They sure did! Nice work Jets! Things are tight heading into the finals.

I got a verbal update...

Edgemon won over Steeley
Kuhn won over Curtis
Harrison over Jesseph
Stots over Younkin in a wild match
Grater and Nelson are gettin' in on!

125
edgmon fh wbd 3-1 steeley neo

133
kuhn fh wbd 6-3 curtis lab

141
harrison fh wbd 7-4 jesseph lab

149
stots lab wbd 7-6 with riding time younkin fh

157 match of the tourney!

nelson lab wbd 13-8 grater fh
1st period;grater t2, nelson e1, nelson t2 nf3 headlock, grater r2, nelson e1
2nd period; nelson e1
3rd period; grater e1,nelson t2 nf3, grater e1, grater t2, nelson e1
great scrambles. great match

165
malloy wbd 4-3 rutherford lab

174
wright lab wbd 5-2 feldkamp pcc

184
rencountre fh wbd 4-1 nowak bak

197
clarke lab wbmd 14-3 downs pcc

Thanks for all the updates! This Baker fan in California appreciates it.

285
glenn fh wbf calhoun bak


fhsu team champs 134.5
labette 125
baker 89

chase nelson ow

Yes, Big thanks Tim. Also, Kudos to Coach Smith for spearheading this awesome event. Congrats to the Tigers....winner's of the first Kansas Cup!

6 champs for FHSU and 4 for Labette. Baker with a respectable showing and two finalists!

well, this event sure lived up to all my expectations. fhsu had a good energetic crowd. the turnout was a little lower than i expected with the tough wrestling programs in the wichita area. the finals packed the place and brought a little energy though. i was really impressed with coach thompson fhsu team. i thought there were 2 ways they could come into this tourney. one, being the favorite with what some would say "more to lose" and wrestle tight and "not to lose". or they could come out and set the tone early that they were the best team there. as a team they were relentless. they pushed the action, spent no time on bottom, and flat came out to win. nice work tigers.
the cards had a fine day. will get healthy and make a serious run @ the national title. nelson vs grater was as good as advertised. tcob labette!
newman and baker are headed in the right direction. hope they pick up more of our kansas juco guys. 6 3rd place finishes for coach smith and host newman tells me they can finish strong. 7 top 4 finishes for baker. good looking team for jimmy may.
pratt had a rough semi round lost 5 of 7. should rebound for the qualifier. i like a lot of their athletes. a healthy pratt team can be fun to watch.
neosho obviously wasnt @ full strenght. its tough because this event drew a lot of attention and bottom line it doesnt look good for the panthers. they are a better team and will show it @ regionals. not a fan of the timeouts called by kober in every match.

as for colby; "you stay classy" nothing against their athletes. good luck

I thought the gate was larger than I expected but you're right, as usual there was no support from area clubs and schools.
I have one suggestion to the coaches of the colleges involved, PROGRAMS! Please let us help you in any way and this would be an easy one to let the people on these boards help you get programs made to be distributed.
Thanks to those responsible for putting this event together and those that showed up.

Why didn't Colby CC attend?

Sickness, Injury, & a lineup with a few holes

A couple with the flu, at least one with impentigo, and several open weights... better to get rested/healed for regionals/nationals than to take a patchwork team to a tournament that essentially means nothing (not that it doesn't in KS but in the regional/nations scheme it doesn't).

match-ups with the juco teams could have affected some of their regional seeds. neosho was also not at full strength, but brought what they had and at least mixed it up. side note: i think the club teams should participate next year to help fill some brackets. 141 had 4 guys. most guys wrestled only twice.

This would be a great tournament have at the beginning of the year or just after the first of the year not 2 weeks before regionals

They should make it duals and mix a few of the top high schools in to have their own dual tournament. It would be great exposure for high school kids to college wrestling and a great opportunity for the college coaches to scout some high school kids.

Yeah, but not everyone is down to weight at the beginning of the year. If this tournament had been earlier Edgmon would not be in the lineup for FHSU, which would have made it a little tighter tournament in terms of the team race. It is also a little more representative of what the lineups should look like heading into the qualifiers and Nationals.

Also many of the regularly scheduled tournaments are in late November and December. Such as the Kaufman-Brand in Omaha, the Oklahoma Open, Mizzou Open, FHSU Open, and UNK Open. I think it is really the best time that you could ask for. If moved back a week or so that conflicts with many of the teams coming off a tough stretch of dual tournaments like the National Duals.

As for the club teams being involved it would be nice to see them in attendance because many of them have all Kansas native lineups. I think that a few years ago when Younkin was at Wichita State he would have definitely challenged for a medal. Marcus Bowman is another person who would have been a contender back when he was on Pitt States club team. This year I have not seen many results for the club programs in Kansas. The only person I can remember seeing in results was Aaron Hynick for WSU who gave Malloy a pretty tough match at the FHSU Open.

However, the quality of most of the club teams wrestlers typically cannot compete with the varsity level guys who are at Kansas' scholarship wrestling programs. Most of this has to do with a conditioning and practice factor. The clubs are on break for 3 to 5 weeks because of finals and winter break. They also do not typically have a large amount of bodies in the wrestling room and do not practice near the amount of time per session.

What I would like to see is an invitation extended to every varsity wrestler who graduated from a Kansas high school that is on the various DI, DII, DIII, and NAIA programs across the country. This would bring back the quality crop of freshmen wrestlers like CJ Naiper, Tyler Caldwell, and Kendric Maple who are all starting. You'd see national champion candidates Cody Garcia and Jacob Marrs in action. Along with several of the NAIA studs like Joe Cornejo, Aaron Ely, and Paulie Hansen. Not to mention the prospective DI All-American's in Jesse Strawn, Tristen DeShazer, and Neil Erisman. The list could go on for the various DII and NAIA. Shoot I bet Curtis Chenoweth would have joined in on the fun all the way from Newberry.

Just imagine how tough that 157 bracket would have been with Erisman and Cornejo in it, to go with Nelson and Grater. Shoot Grater and Cornejo could've ruined their rivalry from high school, except it would've likely been in the semifinals. 133 would have matched up Maple, Naiper, Ely, DeShazer, and Garcia.

Heck fellas, why not make it an international open? Oh, I guess they tried that and they didn't show up.

All jokes aside...you gotta keep this thing at a reasonable size. Big giant opens are fun for only the hard core fans. Have you ever been to the UNO Open...you don't see half of the matches you want to see and your trying to find a seat cause they keep telling you to sit down but there is no where to sit down. Your trying not to pizz yourself so you don't have to go into a restroom that makes feedlots smell appetizing. Big tournaments suck for fans. I think keeping the fan interested will go a long way for this event and for Kansas wrestling.

I think the time of year is perfect for some of the reasons stated above. Excuses are excuses...it's wrestling and all teams and wrestlers battle illness and injuries and occastionally those grungy fungies. It's a weekend they all agreed to leave open to do this...the date is fine. Juco's have two weeks to recover...how much more do you need?

I'm still up in the air whether a dual tourney or an open is better. I think inviting club teams and pigtailing them into an 8 man bracket would be good.

I will let you guys debate on how this thing needs to be ran in the future and I assure you all the comments will be taken into consideration.

On a side note--I have two boxes full of Kansas Cup T-Shirts that I will make somebody a good deal on. Let me know. If you are interested I will go as far as mailing them to you (children sizes up to XXL).

Coach Smith