Well im not sure about the rule in your current situation. But I don know of the certification rules which says half of a wrestlers weigh ins must be at their certified weight in order to not break said certification thus not allowing him to wrestle down at regionals. Perhaps the rule you were stating is somehow tied to this rule. Im not sure how true what you said is. I know for a fact that we had a kid (Josh Elliot) who joined our team my freshman year, like a week after the Beliot tournament which is on the 3rd week of January almost every year. This is certianly past the half way post of the season. And yet Josh joined only wrestled 4 matches before regionals and placed at regionals and went to state. So im not sure if that is something they just implemented or not.