They should just do away with novice. They allready have an A bracket and 2 or 3 B brackets at most tournaments. I agree with Beeson. My sons weight had 4 brackets this weekend in an open tournament. There's pleanty of room for new people and beginners in non state placer or state placer brackets. I think novice is all about the money you make for the novice tournaments.

Id totally get novice if all tournaments were double elimination but they aren't. Most have multiple round robin. Just my opinion though.

To awnser the original post a true Novice Imo should be a first or second year wrestler with ZERO first places in any Open tournament.