Who will win the 4a state championship?

I don't think any of these team will win State this year.

Not because they aren't the best, but because they are going to beat each other up in the Regional.

There are going to be teams from the east and south that will have more kids at State and because of numbers will win the Championship.

COLUMBUS!

aaron ellison is that u wrestler67?

I think Columbus has a great shot. I also think Ft Scott has a chance although, losing Cagle was a major blow which probably took them out of the running. Putting tham all in the same regional does change things. They will all probably take a couple less kids to state than they otherwise would have.

I think that Columbus has a great shot too.

just a follow-up to Coach JT thoughts posted earlier -

It is true that eastern and southern Kansas 4A teams have a great opportunity to advance large numbers of wrestlers to state due to the concentration of talent at Goodland's regional.

But keep in mind that a lot of those qualifiers, regardless of regional placement, will be getting an incredibly tough 1st round opponent from the Goodland regional.

Numbers only matter if those qualifiers score points. And I suspect that many a qualifier from eastern and southern regionals will have a struggle on their hands to keep from immediately falling into the consolation bracket.

It will be very interesting to study pairings when the state brackets are released and equally interesting to measure regional win-loss performance during the first round of the 4A tourney.

Good luck to all.

I just get a kick out of the implication that Columbus couldn't contend for a state championship on their own merrit rather than because the west was handicapped. Brother I am from Western Kansas but jeez, Columbus has been a major factor in the state tourney now for about fifteen years. I don't think the regional they are in is much of a factor anymore. They have proven their mettle over the years and things have evened out across the state a long time ago.

I think Columbus has a great shot no matter the regional.

Did not intend to imply that Columbus was not capable.

But I "get a kick" out of folks saying western Kansas schools are not capable of competing for a title unless all the conditions fall just right.

Tough regional or not, western Kansas schools will be in the mix.

I'll try to further explain the point I was trying to make in my earlier post using the current rankings (which of course may or not be a valid measure at this point in the season).

Lets say you are 3rd ranked Marcus Bowman from Columbus and you just won your regional at 125 pounds. And you are paired against the fourth place finisher from the Goodland Regional in your first match.

Take your pick, using the current rankings (and assuming no upsets by the many other talented kids in the weight at the Goodland regional) you have your choice of top ranked Danny Mainus of Colby, 2nd ranked Dan Prater of Pratt, 4th ranked Jordan Close of Clay Center, 5th ranked Rees McKinney of Scott City or 6th ranked Luke Geske of Abilene.

And if you are lucky (?) enough not to draw the Goodland Regional in the first round, you will have either the second or third place finisher from Goodland's regional in your quarterfinal.

Obviously, this is a sensationalized example because Bowman is capable of competing against any of these folks. But what if you placed 2nd, 3rd, or 4th at Bowman's regional or in the top four at either of the other two regionals? Current rankings (again, subject to debate) seem to indicate the early pairings of the state tournament will be awful tough.

Current rankins indicate this scenario is possible at other weights too.

I realize that this will not affect the state's best, because they will beat the best to be the best. But this example should provide arsenal to contest the arguement that a non-Goodland regional team will win the title because they were able to advance more wrestlers to the state tournament.

My point is this - you don't get team points for showing up at Wichita, you have to win matches to get team points. And unless you score team points the "extra" qualifiers will not play a role in the outcome of the state tournament.

Case in point - it can be successfully proven that the central and western Kansas regionals have historically been the toughest in 3-2-1A since wrestling's beginning in the high school ranks. And there have been many teams from the other regionals that have brought full rosters to Hays to compete. But since 1986 the state title team trophy has only traveled east of Salina on 2 occassions - 2000 and 2001 to ACCHS. During those years there have been many deserving individuals (who could have placed at state) from western and central Kansas schools who have watched the state tournament from the stands because of a tough regional bracket and still seen their team bring home the state title.

Les;
No doubt there are a lot of tough 321A kids and teams in Western Kansas. Having been born, raised, and wrestled there, I know that as well as anyone. There are also a lot more 321A programs out there. The state screwed up putting teams with so many good wrestlers all in one place but that is par for the course for the state. They have been doing that in 5A for years. When the balance of power in 5A was in the Ark Valley league they put them in the same regional lots of times. In the old days when the Northwest Kansas League was all together, they put them in the same regional but of course let them wrestle in their own gyms for state, so being unfair and being the state have gone hand in hand for about fifty years.

I agree completely. I have no problem with the tough regionals - they have been a way of life out west forever. Geographically, it is the right decision. Let's face it, not a lot of 4A schools out this way, so you have to cover a lot of territory to round up the 16 closest teams.

My source of contention is the thought process of discounting the liklihood of success for a western Kansas 4A school because of the old numbers vs concentration of talent game.