Did not intend to imply that Columbus was not capable.

But I "get a kick" out of folks saying western Kansas schools are not capable of competing for a title unless all the conditions fall just right.

Tough regional or not, western Kansas schools will be in the mix.

I'll try to further explain the point I was trying to make in my earlier post using the current rankings (which of course may or not be a valid measure at this point in the season).

Lets say you are 3rd ranked Marcus Bowman from Columbus and you just won your regional at 125 pounds. And you are paired against the fourth place finisher from the Goodland Regional in your first match.

Take your pick, using the current rankings (and assuming no upsets by the many other talented kids in the weight at the Goodland regional) you have your choice of top ranked Danny Mainus of Colby, 2nd ranked Dan Prater of Pratt, 4th ranked Jordan Close of Clay Center, 5th ranked Rees McKinney of Scott City or 6th ranked Luke Geske of Abilene.

And if you are lucky (?) enough not to draw the Goodland Regional in the first round, you will have either the second or third place finisher from Goodland's regional in your quarterfinal.

Obviously, this is a sensationalized example because Bowman is capable of competing against any of these folks. But what if you placed 2nd, 3rd, or 4th at Bowman's regional or in the top four at either of the other two regionals? Current rankings (again, subject to debate) seem to indicate the early pairings of the state tournament will be awful tough.

Current rankins indicate this scenario is possible at other weights too.

I realize that this will not affect the state's best, because they will beat the best to be the best. But this example should provide arsenal to contest the arguement that a non-Goodland regional team will win the title because they were able to advance more wrestlers to the state tournament.

My point is this - you don't get team points for showing up at Wichita, you have to win matches to get team points. And unless you score team points the "extra" qualifiers will not play a role in the outcome of the state tournament.

Case in point - it can be successfully proven that the central and western Kansas regionals have historically been the toughest in 3-2-1A since wrestling's beginning in the high school ranks. And there have been many teams from the other regionals that have brought full rosters to Hays to compete. But since 1986 the state title team trophy has only traveled east of Salina on 2 occassions - 2000 and 2001 to ACCHS. During those years there have been many deserving individuals (who could have placed at state) from western and central Kansas schools who have watched the state tournament from the stands because of a tough regional bracket and still seen their team bring home the state title.