TEAM KANSAS HEARTLAND USA DUALS INFO

Team Kansas will be taking 5 Elementary, 5 Middle School, 4 Girls and 2 High School dual teams to the 2025 Heartland USA National Duals. The dates for this year’s event are Friday March 28th (weigh-ins), Saturday March 29th and Sunday March 30th. The event is held at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

For Elementary, Middle School and Girls, the qualifying tournament is held on Sunday March 9th at the Tony’s Event Center in Salina, Kansas. The top 5 wrestlers (Top 4 for Girls) are automatically locked in to their respective team based on placing at the qualifier. First place is on Team 1, second place is on Team 2, etc. We can take 3 alternates for each team and those will be selected on a volunteer basis with the 6th place (5th place for Girls) finishers having the first option to go.

Once qualified, I expect you to wrestle with your respective team at this event and in the same weight class you qualified at. There is no moving of weights and you must make weight on Friday March 28th. It is a one-time weigh in so once you make weight, that’s it.

Payment of $300.00 and forms are due by the end of the qualifying tournament on March 9, 2025. Forms will be available both electronically and in paper format. Payment options will be cash, check or Venmo. Cost includes entry fee, Team Kansas singlet, shorts and t-shirt plus travel to and from Topeka, lodging and food/water.

In addition to these forms, you will need to bring with you to the event, copies of the following;
Birth Certificate, Current Grade Card and Medical Insurance Card

I believe James Cook will be putting this info on Facebook as well. Once the qualifier if over, we will also put together an email list for communication regarding changes etc.

We will be meeting at The Hotel Topeka – 1717 SW Topeka Blvd – Topeka, KS 66612 - between 9 and 10am Friday March 28th to pass out gear, get bus and room assignments, etc. We will group up in chartered buses and leave Topeka at 12 noon - to get checked in to our hotel before weigh-in. Weigh-in starts at 4pm and we will probably have an assigned weigh-in time around 4:30 or so.

I understand it is not convenient for everyone to meet at that location. I have no problem with you and your wrestler meeting us in Council Bluffs. If that is the case, PLEASE NOTE THAT ON THE SIGN-UP FORM. For those of you NOT meeting in Topeka, I will get your gear to you at the hotel in Iowa.

I will also need to know if any wrestler IS NOT staying with the team in the team rooms. I will be making a rooming list to turn in to the hotel on March 20th. Also, if your wrestler has a room-mate preference, I’ll do my best to get them together. There will be 4 wrestlers per room. Please indicate on the sign-up form, whether or not your wrestler will be staying with the team and any roommate preferences.

We will need volunteers to coach the teams (4 coaches per team). You must have a USA and bronze card to be considered as a coach.

Our old hotels have had a change of ownership, and we will be staying elsewhere. All teams (Elementary, Middle School, High School and Girls) will be staying at the Holiday Inn Express – 2010 Abbott Dr, Carter Lake, Iowa – 712-847-0777 and the Hampton Inn – 2020 Abbott Dr, Carter Lake Iowa – 712-847-0699. These hotels are in the same parking lot. There is blocks of rooms for the parents at both the Holiday Inn Express and Hampton Inn. These blocks are on a first come first serve basis. Ask for the Kansas Wrestling 2025 Parents Block when making reservations.

Dal Eck – Elementary Dual Coordinator
dal@matteck.com
316-641-4913

James Cook - Middle School Duals Coordinator
teamkansasheartland@gmail.com
785-212-0605

Here is our team itinerary

Friday March 28

9-11am – meet at The Hotel Topeka (formerly the Capital Plaza Hotel) 1717 SW Blvd to pass out gear and get room/bus assignments. If you aren’t meeting in Topeka, I’ll have your gear at the hotel in Iowa.

11:30am – start loading chartered buses

12pm – buses leave Topeka for our hotel in Iowa

3-3:30pm – arrive at the hotels and start checking in. Check in is hectic – we will have separate areas of both hotels for each group to check in. If your wrestler isn’t riding the bus but staying with the team, they will have to find me later to get their room key.

4-4:15pm – leave for weigh in at the Mid America Center. Weigh in is from 4-8:30 Friday and you must make weight in that time frame. It is a one-time weigh in so please have your wrestler at weight. Make sure you have your fingernails trimmed and any skin forms with your wrestler. Technically we don’t have to weigh in as a team but it would be nice if everyone was there together. The buses will not be waiting around for anyone to run off weight as we have pizza for the Elementary and girls teams coming to the hotel at around 6pm. Middle School and High school will be going to Pizza Ranch to eat right after weigh-in.

6-6:30pm – pizza at the Holiday Inn Express for elementary and girl wrestlers

8pm – Elementary and Girls Team meeting in the Holiday Inn Express breakfast room – I need everyone there including coaches. Middle School will have their team meeting at the Hampton Inn.

10pm – everyone in their room and lights out


Saturday March 29

5am wake up call for breakfast – we will be going around knocking on doors shortly after that to make sure everyone is up. We will be running approximately 300 wrestlers thru the breakfast line in 2 hours - so after you are finished eating, don’t sit around and take up table space. Clean up your mess, throw your trash away and leave the room so the next person can sit down.

Approx. 6:30am – buses leave for the Mid America Center – High School and Middle School will be leaving first – Elementary and girls will leave at approximately 7:15am. We will be using two buses and a couple vans to shuttle all wrestlers

8am – wrestling begins and goes until all pool wrestling is completed - approximately 5pm

9am – 5pm – for the wrestlers and coaches we will have sandwiches, fruit, crackers, granola bars, chips and water in my trailer. It will be in the parking lot outside the north entrance of the Mid America Center. We will start making sandwiches at 9:30am but water and other snacks will be available earlier. Outside food isn’t allowed in the Mid America Center so wrestlers will have to eat outside or sneak food in. I always talk to the security workers at the door and usually I can convince them to at least allow the wrestlers to eat inside if the weather is bad.

6:30-7pm – hamburger feed starts for all wrestlers and parents at the Holiday Inn Express parking lot. We will grill the hamburgers out back and the buffet line will be inside.



Sunday March 30

5am wake up call for breakfast – same as Friday

Approx. 7-7:15am – leave for Mid America Center – same as Friday. We WILL NOT be returning to the hotels after wrestling is finished on Saturday afternoon so make sure your wrestler takes all his belongings with him. We will designate one bus to store belongings in during wrestling on Saturday. For any parents making the trip, it is a good idea to meet your wrestler at the hotel early Saturday morning and take their suitcase – obviously they will still need their wrestling bag. Once the wrestlers are shuttled to the Mid America Center, all but one bus will be leaving. The vast majority of wrestlers ride home with parents and there will only be one bus for the return trip to Topeka. That bus rarely has any more than 15 or 20 people on it.

8am – approx. 3:30 - wrestling begins and goes until the brackets are complete.

9-3:30pm – same food availability in the Mid America Center parking lot as Saturday
.


THE MOST IMPORTANT PART
On Sunday we need to know whether your wrestler will be riding home with parents or riding the bus back to Topeka. Each Teams coaches will have rosters and they will note which wrestlers are riding home with parents and which ones will be riding the bus back to Topeka.

If you currently know that Sunday after wrestling is over your wrestler will be RIDING THE BUS BACK TO TOPEKA from the Mid America Center, email me.


Friday is very hectic – please have patience as we get thru everything. Once weigh in is over and the wrestlers eat, things calm down a little.


Everyone who requests a roommate normally gets at least one of their requests in their room. I start working on the rooming list the week after the qualifier so I can get it to the hotel. If you are late getting your paperwork and payment to me, I can’t guarantee anything. Once the rooming list is done, sorry there will be no switching of rooms. Same way with buses. Wrestlers will be assigned a bus in Topeka. The buses are full and it would be a huge hassle to try and move people around. Part of this experience is making new friends anyway.

Blue Chip Athletic does our gear sizing and each weight is assigned a singlet, shorts and t-shirt size. We have very few sizing issues. But if one arises, there will be no changes until after everyone has their gear. If I can make a size change accommodation, I will do so.

This dual team event is run as follows;

All teams consist of the same weight classes wrestled at the qualifier.

Weigh-ins are Friday March 28th

Each individual dual is wrestled and scored just like a high school dual. On Saturday, each of our 5 Kansas teams will wrestle in 5 or 6 team pools. If your wrestler’s team is in a 5 team pool, they would dual each of the other 4 teams on Saturday (4 matches). If they are in a 6 team pool, they would dual each of the other 5 teams (5 matches). Occasionally, two of our 5 teams will be in the same pool.

Placement in the pools is somewhat random – however, each state’s teams are ranked – for instance, our #1 team is our best, #2 second best, etc – all other states with multiple teams rank their teams as well. The tournament director seeds the pools based on last year and previous years finishes. Kansas has historically got one of its teams into the championship bracket - so our best team should be seeded. However at least once, our 2nd team has made the championship bracket and our 1st team has not. The pools are sometimes not perfectly balanced.

How your team finishes in their pool Saturday determines which 8 team bracket you wrestle in on Sunday. Win your pool and you are in the championship bracket. Take second and your team is in the silver bracket, etc, etc. Pool finish is determined by wins/losses and total number of team points scored. It is very important for each wrestler to score the maximum points per dual – if you win by 8 points(major decision) that is 1 additional team point – if you win by 15 point (tech fall) that is 2 additional team point and if you win by fall, that is 3 additional team points. It is also important to give up the least amount of points if we are getting beat – keep wrestling and never give up because any additional team points given up could cost us a dual. Also, it is important that we don’t have any OPEN weights on any of the teams. A forfeit at any weight is 6 team points for the other team – just like a pin.

If there are 7 pools of teams, then one of the second place teams from a pool will make the championship bracket – if there are 6 pools, the 2 of the 2nd place teams will make the championship bracket.

The Sunday brackets are wrestled like an 8 man bracket – except if you lose in the semi-finals, you wrestle for 3rd and 4th – there is no cross bracketing to the back side. Lose your first dual on Sunday and the best your team can finish is 5th. Be aware that Saturday pool wrestling can be a little rough for some of our teams. Once the brackets are set for Sunday, the competition should be a little more even.

There are also individual All-American awards for wrestlers who go undefeated (there is a 6 match minimum). For teams making the championship bracket, there are 2 MVP awards. For all other brackets, there is 1 MVP award. The team coaches are responsible for selecting the wrestlers who get the MVP awards. After your team finishes wrestling on Sunday, stick around for team pictures and awards.

ALTERNATES
We are allowed 3 alternates per team. Alternates get all the same gear, lodging, travel and food etc.

There are two options for alternates to get matches at this event.

One, is to get on the Team USA Alternate team. This team is formed at the event and consists of alternates from other states. So on the team, you could have 5 from Kansas, 2 from Nebraska, 1 from Iowa, 4 from Minnesota, etc, etc. The alternate team is put in the pools and wrestle just like all the other teams. There is a possibility that there could be more than one wrestler at your weight on this alternate team. There is no way to know how many or at what weight the alternates will be until just before the event. On Sunday, this team goes into one of the brackets and wrestles just like everyone else.

The other option is to be an alternate for one of the Kansas Teams and hope the other teams we dual has an alternate at or close to your weight. With only 3 alternates allowed per team, the chances of the other team having someone close to your weight isn’t that good. Occasionally, there has been an alternate mat where you can go and match up against similar sized wrestlers but this has not happened every year. It depends on how many alternates there are.

I believe the first option gives you the best chance of getting some matches and over the years, most of our alternates have chosen to go that route.

Elementary and girls teams are staying at the Holiday Inn Express - here is a link for parents to book their rooms - or call 712-847-0777

Holiday Inn Express Parents Block Reseveration Link

Middle School and High School are staying at the Hampton Inn - parents can call 712-847-0699 to reserve their room there

Also have a parents block right up the street at the Best Western Plus - 2510 Abbott Plaza - Carter Lake, Iowa. Parents can call 402-505-4900 for rooms there.

What about the teams voting to choose their singlets? How does that work? 🤔