i think that colby, goodland, and scott city will be the top 3 in 4a, colby has had i rough this past few weeks but will step it up when the time comes. roumor has it the Adam Smith is coming back and that will help out a lot.

Being a Norton alum, I will of course be rooting for the Bluejays. So I will say this for what it is worth. Coach Johnson has a way of getting his wrestlers to peak in mid February, so they can't be counted out as a contender for a top 3 finish.

4a State is going to a blast to watch this year with Colby, Goodland, Scott City, Columbus, and Norton battling it out.

Curt Cuthbertson

here are the teams that I think will contend

clay center 1st
goodland 2nd
norton 3rd
other contenders for top 3 placing: basehor linwood, chanute, colby, columbus, concordia, scott city (in alphabetical order)

all of these teams have kids with a good possibility of becoming state champions. I'll list the people who I think have a chance of becoming state champions.

103- jake kriegbaum-abilene. i think he is simply the best 103 pounder in the state this year and i think he is a heavy favorite.

112- eric denault-concordia, danny mainus-colby, blayze bahe, colby. denault beat mainus at beloit and mainus has beaten bahe a few times. I would give denault the edge here, but these wrestlers are pretty close.

119- trevor charbonneau-clay center. charbonneau is another odds on favorite for a state title.

125- this is one of the best weight classes in 4a. you have kory lira-ulysses,jones-coffeyville,and betsworth-santa fe trail. i do believe that this weight class is a tossup much like the other ones. jones is a 2time champ and betsworth is undefeated (i believe) including a pin over hill from wichita heights, but i might have to give a slight (and i do mean slight) edge to lira.

130- this will be another outstanding weight class. the contenders are mcreynolds-columbus, bahe-goodland, leudke-colby, grater clay center. grater beat leudke at beloit. I think this weight class will be wide open and it might come down to who has the best day. no pick.

135- austin pruser-clay center, nathan allison-fort scott. I think it will come down to these two and I think that pruser might have the edge.

140- travis mcburney-santa fe trail, eric johnson-norton, matt schields-chanute. johnson is a returning state champ and i believe he has the edge.

145- dukes-basehor, stirling-spring hill, taplin-abilene, rush-clay center, barriger-chanute. dukes got beat by phillips at state last year and stirling got beat by kern. i would have to give the edge to stirling.

152- buck-basehor, frank-chanute, smith-augusta. i believe this weight class is really weak and that buck should come away with it.

160- hausserman-norton, medill-lansing, baylor-columbus, pratt-spring hill, corral-clay center. i believe this weight class is pretty even. hausserman might have the slight edge.

171- vogelsberg-marysville, lattimer-fort scott. I would give vogelsberg the edge here.

189- strait-concordia, abell-spring hill, browning, osawatomie. I believe it will come down to these three. strait had a good tournament last year but it might be somebody else's turn this year. another fun weight class to watch.

215- jason bedore-goodland, tad greer-el dorado. this weight class is pretty open with these two being the best. no pick.

275- witt hinton-baldwin, english-augusta. this weight class is also open. no pick.

I made these picks based on who I've seen wrestle this year, how they've wrestled in the past, and very loosely on the rankings. it took me quite a while to write this.

I can see you have put allot of thought in to your picks. I would like to throw out a few more names
152 Kyle Johnston from Labbette (who is 20-0) and Brad Demo from El Dorado. Demo lost to Johnston 1-0 in the Fredonia Tournament. Also at 189 Stephen Hambleton who lost to Browing in over time at the Holton Tournament. Hambleton was ahead 7-3 going into the third period. I think that there will be some really good matches at the state tournament this year.

Last year i wrestled some of the 160's and hausserman is a power wrestler, that knows what he is doing out on the mat, could be tough to beat if you cant stay up with his strength. Pratt has a awkward style of wrestling and is tough to beat because he seems to be able to squirm his way out of any position.

I dont know who i would give the edge to in this weight class. I went 1-2 against hausserman and beat pratt in overtime once. It will be a good bracket to see to bad I wont be able to see it.

Good Luck to all of them.

Im gonna make a few predictions for the team title. I think it will be closer this year than its ever been. Clay Center has some good wrestlers and i think they got the inside shot to win but there are some other teams that i think will be in the hunt. 1. Goodland cause theve been consistent every year and they have a good linup all the way trough. Dont know much about bashor or or ft scott but one other team that might do good is Colby last year they went into the state tourney ranked 8th in the state and didnt even win regionals. But they had the title before the finals even rolled around in Whichita because they stepped it up when it counted. Ive watched them a couple of times this year and they havent had a full roster yet. So they could be tough they return 3 placers from last year and 2 qualifiers from last year and theyve filled in the gaps nicely from the looks of it, it will be real real fun to see how it unfolds at state but it will be Clay Center and the Western Kansas teams on the top in the end.

One team alot of people seem to overlook is Ulysses. I saw them wrestle at the GC invite and they looked real solid. Scott City is also pretty impresive

I guess Clay Center will be in the hunt as well, but my predictions are as follows for top 3
1.Goodland
2.Clay Center
3.Colby
Colby may pull off the upset though, thats if everybody on the team is wreslting up to par. they should have 112,130 and should have hwt all in the finals, and at least 103,135,140,145,160,215 all should place

Clay Center for the title

how are u so sure fanatic, u got to have reasons

Quite simply Clay Center has the most people who have a shot at placing. Grater stepping up for them helps a team that already was looking like the favorite. Charbonneu, Pruser, Grater, Close all look like finalist. Sure somebody could stumble. That is Clays advantage. They have others who can step up and place possibly high like Rush at 145. Corral looked good at Beloit though I am not sure how good 160 at beloit was. The thing is they will get an awful lot of people through the regional and have a lot of other guys who will score points even if they don't place. This is a big advantage. Lots of teams have 2 or 3 good kids but the numbers are in Clays favor.

Columbus is the team that I think will shock a lot of people. Overall through 14 weights they aren't the best but they do have the people to get in the finals. They will be the surprise team in 4A. DeVoe is a surprise, I never thought he was that good until I saw him wrestle, Bowman is also a sleeper, McReynolds is a favorite and Baylor could surprise also

Clay Center, in my opinion, has the best chance at winning state. They have the largest number of wrestlers who have a chance at placing, simple as that. All of you who think Baeshor has a chance at placing, might want to think again. WE beat them monday in a duel and we are not even ranked. Dukes and Buck didn't impress me much, they were nearly beat by 2 freshmen (wiscombe6-3) (eden 4-3) if i remember correctly. I couldn't get a good read on Bell, he was good, but he didnt have any competition at 112 from us. But from what i've heard and seen, Clay Center should take state, who knows, SFT might even sneak into the top 4 or so with Betsworth, McBurney and a strong class of freshmen...

winning a dual has nothing to do with who will win state, u have to be a solid tournment team to win state. a mimimun of 7-8 placers are in need to win the title. duals cant say much about a team, just that the team is sloid at one-on-one, u have to win in tournments to be a good team :rolleyes:

Yeah, well... obviously.. duels have little to do with how a team will fare in a tournament, i didnt say that they did, looking over what i said... i guess i did imply it, but thanks for pointing that out to me. I do mean what i said though about Basheor not being as good as everyone thinks. As for us (SFT) we will see if we are for real whenever they make up our duel vs. Effingham and Lawrence Free State, this duel of course, will have nothing to do on how well we will fare in the state tournament or any tournament for that matter :rolleyes:

I should cuation everyone to be careful of the predictions that you make on who is going to win state. Yes Clay Center has a good team this year and they have to be a favorite going in but I wouldn't quite give them the win yet. Why you ask? Well quite simply to those who have seen clay center or any top team wrestle this year in regular tournaments you would know that the wrestlers are seeded in order to try and keep the best wrestlers from facing each other until the finals. Now at state this is not the case you are pair based on your finish at regionals and the formula that KSHSAA puts out. So the truth is that If clay center does good at their regionals their wrestlers could end up getting paired against some of the best wrestlers that were from another regionals, and in effect lessening their chances for scoring major points, although going through the back side can yeild almost as many team points. Anyway my point is you can't really speculate who is going to win state just based on their tournament proformance throughout the year. I think any of the top six ranked teams have a shot at it, and when it comes down to it, the pairing are going to make the difference. I cite for example my sophmore year when we (Abilene) won state by 1 point over Goodland. Most of the good wrestlers from Goodland met up with guys who would go on to place high in their brackets in the first round. This send all but 4 of their guys to the back side right off the bat. Then when they tried to fight through the back side they met up with more guys that would go on to get 3rd and 4th. Abilene on the other hand were lucky enough to score many pins in our backside matches and that made the difference in the end. So everyone be mindfull to the system and wait until the regional pairings come out before making any predictions, oh and don't leave Abilene out, we are never out of contention especially after Beating Clay Center in the dual last night, it really showed the heart of our team

HEY CHEWIE,
HOW DO YOU FIGURE OUT JAKE WEISHAAR AT 171, IF I REMEMBER RIGHT HE BEAT LATTIMER. AND I AM NOT SURE ABOUT WHAT HE HAS DONE AGAINST VOGELSBERG. ALSO ISN'T VOGELSBURG COMPETEING AT 160 THIS WEEKEND. IS HE TRYING TO DODGE WEISHAAR? BUT I WOULD PUT WEISHAAR ON TOP AT 171.

clay center has a good chance to take a lot of people to state since the regional they are in isn't too strong. the more guys you take the better chances you have. clay center has 3 legitimate chances at state champions with charbonneau, grater, and pruser. and the only things that duals settle are league championships.
weishaar didn't wrestle and marysville wasn't even at the lake. I haven't seen weishaar wrestle this year but i remember him from last year and wasn't that impressed, but that was last year i guess and wrestlers do get better.

CHEWIE, WEISHAAR WAS SICK ALL WEEK THATS WHY HE DIDN'T WRESTLE. I HOPE YOU GET A CHANCE TO WATCH HIM WRESTLE. HE GAINED OVER 30 POUNDS. AND IS A LOT STRONGER. AND HE HAS MORE MOVES THEN HIS BROTHER, BUT DOES HAVE HIS WEAKNESSES LIKE EVERYONE ELSE. JUST DON'T COUNT HIM OUT.

to tell you the truth i forgot about him when i spent 45 minutes writing that.