5/6 tourney great.....intrust sucked...pay for parking...pay for entry....food outrageous...hartman same...but all in all great venue...the staff a hartman was great no problems....even let kids club kids to go onto the mat to hang out with "the big boys" Way cool for them to be with those caliber of wrestlers....Won't get that "With Intrust natzis"......keep it at Harmon....

I didn't bring up the Erk one, that isn't that difficult to pronounce. With the lack of intelligence in our family, the first Eck to come to America from Germany, named Eckenbacherswartzendruber, was shortened to Eck, for fear of future embarassment of misspelling our own name............Great great great great great Grandpa probably thought he'd never run into someone not able to pronounce the shortened version...........

Yeah, Ryne Cokeley/Cade Blair, same difference huh?

Eckenbacherswartzendruber....................Eck is a great name.

I don't think I would have been able to remember the name of the wrestler that beat me pretty soundly in high school if his name was Eckenbacherswartzendruber.

In the announcers' defense, they did ask coaches to come up and tell them how to pronounce any tough names, but the tourney wasn't filled up with tough names. Coaches assume that the announcer has the ability to read at least at a 2nd grade reading level.

Other than that, the tourney wasn't too bad

Couldnt agree with this topic more. The anouncing was horrible. 1 of them was much better than the other but overall it was sad. How by the way do you get Augustus out of Augusta? and Erk for Eck was outragously dissrespectful for an outstanding wrestler. Other than the Water Police on Saturday searching bags all went very smoothly.. Didnt understand that either, Ok to bring in Water on Friday and not on Saturday? Oh well NBD Congrats to all the Medalist on a fantastic tournament.

I think it's time for the reffs and others that can set back and let a wrestler get hit with a fist at the state meet at the end of the match and toss him and nothing else happens to him besides a point can be taken from the team score. If this would have been a coach they would have thew him out and would call the police. This happened in the 4A 135 pound weight and not only did he get hit but also in the match hut his arm and had to take sixth. It's time that schools be held responable for a kid during what happened sat. Years ago we had a boy have his front teeth knoted out and the school had to end up paying 2,200.00 for the bill to fix what happened. I think the wrestler that did this and the school should have the guts to at lease tell him there sorry and if the coach is a man he should to.
I want to say thanks for Mike costa from Hiawatha who deserved more than he got for a great weekend.

By far the best venue that we've had the last 5 years. Easy access and great viwing off all the mats. Plenty of space. Hat's off to Hartman!

I do have to say that the announcer was really bad but he did ask for people to come up and let them know if you have a name that would be difficult to say. I am not defending them so please don't think that. just saying they did ask. They actually got our name right and it is usually pronounced incorrectly.

Hopefully they will fix this for next year.

"Erk" was an omen.......he knew Levi would be "erked" after Nick whipped him............

I'm surprised everyone noticed the mis-pronounced names this weekend because i couldnt even hear the crappy PA system most of the day. Guess I didnt miss much.

Is this the same adult fan who was screaming at the stated wrestler " You are a piece of @#!* " and other obscenities several times in front of all the innocent fans, should they get an apology as well? Just wonderin'----

Tom S, if you didnt know, the coach is also his dad.

Although I agree with Doug's assessment, I am hesitant to attack the volunteers. I know Steve and his heart is absolutely in the right place. I blame KSHSAA for not making this event as important as it should be. We should have a professional announcer and there should be an attempt to make this event totally special for these kids who have sacrificed many, many hours of freedom to hard work. I have said it before and I will say it again. The medals are a joke, the awards assembly is a joke, the setup is a joke. The bleachers should be pulled out and fans should be allowed a closer view. The lighting makes it impossible to take a good video or take good pictures. Ideas for improvements:

1) Raised platform for the finals.
2) Pull out the bleachers and sell premium floor tickets.
3) Real Announcer.
4) Better lighting.
5) Awards given on the raised platform and then move them to the podium for picks.
6) Let the head coach or fathers award the medals.
7) Play some better music for the awards.
8) How about a medal with some wrestlers on them? Does KSHSAA not know that it is GOLD for 1st, Silver for 2nd, and Bronze for the other placings?

Lastly, the biggest announcment snafu, to me, was when the guy tied to jinx Ryne by announcing him the State Champ when they still needed to wrestle the 3rd period!! He is lucky Ryne held up or we would definitely be looking for at least one new one next year.

As an announcer myself, I believe it's very important to correctly pronounce names. Nothing makes an event and an announcer look and sound more pathetic than saying someone's name wrong. C'mon...do a little homework before the event begins. God forbid, an announcer actually asks someone. I thought the announcing at 3-2-1A state was generally ok, but Schumacher was pronounced Shoe-mock-er by the announcer. And Schumacher's from Hays!

That being said, there's 224 wrestlers competing at each state tourney. It's nearly impossible to get every name right. I had at least one wrong myself. Batt from Hoisington is pronounced "Bott". Again, I should have asked. Never assume.

Why should the school punish the kid? Yeah what he did wasn't the best thing to do, but the punch to the face (which actually just hit his head gear from what i heard) has nothing to do with the injury to the Costa's arm. His arm got hurt because Costa's opponent was wrestling intensively. I agree that the kid should not have hit Mike but the punishment is between the wrestler and the coach. In this case a dad and his son. Not between the entire school. And you shouldn't expect the other school to pay for any damages to Costa's arm if it got hurt from legal hard nose wrestling because that would be ridiculous.

Its amazing how in one instance we can talk about wrestling "intensively" and then when the table is turned, it is refered to as "dirty" wrestling or head-butting. Very interesting.

No records or class on the 4A brackets???? They turned 321A on us!

I am reconstructing the brackets and the new brackets will have records and year in school.

Update: It appears that it was in fact a silo and not a tall building.