I know this is a topic that is debated every year and will never be settled but this year I think you can say that for sure 5A & 6A are not it...let's look at this....

Losing Records by Class-
6A- 34 (32 Schools)
5A- 38 (32 Schools)
4A- 6 (64 Schools)
321A- 9 (64 Schools)

With that being said with 5A & 6A should have double the losing records to make up for the schools, so 68 and 76 respectively, or divide 321A & 4A by half so you get the right number as 5&6A, so 3 and 4.5 respectively, you decide

If you have an opinion different than that of mine, please feel free to share it but keep it clean as this is a debate and kind of interesting to a lot of people, so to steal a line from boxing,

LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE.............

Hardest Class in Kansas single choice
	6A (32 Schools); 34 losing records
	5A (32 Schools); 38 losing records
	4A (64 Schools); 6 losing records
	321A (64 Schools); 9 losing records
Votes accepted starting: 01/01/70 12:00 AM You must vote before you can view the results of this poll.

4A has been overall the most competitive from my prospective. Many times state medalist stay home in 4A, just a matter of numbers and talent, the more wrestlers on a team, the more chances of having more talent at the regional tourney.

All classes have great individuals and any given year a great wrestler in any class could defeat all.

3A regional in the Northwest is ALWAYS very difficult.

6A and 5A have there difficult regionals also

So far 4A leads the poll by 7 votes

9 Votes now

12 Votes now.....

and still growing,
32 Vote Lead for 4A....

There are few teams in the state who can contend with Manhattan (6A), STA (6A), Arkansas City (5A), Bishop Carroll (5A), Kansas City Turner (5A), Shawnee Heights (5A) and Valley Center (5A).

There likely are only two (2) schools in 3A which can compete - Norton and Silver Lake, and several in 4A, Abilene, Clay Center, Colby, Columbus, Goodland and Santa Fe Trail.

With that said, wrestling has historically been tougher in NW Kansas communities and I see no reason to believe this trend is coming to an end, however to suggest the classification as a whole is superior is false.

William Bock - Eudora (160) is actually 19-19 so that makes only 5 losing records.

This year i would have to agree that 4A dominates both 6A and 5A.

Bronco Wrestler, your math is only half right. If there were twice as many schools in 5A and 6A, they would not only have twice as many wrestlers, on average, with losing records, BUT they would also have twice as many wrestlers with winning records, on average.

The reason for more wrestlers with losing records making it to state in 5A and 6A is strictly due to the fewer number of varsity wrestlers total than in the other classes. With 8 teams at each regional, at least half of the wrestlers are going to make it to state, period.

Obviously, some of those kids are going to have a losing record (we can assume that half of them do on average across all weight classes each year). Some of those kids with losing records are going to place at regionals for a variety of reasons (they've improved enough during the course of the year to become better than the kids with winning records, or were always the better wrestler but saw tougher competition, or just plain wrestled better than the competition on that given day).
Statistically, the numbers say that is going to happen far more often in 5A and 6A.

If there were twice as many 5A and 6A schools, the number of wrestlers with losing records making it to state would almost assuredly be far less (due to more wrestlers with winning records to compete for the 4 state qualifying placings at the regionals for each weight class). In fact, we would probably see numbers similar to the other two classes, since the total number of varsity wrestlers per class would be similar if there were twice as many 5A and 6A schools.

So, it is all in the numbers. Statistically, it is easier for one with a losing record to make it to state in 5A and 6A, on average.

If one wants to use that as the only criteria to decide which class will have the toughest state tournament, the answer is in the numbers. But I think that would be a very poor criteria to use by itself to determine the "toughness" of each class' state tournament. There are lots of other factors that should also be considered to make such a determination (many of which have been discussed/debated/argued, etc. elsewhere on the forum).

3-2-1A has like 81 schools not 64.

Only two 3A schools in the state that compete with all those other schools? A quick check at the Hays Tournament shows Shawnee Heights took 4th behind St. Francis and Oakley. Wouldn't that be competing?

I just looked at the 5a regional at Emporia. only 4 classes had a full 8 competitor bracket.
several of the 123 and 4a brackets are not full, but they certainly have more than 8 in them, and ] I found none with only 6, as in the case of 103 at emporia. since i didn't look at any of the other 5 or 6 a brackets I can't say if this is a trend, but it seems to me that in a typical 4a or 123a regional, in order for the numerical odds of survival to be the same, you would have to have 40 percent or so of the teams participating open at that weight. Most of the 321 and 41 brackets that I saw had 11 or 12 in them. Based only on the Emporia brackets, it looks like they averaged around 7 wrestlers, while most smaller school brackets average about 11. that is about 50% more difficult numerically.

Forgetting all the numerical facts, we all know to look at the whole picture.

The only way to make a proper prediction as to which class THIS YEAR has the most quality wrestlers is to look at the top 6 as they finish in state.

What would be awesome to see, is a dual match between state champions. I know this won't happen, but it would be great to have.

A lot of states have a dual state championship. That would be fun to see in Kansas and great for the kids and fans.

I bet most of the Coach's would vote for this. Only drawback would be the additonal cost.

This is getting old and it serves absolutely no purpose! Any young man, losing record included that competes in this demanding sport is a “WINNER”. I wish it were possible that everyone could qualify for the State Tournament. If he is 0-35 or 35-0 he still had to go into the practice room every day and work to get better while his buddies were drinking slushies and chasing the girls. In all reality the young man with a losing record shows the most courage by continuing to go week in and week out and having his tail whipped on. Think about it… All that work during the year to have someone on this forum to say kids with a sub 500 records doesn’t deserve a right to be a State Champion. By virtue of his dedication throughout the year, I say give them a chance, this thread is demeaning to all the hard work that they have put forth this season.

Well said Red, I could not agree more!

You guys are right, mail everybody a gold medal so that no one has to go the the humiliation of getting beat and call it a season.

Too many softies...I'm sure most of us sucked at one time (some of us still do obviously if I qualified) and we work through it. I agree with Bronco Wrestler and whoever else that says 4A is tougher. I personally believe that in order to make a plausible arguement about something you must be able to present both sides of the issue. I have wrestled both 4A and 5A two years each. I easily qualified for 5A my sophomore year and probably should have placed but... I sucked. I worked hard, got better and barely squeezed through last years 4A regional in which everyone dogged on for being "the easy one." This year I've stepped it up a notch and hope to bring home a medal. Regardless, there are always quality wrestlers in every class but 4A is the toughest throughout. Bottomline.

Andrew

I'm with CS. At first, everyone sucks. You find out who the real "winners" are when they do the things necessary to no longer suck. Take Prant Garker, for instance. He had been out for the sport for 4-6 years, yet he was still getting whipped. His fault. Stop speaking up for the weiners--it is their own fault if they are bad.

Go watch the senior classic on Thurs. in Topeka right before kids state. It is small school vs. big school and we will see who the toughest is...... 6A, 5A vs. 4A, 321A.

Don't miss it.........

Coach Peterman

Dingbat (AKA Damon Parker):

Not nice to speak of your younger brother in such a tone. While you were a two time state champion and also played in the 1998 Shrine Bowl Football game, you should not downgrade your siblings accomplishments. Shucks, he did finish second in the spelling bee.