BClark

58 minutes ago, Coach Coop said:

The area is not going to be built up overnight but there is plenty of good being done and some programs on the rise.  Getting kids and coaches to commit to the off season is the key like the other posters have said.  I don't see the issue with re working the  sectional-semi state every few years.  I am not from the ft wayne area but from an outside perspective it looks like ft. wayne snyder which was once a power in the state is back on the rise, starting to see those kids at off season events which is great.

 

Ill propose a short term solution to even things out.... Why not send a team like Brownsburg and a few others that are competitive north to Ft. Wayne?  It would be a slight inconvenience for the sectional and regional but its a closer trip to semi state than their drive to Evansville.  IHSAA already makes Tell City drive 1hr 15 minutes to Jeff for sectionals and regionals and they make Floyd Central and New Albany Drive almost 2 hours to Bloomington for regionals. All of the Marion,Johnson,Hendricks etc have a 2-3 hour drive to semi state as well.  We should not use travel time as a reason this is not possible. This will give the Ft. Wayne area the opportunity to wrestle better competition and then have a reason to schedule more teams in the central part of the state, thus getting better. 

 

The Mooresville regional had 7 state finalist and 19 place winners this past weekend and the area is only getting better schools like CG are loaded at the MS level, Franklin Community returns all 14 starters, Plainfield is on the rise and Brownsburg and Avon are clearly not going anywhere. Why not distribute the wealth of talented wrestlers and re-evaluate and realign every few years.  I am not hating on the Ft. Wayne semi state here but we should not have a regional out scoring a semi state at the state tournament.

Just send Warsaw and Wawasee to Fort Wayne. Still doesn't make sense to me why they go west.  

Also, can the combined Elkhart High School become a power? Any insight into what the Elkhart programs have coming up in the pipeline? Is there fear of athletes leaving to go to other schools? Bristol kids going to Northridge, etc?

47 minutes ago, navy80 said:

They should be a contender for the team title next year... with almost all underclassmen. 

Same with CMA in 2A?

Pokorney would still be ranked. I think you will see Mendez, Cernus, and maybe Donahue in the next rankings with maybe 1-2 of these current guys falling out as well. 

Returning guys who will be in next years rankings:

Cernus, Seltzer, Littell, Mendez, Lee, Donahue, Allred. Who else?

Side note: Cernus and Mendez were two of my favorite guys to watch. WOW they were fun! Mendez is the best freshman since Angel.

Agreed about the Avon “Iowa” style singlets. My favorite singlets are anyone who comes out in the all-white singlets. We always saved our white singlets for the championships. They look so clean!

If you spin it the other way around. All other 1A and 2A teams need to get on Fort Wayne’s level. They might have more IHSWCA dual championships than all other semi states combined. They just don’t have the top schools to compete with these 3A monsters. 

Based on football classes there are 32 6A schools. I believe only two in the Fort Wayne semistate. Carroll and Homestead? Carroll pulls its weight most years. 

6 hours ago, Chapdaddy said:

Can we get a point update after round 1?  I'm not happy with my picks... lost 6.  

Pretty sure I went 14/14

195-#3 Agnew (HN) vs. #5 Willham (GW) 

I think the winner makes the finals. 

7 minutes ago, HornetsFan22 said:

One that immediately comes to mind is  a few years back,  2x defending champ Colton Cummings vs Alec White, with White coming out on top on his way to winning the 126 title

The same year, I believe Wildeman vs Stewart at 195. Both ranked pretty high.  

Has there ever been a #1 vs. #2 on Friday night before?

How long before they go to selling assigned seats (like the NCAA wrestling championships)?

We maybe didn't realize it at the time but 2005 had a pretty good one too.

Championship

Reece Humphrey (48-0) Lawrence North (12) def. Andrew Howe (47-1) Hanover Central (9), dec. 5-1.

32 minutes ago, rpetty24 said:

I love the rush of trying to get seats low even when you’ve waited in line but would love even more to pay extra ahead of time to show up twenty minutes early and have a seat all ready. The IHSAA can have my money for that luxury!

Yep. 100%. Would pay more to have my assigned seat and show up when I want.  

15 hours ago, wrestlenewbie said:

I will be stopping in Champaign on my way home Sunday, just to see this match. Can't wait.

Does Carr wrestle? Could avoid this match until the Big 10s and preserve his higher seed?

My Picks in order:

1. Cathedral

2. Mater Dei

3. Roncalli

4. Columbus East

5. Avon

2 minutes ago, purdue02 said:

Oh no!!

 

Watts vs. Mendez will not be under the lights!  Was excited for that rematch Saturday night.  What a bummer!

Agreed. Stinks when the finals happen in the semis.

So every 4th place finisher at Evansville could win the Fort Wayne semistate?

3 hours ago, MattM said:

At this point you can’t really say clearly with Watts winning 8-5.  But it’s what most people were expecting to see in the finals. 

I feel pretty confident in how it was worded. Watts clearly deserves a better draw based on the results of today. 

51 minutes ago, Caleb Spires said:

Hunter Watts beats Brayden Curtis 8-5. Pretty controlled for the most part.

You never want to lose, but the reward might be a rematch with Mendez in the semis when it should clearly be under the lights. 

On 1/31/2019 at 2:44 PM, Rookies03 said:

Obviously a very big topic this time of year.... just some thoughts on wrestlebacks at each level.

Sectional - we have them after the pigtail matches.  So as long as kids are seeded correctly and non-seeded kids are placed in pigtail rounds I think this is a good way to run the Sectional.

Regional - You wrestle your way into your seed from Sectional and since only 2 Sectionals feed into a Regional there is no luck of the draw. Keep the same.

Semi-State - Biggest opportunity for wrestlebacks but if you only do wrestlebacks after the 1st round then people will start asking for wrestlebacks all the way through and 16 man brackets cant be run in 1 day without running into the 5 match rule.  Also most of the time the Semi State is wrapping up in the evening.  To add Wrestlebacks might only add a couple hours but that means the event is going until late evening and the length of Saturdays is a big discussion regarding what is killing the sport (I know this applys much less cause most of these kids and families would gladly stay longer at this level but its still an issue).  There also might not be the support of the HS admins as this would mean kids out on roads later in Feb when weather could be an issue and some are traveling 1-2 hours to get to their SS. There will always be bad draws and upsets.  I say leave it the same.

State - While it might not seem as if time would be an issue with the big break taken before the finals I dont think that break can be eliminated as they clear out BLF and re-admit everyone but there is more of an opportunity at State because it is 2 days.  All that being said, I don't necessarily see the value.  It might help with some recruitment but as out of season tournaments are becoming bigger and bigger with more and more coverage from flo and others I only see this helping a very few and the IHSAA isnt going to change for just a few.

 

All in all it probably makes the most sense to look at WB for semi-state but time and matches make it the most difficult to implement.  Plus we wouldnt get the 7 page thread on "death draws" and "need for wrestlback" in the forum to keep us entertained the week before SS!

 

 

But if you went back to the old way of qualifying for semi-state (top 3 only - had to win 2 matches at Regionals), then maybe you could do wrestlebacks at SS. Less first round matches with regional champs getting a bye. 

They will draw for which regionals are paired, but won't be released until after regionals so coaches/athletes don't try to manipulate the results in their favor to avoid certain matchups.

1 hour ago, maligned said:

Those are the outdated numbers though.

Which is why I put the disclaimer "According to the last round of classification".

It was more for observation/discussion. If this was in place in the last round of classification, some pretty tough teams from that list potentially move to 2A and some tough teams drop to 1A.  

Just trying to make the point that 1A and 2A are going to get tougher. 

4 hours ago, maligned said:

One tidbit is that it's looking like at least 35 of the 310 teams won't reach the 7+ wrestler threshold for classification, meaning we're headed toward only about 91 teams per class (compared to about 100 in the past when we only required 3+ wrestlers). About 7-10 teams that would have been 3A in the past system will be in 2A and 10-15 that would have been 2A will be in 1A.

Will be interesting to see how the final numbers come out. This could make IHSWCA Duals even tougher in 2A and 1A. 

According to the last round of classification, here are your bottom 10 3A teams based on enrollment.

91    Shelbyville    Sr    High    1156
92    Plymouth    High    School    1147
93    S.B.    Clay    High    1143
94    New    Palestine    High    1119
95    Highland    High    School    1117
96    Connersville    Sr    High    1111
97    Jasper    High    School     1093
98    Kankakee    Valley    High    1083
99    F.W.    Bishop    Dwenger    1075
100    Jay    County    High    1060

Here are your bottom 15 teams in 2A based on enrollment:

194    Greencastle    Senior    High    556
195    Wheeler    High    School    553
196    Southmont    Sr    High    550
197    South    Vermillion    High    546
198    Woodlan    Jr/Sr    High    534
199    Rensselaer    Central    High    531
200    Southridge    High    School    531
201    Western    Boone    Jr-Sr    529
204    Monrovia    High    School    527
205    Eastbrook    High    School    525
206    Rochester    Community    High    524
207    Tipton    High    School    524
208    Speedway    Senior    High    523
209    Oak    Hill    High    511
210    Manchester    Jr-Sr    High    511

But a 113 wouldn’t be able to weigh in at 117 (110 for 106, etc) because some probably can’t lose 2 lbs per week according to their weight management. 

Don't throw stones if you live in a glass house