Gophers

Backtothemat - Agreed!

First of all let me say congratulations to all of the teams mentioned in this thread. Impressive performances by all! Just for discussion sake, I would like to throw in the 1980-1981 Delta team that scored 99 points. 1. Current system: 14 weight classes with 16 individuals 1980-81 season: 13 weight classes with 12 individuals 2. Current system: 8 place winners 1980-81 season: 4 place winners 3. Current system: 1st - 16 pts, 2nd - 12 pts, 3rd - 9 pts, 4th - 7 pts and so on. 1980-81 season: 1st - 14 pts, 2nd - 10 pts, 3rd - 7 pts and 4th - 4 pts, and NO points for 5-8 as they didn't place past 4th. So not taking into consideration that one of the above mentioned teams would need to drop a wrestler (to get to 13 weight classes), we would have to add points to the Delta total just for the place winners they had: 112# - Chris Ruble (4th) +3 for 7 pts ('18) instead of 4 pts ('81) 119# - Doug Campbell (Qualifier) +0 126# - Chris Campbell (Champion) +2 for 16 pts ('18) instead of 14 pts ('81) 132# - Don Heintzelman (Champion) +2 155# - Greg Gadbury (Champion) +2 167# - David Palmer (Champion) +2 This is a total of +11 just for place finishing, bringing the 99 points up to 110. Don't forget to subtract 4 points from Indianapolis Cathedral for the 285# 7th place. Those points were not available in 1980-1981. This brings Indianapolis Cathedral's total down to 104. They are all great teams! My discussion point is that I think as times change over the years the best way to measure dominance is how you performed against the competition at the time. Dominance would be the margin of victory, not the most points totaled in history. The 1980-1981 Delta team still has the largest margin of victory of 48.5 points. No disrespect to the great Indianapolis Cathedral (108) and Brownsburg (100.5) teams of this year, but that is only 7.5 point separating them. So in the future when the NFHS increases the number of weight classes to 15 or 16 and the IHSAA expands the field to 20 or 32 wrestlers per weight class then surely the 108 or 109.5 point record will fall. Does that make these teams any less impressive? Absolutely not! They are both very impressive, it's just hard to compare scores from one year to the next when the IHSAA is continually making changes. Just some thoughts, don't beat me up too much on your replies

Congratulations to all of the young wrestlers who competed at this year's state finals. With the help of their coaches, officials, fans, tournament workers, venue workers, singers (they were awesome), color-guard, parents, family and friends it was another outstanding event to witness (sorry to anyone that I forgot to list as it is truly a team effort). That being said, which semi-state was the toughest to qualify from? There are many ways to interpret "toughest" and I realize that others may disagree with this approach, but that disagreement is about Indiana wrestling and if we are discussing Indiana wrestling then it is a good discussion. Points in my opinion are the best way to compare. It takes into account place-finishers (+16 1st, +12 2nd, etc...), it takes into account dominance (+2 fall, +1.5 tech fall, +1 major decision) and it takes into account (to a lessor degree) the tougher competition by advancing through the championship bracket (+2 advancement) versus advancing through the consolation bracket (+1 advancement). All of this being said, looking at the past two years, it appears to me that the New Castle Semi-State is strengthening its claim to being the toughest semi-state to advance to the State Finals through. PDF attachments have team by team points scored in the State Finals. 2017-2018.pdf 2016-2017.pdf