After my annual reminder of how tough the 4A state tournament is, I decided it would be a good time to teach my 10-year-old daughter how cool an excel spreadsheet can be. Here are the combined beginning records of each weight class:

103 - 433-132 (76.6% winning %)
112 - 429-148 (74.4%)
119 - 422-139 (75.2%)
125 - 463-142 (76.5%)
130 - 416-133 (75.8%)
135 - 448-132 (77.2%)
140 - 438-141 (75.6%)
145 - 439-116 (79.1%)
152 - 441-126 (77.8%)
160 - 438-101 (81.3%)
171 - 397-121 (76.6%)
189 - 450-127 (78.0%)
215 - 437-125 (77.8%)
285 - 389-106 (78.6%)

OVERALL: 6040-1789 (77.1%)

For you math majors out there, I do have these rounded to more decimals if you want them. Congrats to all the wrestlers and to Clay Center for winning a very tough tournament.

OK. So what does this say and what do you want to infer from your data. I assume the second column is total wins and the third column is total losses. All I see is that win/loss percentage are "pretty close" (now there is a good scientific/mathematic term). Which can be used to prove what: winners win!

Thinks for the data. Your daughter did good. I never could do a spread sheet. Have to work it out with pencil and a hand held calculator.

It just confirmed the quality of wrestling I witnessed first-hand. There were only 14 falls out of 56 quarterfinal matches, and only 4 of 28 semi-final matches ended in a fall. There are no free rides in this tournament, and you really can't overlook anyone.

Are you saying that there are plenty of free rides in the rest of state tournaments?

No....I don't think there are any free rides. Even the kids with losing records in 5A and 6A managed to win some matches. 6A losing record kids had a record of 6-47 in their matches wrestled at state. And there was a kid at 119 who went 3-3 and placed 6th. In 5A, the kids with losing records were 15-88 in their state matches this year. I also noticed that Cole Luttig from McPherson had a losing record, but gave the state champion in his weight (Charbonneau) his closest match of the tournament - a 3 point match in the first round.

I agree Mr. Ron Burgundy, the 4A tournament is by far the hardest of all classes. I used to think, back when i was in high school, that 4A had its "individuals" but the overall competition of the class was weak. It was harder to get that 1st place medal but 3rd-6th was cake. Now that i am coaching here, i realize it is not even the opposite. Not only was i wrong in my assumption about the overall toughness of the class, but it STILL has its amazing individuals. I saw some great wrestling this weekend and it was a blast.

It was great very awesome wrestling in 4a, if 321a,5a, and 6a were like 4a then I'm sure everyone had a great time. Congrats to all the kids who made it to state you all should pat yourselves on the back...

Without even looking at the 5a 6a brackets, and just throwing this out there as a "competitive" measure, the first round at 4a state seemed to have lots of close matches, very few pins. Again, I was only at the 4a meet, so I have no idea how the other 3 tourneys went in that round. There are brackets in each class, just by looking at placers, that some classes were much stronger in. I see examples in the 3 larger classes of the possibility of the champion of one class not even placing in another class. I can't comment on many of the 3a kids, as Norton is the only team I remember seeing at our tourneys this year. Of course the tourney that your own kid is in is always the toughest, and his bracket is always the toughest................

It is fun to argue over, but until we get a Grand State, we can talk all we want..................

I also think that this year's 4A state tournament was as competitive as I have ever seen it since I have been attending (1997). There seemed to be as much parity in 4A than I have seen also. 28 state finalists represented by 20 different schools. That means 1/3 of the schools in 4A had a state finalist. I don't know if any of you record guru's have stats on that from year's past, but that seemed amazing to me. And the top-end quality of wrestlers seemed incredible. I could build a very impressive college team in the next few years with 4A guys alone.

Mitch: I do have that information on prior years. But I refuse to divulge it until you give Matt Hughes a rematch. We can put it on pay-per-view and use the proceeds to host a grand state tournament.

As a first timer to a KS State Championship, I wasn't sure what I would find.

What I found...

- KS 4A is tough. Saw some kids with very good records not make it to the consolation qtrs! Arguably the toughest intra-state bracket I have seen my son negotiate...qtrs, semis, and finals were tough. Not one pushover!

- Only saw a couple ugly incidents in the heat of battle. Extremely classy coaches and wrestlers across the board. I was VERY impressed with all of the outstanding sportmanship...win or lose.

- Officiating was consistent. At the start of the tournament I was very critical of the zebras but by the end of day one, I knew what to expect from them as the mechanics/reasoning were the same from match to match. I will say they were very annoying with all of the warnings from the referees position but I chalked that up to a point of emphasis. Just blow the whistle and get out of the way!! The sooner they get rid of the pause before the whistle is blown the better it will be for all involved! One other thing...it seems KS has an injury time strategy which involves feigning an injury to catch your breath and regroup. Please get that under control.

- I will say it is a shame all classes can't be in one building. Coming from MO state last week, the "experience" of state doesn't seem quite as impressive with only one class attending.

- Loved the way the semis were conducted with only two mats at a time.

yes 5a 125 a kid with no wins 0-5 thats a free ride to state.

There is a difference between Plenty and A free ride to State.

One is plenty?

There were other weight classes (more than 1) where wrestlers didn't have to win a match at regionals to make it to state. The 5A and 6A tournament managers refused to make the brackets available for viewing so I am not sure how many. If you have 5 or less wrestlers in a bracket, someone is getting a free pass to state.

Mr. Cokeley,

This is off topic but congrats to Ryne for capturing his 3rd staright state title. I really enjoyed watching him wrestle. He is the real deal.

I agree 1000% with the "injury time" being used as "catch your breath" time. That is sickening whenever I see an obviously tired wrestler, call for injury time. YOu completely take away the advantage of the wrestler that is better conditioned. That is not right.

I also applaud several coaches for not letting it happen, and telling their kid to wrestle, when the kid starting calling for the injury time.

Well since we are complaining about "Free Rides":

672 Free Rides to State in All Classes
252 Free Medals in All Classes
42 Free State Championships in All Classes

Beeson,

Normally I agree with everything you say. I might agree with this also, but I don't have any idea what you are talking about. Any clarification you might be able to give would be most appreciated.

Free with the purchase of a lot of blood sweat and tears.......

Not that it isn't frustrating for kids to see kids that they whip, qualify, or even place, or even win a state title.......

Life lessons I guess. The good old days are gone. I agree with a lot of what people say about earning your way to state, but I also wonder what it would do to our participation if we made it more difficult to qualify for state. Hard to be mad at a coach for walking the halls after football season, and telling a kid to come out and fill a slot at a weight, knowing that the weight might be thin on either talent or quantity, and thinking he can squeeze some team points out of that new kid.