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This just seems to be going in the wrong direction. Isn't the goal to get the IHSAA to recognize the success of the classed team state tournament and make it a sanctioned IHSAA Team State event again but with classes? All of us who are a part of the sport recognize how great this event is and how awesome it is to find success there, but school administrators and community members who don't closely follow wrestling continue to put the * beside it since it is not IHSAA. Example, our school's athletic recognition hall has a rule that in order to have a team picture up, you must be IHSAA Regional Champs or better. We now have two IHSWCA team state runner-up finishes (first losers) but you would have no idea because they don't have the IHSAA stamp of approval so, there's no photo, banner, or plaque displayed to recognize those teams. I know this is a specific situation that probably falls more on our school having a poor policy but how great would it be to have this tournament be desirable for adoption by the IHSAA. Following up to that idea.... Why are we reducing the number of teams? I get it that the numbers work with 8 teams in 4 classes which means we have to go from our current amount of 36 to 32, but that seems like taking away any teams will begin to take away fans. Maybe the thinking is that losing 4 bottom level teams who don't bring many fans won't hurt the attendance very much? I would think that attendance numbers are significantly important to IHSAA for adopting the event ($$$) ? But then again maybe the idea is that by creating the "extra" bigger class that that might accomplish increased attendance? (someone more "in the know" might be able to provide some more input on that perspective with recent attendance numbers?). Aside from attendance though, it seems like every year there is competitive teams missing the cut from our scoring system and then don't get the vote. Then they put together a really good following season but don't have the chance to compete at team state. Maybe they wouldn't win, but going, having a good performance, and placing high continues to build that community support and recognition. Cutting down to 8 teams with possibly only 1 vote in spot could cause some deserving strong teams to miss out and puts a whole lot of accountability into the scoring system being used, which does a good job of predicting strong teams the following year but there is exceptions every year that should be wrestling in the coliseum at the beginning of January and aren't (ex: Bluffton this year). I thought that maybe the move for the tournament would have been to include more teams if anything (maybe not possible for a single day tournament)? The scoring system seems to do a pretty good job at predicting top teams in the bigger classes but the smaller classes seem to be where competitive teams are left out more often. Cutting down to eight teams for 1a and 2a seems like a sure fire way to miss deserving teams when we are already missing top teams with 12 teams being there. The IHSAA is already all about full inclusion for the state tournament series, they aren't going to be impressed by a tournament missing successful teams.

Ok, let me see if I got this straight. The 3a class is getting split so they will go from getting 12 teams at team state to 16 and the 1a and 2a teams will get reduced to 8 teams each. So the one tournament that small schools look forward to is getting harder for them to get in because of the reduced number but easier for big schools. The big schools already have the state tournament to win which the small schools have next to no chance in winning. Just seams silly to me that once again the small schools are getting the short end of the stick. I am also surprised that the 3a schools are ok with this, wont they just be winning a watered down title. Will there be a final match with the 3a champ and the 4a champ so we will know who the real champ is ? Just frustrated I guess. I know I know, just work harder.

First Period AC Takedown CR Escape AC 2-1 Second Period CR Chooses Bottom CR Escape CR Takedown AC Escape AC Takedown AC 5-4 Third Period AC Chooses Bottom AC Escape AC 6-4

Congratulations to Jett Boots from Angola for signing with Trine. He is projected to wrestle 125. View full signing

You can watch about half this match on their Facebook page.

Wabash update. Lotta top guys out yesterday but lotsa young guys getting great experience. Of note, Kyle Holman of Carmel defeating a national champ. https://sports.wabash.edu/news/2020/1/11/wrestling-wabash-places-fourth-at-nwca-national-duals.aspx

Not sure if anyone saw it, but he's back on the mat. He is going to be wrestling for Southeastern University, an NAIA school in Florida. It sounds like he may be hitting the mat this semester.

We hope to talk about them in upcoming Gorilla Radio episodes.

Davison from Chesterton had a purdy good few days / Nocked off Brunner from Purdue. Then he beats Rasheed from Penn st. A couple of nice wins. Good to see a Rat on a roll !! IU lookin purdy misrable. - they won one match in the last 2 duals. There are 3 rats in da line-up - need turn it up a notch boys

Man wish this event didnt cost weigh in points.

All this talk has put so much emphasis on state champs. One place I think small schools would really see a bump in interest is the number of athletes winning sectional, qualifying to regional, making ticket round, etc. I know we are all supposed to aim high, but "high" is defined differently for some than it is for others. A lot of guys in our line-ups over the years climbed to their athletic peak by winning a sectional championship and/or making it to the ticket round of semi-state.

I love what we are doing with team state. I think it is great and I am excited to watch that tradition continue to grow. If we class the individual tournament we lose out on so many good matchups. Dolly vs Mauer Red vs Lee Jackson vs Tsirtsis Campbell vs Petrov Carr vs Harper are some that probably never would have happened if we had class wrestling at the individual tournament. It really is a tough subject but I think there are more benefits in keeping things the way they are now. That being said we need to implement wrestle backs at semi state. 100% would make friday night even better than it already is.

This is a valid point. No I don’t wanna start another class thread but as it pertains to team state I think it’s spot on. Hopefully I’m just missing something ..

Lucas Davison with a win over Rasheed of PSU. Great weekend for him!

No school is "moving" classes per se. Teams are reclassified every year based on updated enrollment numbers and how many teams have 7+ kids at sectional. Once the 4A schools are removed, the rest of the qualified teams will simply be divided equally into three classes as always.

@bluemonster refuses to let @ontherise219 get ahead of him in semi-state rankings....

For what it's worth to Perry, I was trying to type a thank you message into the comments section of the feed when Egli got the fall. They cut the feed immediately, so I couldn't even send the message. Thanks to those involved with Perry in providing that live stream, the score updates and the match updates. It is much appreciated by those of us too far to travel to be there in person. I know the match didn't go Perry's way, but providing content to as many as possible only helps the sport as well. Kudos!

Love the idea. Makes for a much more competitive tourney at each level, easier to run with 8 man brackets. Two adjustments I would like to see. 1. Private schools are not "community based" teams and as such should be put in 4A automatically. 2. 3A cut off at 1,800. Puts a more reasonable number of teams in 4A. I commend the committee for listening and making a change to the previous format.

If you look at it basically 3A got split up and gets 16 berths at state compared to the 12 they used to have. 1A and 2A both stay almost the same and only have 16 spots compared to 24 they used to have.

Fan also, wish our Indiana studs stayed here. A TRUE #2 wrestler in D-1 does not get beat by Lucas Davison. Thats whats hard to figure.

So, Y2 am I seeing it right that if we were using this format this year then either Bellmont or Garrett (Top 2 finishing teams in 2A) would have been left out from being voted in?