My point is that duals are fun. I think we have driven off our fan with the huge tournaments. As our sport struggles with loss of programs, shrinking numbers, and a diminishing fan base maybe some of the blame is our own. We have made our sport so hard to watch only a few mat heads like myself will watch it. A simple dual is a great meet format. People pay a small amount of money, spend less than two hours, yell for their team, understand the scoring, be totally immersed into the event, eat a hot dog, and go home without the hangover that comes with watching 24 hours of wrestling in 48 hour period of time.

... and I wish the Wichita area would get something going with Oklahoma!!!

Yes I left off Andrus(completely forgot about him since he has been quite due to his injury) and you could throw in Hackathorn but after that there would not be a kid that would last more than 2 periods with any of the 285 talked about on here. I guess people think, that if someone is givin all the hype either in the paper or news or chat boards they shouild come out and be this dominant athlete. Then if this does not happen they start to find their faults,well everyone is human and they are going to lose every now and then. I guess it is just frustrating to see this, when it was only a exhibition match and they say how they were disappointed in how someone wrestled. Good luck to alll the seniors going to Virginia.

I think it is commendable that you are defending Duane who lost to a Elijah a wrestler who was ranked as high as No. 2 heavyweight in the country by Intermat this year. I don't understand why you feel the need to knock down the rest of the heavyweight class in Kansas other than Duane, Atticus, and now I guess you have elevated Andrus and Hackathorn out of the non-good group of heavyweights in Kansas this year. In your first post on this topic you said basically that it didn't help Duane that there was not a good group of 285 wrestlers in Kansas this year other than Disney.

Now you appear to be saying that the rest of the heavyweights in Kansas could not get to the third period with Duane, Atticus, Andrus or Hackathorn. I can guarantee you that is incorrect and I could show you matches of Atticus, Andrus and Hackathorn that went into the third period with other Kansas heavyweights this year. Now Duane maybe pinned everyone else he wrestled in Kansas before the third period this year. He is so big and powerful that he can just physically dominate a majority of his opponents. I saw him at Eudora and Basehor this year. It seemed to me that he was on a mission to pin everyone he faced in the first period. It might have helped his match conditioning if he had not pinned so many of his opponents in the first period.

I can understand why you are upset with some of the things that have been posted about Duane concerning this match with Elijah. I am a parent of one of Kansas heavyweights that is a member of this group that you have described as a not a good group of heavyweights who cannot even get to the third period with the top four heavyweights that you have named. As a parent of one these other heavyweights I find your remarks just as upsetting as you are finding the critical remarks towards Duane.

The truth of the matter is that this is a very tough event to win at. You have some of the best wrestlers in Missouri, Kansas and the nation competing against each other. You have state champions going against state champions. Someone is going to lose. Sometimes great wrestlers lose in this event. Duane losing to a high national ranked wrestler is nothing to feel bad about. Duane Zlatnick is a 3 time Kansas state champion. It is not an easy task to win 3 state championships. I think he is one of the all time great heavyweights in Kansas high school history. But I also think you are making a mistake by slighting the other heavyweights in Kansas in defending Duane.