top 12 Programs of the Decade:

 

12. Crown Point-472 points

Individual state championships: 3

State placewinners: 18

Coaches' trophy points: 232 (13th)

Team State appearances: 1

Team State titles: 1

 

11. Griffith-540.5 points

Individual state championships: 11

State placewinners: 20

Coaches' trophy points: 380.5 (5th)

Team State appearances: 1

Team State runner-up: 1

 

10. Franklin-548.5 points

Individual state championships: 2

State placewinners: 16

Coaches' trophy points: 243.5 (12th)

Team State appearances: 3

 

9. Bloomington South-576 points

Individual state championships: 6

State placewinners: 19

Coaches' trophy points: 281 (10th)

Team State appearances: 3

 

8. Indianapolis Cathedral-622.5 points

Individual state championships: 3

State placewinners: 32

Coaches' trophy points: 367.5 (6th)

Team State appearances: 3

 

7. Merrillville-639 points

Individual state championships: 4

State placewinners: 27

Coaches' trophy points: 354 (7th)

Team State appearances: 3

 

6. Portage-753.5 points

Individual state championships: 6

State placewinners: 29

Coaches' trophy points: 393.5 (4th)

Team State appearances: 5

Team State runner-up: 1

 

5. Perry Meridian-782 points

Individual state championships: 5

State placewinners: 25

Coaches' trophy points: 297 (9th)

Team State appearances: 8

Team State runner-up: 3

 

4. Bellmont-828 points

Individual state championships: 3

State placewinners: 29

Coaches' trophy points: 323 (8th)

Team State appearances: 10

Team State runner-up: 1

 

3. Lawrence North-910 points

Individual state championships: 6

State placewinners: 37

Coaches' trophy points: 485 (3rd)

Team State appearances: 5

Team State titles: 2

 

2. Mishawaka-1063 points

Individual state championships: 8

State placewinners: 34

Coaches' trophy points: 488 (2nd)

Team State appearances: 10

Team State runner-up: 2

Team State titles: 1

 

1. Evansville Mater Dei-1413 points

Individual state championships: 11

State placewinners: 45

Coaches' trophy points: 683 (1st)

Team State appearances: 9

Team State runner-up: 1

Team State titles: 6

 

 

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I initially planned to do a Top 10 only, but went to 12 because of the noteworthy individual success of Griffith and the recent state championship of Crown Point.  They were natural inclusions in this list.

 

I know a couple arguments will come up:

 

1. Bellmont should be lower. They benefit too much from their easier route to the team state finals.

This argument may be true, but they've advanced or come close to advancing every year at the state finals.  I would estimate that, had they faced a similar path as Perry Meridian or Portage, they may have earned 50-75 points less over time; dropping them to 6th at the absolute worst on this list.  I'm comfortable with them where they are.

 

2. What about the southern teams that had to go through Mater Dei all those years and couldn't prove their worth?    

I would argue that teams like Castle, Memorial, and Reitz have had their chance to prove themselves on an individual level, and simply haven't done it with the quality of the programs listed here.  None of those 3 schools, for example, even topped 85 individual points at the state finals for the entire decade.  Floyd Central, another southern team, managed 226 individual finals points while going through the same semi-state.  If the Evansville teams were really up to the quality of the past couple years all through the decade--as some would argue--we would have seen more success from them at Conseco.

 

Anyway, enjoy the list.  I'm interested in people's feedback.

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Where did you get the coaches trophy results?

 

 

By spending an embarrassingly large number of hours over the past few days mining the data from the IHSAA website.  In other words, I calculated all of them myself.

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I might award LN the 2nd spot over the Neanderthals..... despite being a former Neanderthal myself. The reasoning is that it is much harder to get to team state in the center of the state than Mishawaka's region and semi state had been in the past. Plus they were pretty close in coaches points as well, and have 1 more title than Mishawaka. Although one could make the argument that LN had a few up years where as Mishawaka was pretty consistent throughout the decade, not like it matters though.

 

I will say that it was an interesting mathematical and completely onjective approach to the question. However, to answer a question like this, there is going to have to be a mix of objecive and subjective reasoning which will result in different conclusions. That being said, I do believe that anyone who disagrees with mater Dei being number 1 should result in them serving a 1 week ban.

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I initially planned to do a Top 10 only, but went to 12 because of the noteworthy individual success of Griffith and the recent state championship of Crown Point.  They were natural inclusions in this list.

 

I know a couple arguments will come up:

 

1. Bellmont should be lower. They benefit too much from their easier route to the team state finals.

 

 

I would like to hear some cold, hard evidence to support this fact. Bellmont has had to beat plenty of quality teams to get to the state finals in the past. Teams like Yorktown, Snider, and especially Columbia City have all made team state under different formats, with Columbia City representing themselves very well over a period of several years.

 

2000: If playing by today's rules, Bellmont beats Mishawaka, the state runner-up to EMD.

 

2001: Bellmont loses to LN 34-28, I believe they had beaten them earlier in the year at the Bellmont Super Dual

 

2002: Lost to Champion EMD 44-15 in the semifinals, and arguably the 2nd best team in the state.

 

2003: Lost to EMD in the semifinals.

 

2004: Lost to Columbia City in opening round after beating them earlier in the year. Columbia City is better than Perry Meridian that day, except for one bonehead move by Deutsch, which cost CC their runners-up rings.

 

2005: Lost 27-24 to Columbia City.

 

2006: Bellmont proves all of their critics wrong and beats a supposedly superior Merrillville team 28-25 and goes on to advance to the State Finals, falling to EMD 39-15.

 

2007: Bellmont once again proves its critics wrong and beats a "better" Perry Meridian team, advancing to the state semifinals and losing to Mishawaka.

 

2008: Bellmont wins 8 out of 13 matches wrestled against Merrillville, but falls 29-27 as Bellmont forfeits 103 all year long and loses their State-Ranked heavyweight to a skin disease a week before the state finals.

 

2009: Bellmont falls in a close match to Perry Meridian 31-27.

 

I do not know one true wrestling fan that would ever say Bellmont was the weakest of 8 teams at a single team state in this decade.

 

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decbell,

 

I thinl Bellmont might have a case , but are held back for two main reasons. First they have no state championship. And teams that have been rather good consistently and have a state championship probally deserve to be ahead of a team that did not win a championship during the decade. Secondly, i would say that Bellmont is held back due to the fact that they have not had near the success that LN or Mishawaka has had at the individual level.

 

I personally have been to about 4 or 5 team states this past decade, and I would be willing to say that Bellmont was a middle of the pack team at state year in and year out for the most part. Mishawaka however has I think was a middle of the pack team early in the decade but toward the end of the decade became a top 3 team down at state. So Mishawaka should be ahead of bellmont, and i think LN should probably be ahead of Mishawaka despite not making it to teams state as often because they have a much tougher road to team state than Mishawaka or Bellmont.

 

Just curious, what has  changed since 2000 that would have given bellmont the victory  over mishawaka today?

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pin2win1,

 

The first tiebreaker in dual meets is now the number of unsportsmanlike conducts (or team points taken away). This rule was put into effect in 2001.

 

I think Mishawaka over Bellmont is definitely a good argument, but I would at least like to offer into evidence the fact that Bellmont has wrestled Mishawaka in January every year since 2001, and Bellmont went 5-4 against the Cavemen.

 

I don't think you can just dismiss Bellmont out of the discussion.

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Thanks for the info decbell,

 

I would say that Bellmont is not out of the discussion, those 2-4 teams are rather close in terms of who is the best between them. I just think that ultimately a lack of team championship and due to the fact that they have had less individual state success as the other two teams makes Bellmont the 4th team overall. I would also say that LN is actually the number 2 over Mishawaka due to one more state title and only being a couple points behind Mishawaka for the coaches trophy. Sure they have less State Finals apperances, but if they had the path Mishawaka or Bellmont had, they probally would have made it to team state all 10 years as well.

 

I personally believe that Bellmont is a great program, and almost any team in the state would be very very happy to have a program like Bellmont's.

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I would leave EMD #1 and Mishawaka #2.  I would flip-flop Bellmont and LN. 

 

LN does have two titles, but they have not been as consistent with only 5 team state appearances.  They might have had a tougher road, but you need more appearances to be considered one of the top teams of the decade. 

 

We are just splitting hairs though.  All these teams are tremendous and their coaches deserve a lot of credit. 

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Awesome job, Maligned.

 

I would suspect if you took this list back another decade or two, my Cathedral Irish would be at the top of the list. We would give Mater Dei/Bellmont a run for their money at the minimum. The 2000's haven't been our strongest decade historically, but I couldn't be more proud of our program. An afterthought at our high school, we always put a competitive squad on the mat.

 

To all the teams on this list, thanks for giving back to the greatest sport around. I hope the Irish get a chance to beat up on each and every one of you in the tournament series. . .

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I would like to see the enrollment of these schools EMD is the smallest then probably Bellmont. Makes a difference without being in classes, the amount of kids you have to chose from.As for the Cathedral thing we had some great matches with them @ state (Gunsett -McGinley) comes to mind. Back in the late 70's early 80's Don Pattons Delta teams were darn good! Sorry for getting of the subject. Nice job Maligned nice discussion starter.

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Enrollment figures from the Indiana Department of Education website.

 

12. Crown Point-2,426

11. Griffith-946

10. Franklin-1,481

9. Bloomington South-1,733

8. Indianapolis Cathedral-1,292

7. Merrillville-2,241

6. Portage-2,618

5. Perry Meridian-2,141

4. Bellmont-838

3. Lawrence North-2,612

2. Mishawaka-1,641

1. Evansville Mater Dei- 561

 

 

 

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Enrollment figures from the Indiana Department of Education website.

 

12. Crown Point-2,426

11. Griffith-946

10. Franklin-1,481

9. Bloomington South-1,733

8. Indianapolis Cathedral-1,292

7. Merrillville-2,241

6. Portage-2,618

5. Perry Meridian-2,141

4. Bellmont-838

3. Lawrence North-2,612

2. Mishawaka-1,641

1. Evansville Mater Dei- 561

 

Thanks smooth for those figures

 

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I know it would be some more work to provide the statistics to make the list less subjective but I think it would be cool to see a list of what programs have been on the biggest rise over the past decade and still moving strong into the next one.

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I know it would be some more work to provide the statistics to make the list less subjectice but I think it would be cool to see a list of what programs have been on the biggest rise over the past decade and still moving strong into the next one.

Although I'm an EMD fan I'd put the Cavemen at the top of that list right now, but it will be an intresting team state with the pairity being shown so far this year. IMHO

 

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I know it would be some more work to provide the statistics to make the list less subjective but I think it would be cool to see a list of what programs have been on the biggest rise over the past decade and still moving strong into the next one.

 

What do you mean, "make the list less subjective"?  Subjective means based on opinion or innate judgment.  Objective means based on fact (or numbers) alone.  This list is based on numbers only.  Sorry if there was any confusion. 

 

If you want to know who's the best over the last 5 years, or maybe weight the numbers toward the past few years a little more than the early years of the decade; this is possible.  I'm not sure what you mean by "on the rise." 

 

 

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What do you mean, "make the list less subjective"?  Subjective means based on opinion or innate judgment.  Objective means based on fact (or numbers) alone.  This list is based on numbers only.  Sorry if there was any confusion.  

 

If you want to know who's the best over the last 5 years, or maybe weight the numbers toward the past few years a little more than the early years of the decade; this is possible.  I'm not sure what you mean by "on the rise."  

 

 

 

OK maybe its a clarification issue on my part.  If you flip the first and last part of my first statement around it helps clear things up a little.  

 

Many of the teams you listed had at least some success in the 90s and some even prior to that.  I was thinking it would also be cool to see a list of  programs who have moved up the most over the last decade (i.e. had sucess in 2000-2009 but was somewhat less known previous to that) and who are still going strong into 2010.   Basically percentage wise programs who have done the best in the last 10 year span compared to previous decades.  I know that would be a lot more work to compile that list because of the more extensive background research needed.  However, to avoid just a subjective list we would need the statistics just like you did for your top 12 of the decade

 

Sorry for the confusion.  I actually really liked your original list and the data to back it up.  I just though it would also be nice to give credit to coaches and programs who have made major advancements in the last 10 years too.

 

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I would have to say coach Tonte and the Perry Meridian Falcons.  They were not much of a threat before Tonte and within a few years of him being there they have been a perennial powerhouse every year.

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