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Iowa Highschool Tournament

I'm ok with 24 kids qualifying. Even if they get smoked, they still made it, and it doesn't really hurt anything.

But 4 days is too long.. unless they want to move the finals to friday night, and then have a tournament of champions saturday where all the finalists and runner ups get to compete to see who the ultimate champion at each weight class is. Best of both worlds.
 
Alex Pierce from Iowa City West & Jake Knight from Bettendorf are two stud freshman wrestlers to keep an eye on. Both have potential to be highly ranked nationally.
Pierce, Knight, Trevino, The Luna brothers, Ross, Ayala, Wild, Carmicheal, Koester are just a few names among a slew of others that are freshman or sophomores and will be big on the scene soon. Keep an eye on kids state in the 5/6th grade and 7/8th grade brackets. Tons of future hammers in there.
 
I'm ok with 24 kids qualifying. Even if they get smoked, they still made it, and it doesn't really hurt anything.

But 4 days is too long.. unless they want to move the finals to friday night, and then have a tournament of champions saturday where all the finalists and runner ups get to compete to see who the ultimate champion at each weight class is. Best of both worlds.
Four days...gotta get that 💰 💰 💰 for the boys in Boone!
 
multi-class too. the one thing i love about indiana is it's single class with 16 qualifiers. if you make it, you're legit.

the other crazy thing is that semi-state doesn't have full wrestle backs. you have to make the semis to qualify. not uncommon to see two highly ranked wrestlers hit in the ticket round with their seasons on the line. brayton lee was undefeated his freshman year on a collision course with nick lee, but got head locked in the ticket round. his only high school loss. same thing for the first round at state. we've seen state champs go down friday night and their tourny is over.
CA has a single class state tournament too with a 32-man bracket with almost 4,000 high schools in the state. Every kid that gets in is a stud. Somehow Buchanan HS has 13/14 kids ranked in the top 10 and Clovis HS (about 2 miles down the road) has 11/14. It’s a really incredible event. Fun time of year for sure.
 
CA has a single class state tournament too with a 32-man bracket with almost 4,000 high schools in the state. Every kid that gets in is a stud. Somehow Buchanan HS has 13/14 kids ranked in the top 10 and Clovis HS (about 2 miles down the road) has 11/14. It’s a really incredible event. Fun time of year for sure.
i don't want to diminish the multi-class states. a lot of them have amazing state tournaments. but there's something special about a single mat under the spotlight to end the season.
 
I’m guessing you like the NCAA finals and the Vision Quest mat. Any chance you have a raised mat under a spotlight in a barn? Cause I’m coming over if you do.

With that said, Saturday night with three finals mats and everyone watching really brings the state together.
 
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I'd love to see Iowa go to 2 classes. Big schools and small schools. Have the cut off be 500 enrollment. There would be a lot more schools in the small schools but a lot more students combined in the big schools. Make each class a 32 man bracket. place the top 8. That would give you:
64 state qualifiers, 16 medalist, and 2 champs
compared to
72 qualifiers, 24 medalists, and 3 champs.
my 2 cents
 
Let's not turn this into another 1A, 2A, 3A thread.

Anyone who dares besmirch 1A wrestling has to go H2H with Royce Alger circa 1988.
The thread is literally called Iowa High school tournament. I was a 1A/2A guy myself. If you don't like the question carry on. I personally think the small schools would hold their own against the big classes.
 
I'd love to see Iowa go to 2 classes. Big schools and small schools. Have the cut off be 500 enrollment. There would be a lot more schools in the small schools but a lot more students combined in the big schools. Make each class a 32 man bracket. place the top 8. That would give you:
64 state qualifiers, 16 medalist, and 2 champs
compared to
72 qualifiers, 24 medalists, and 3 champs.
my 2 cents
I like your idea. Your scenario would actually make the upper division smaller than 3A is now. There are 64 teams in 3a now, the smallest school is North Polk (Xavier opts up for 65 teams.) I would say 400 students should be the cutoff. That would be 86 teams for the upper division. Then 197 teams in lower division.
 
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The thread is literally called Iowa High school tournament. I was a 1A/2A guy myself. If you don't like the question carry on. I personally think the small schools would hold their own against the big classes.
stripes lighten GIF
 
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When I was in high school, the state champ and state runner up came from my district. I finished 3rd. The state champ beat me 5-3 and the runner up beat me 6-4. I had beaten the state runner up earlier in the year. I’d also beaten beaten 6 qualifiers during the season including some pins but I didn’t make state. Also, the kid that finished fifth in state the year earlier was fourth in our district. I beat him for third place in our district. It still hurts to this day. I’m all for an expanded bracket.
I agree completely with this.
 
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Every year someone gets on here and talks about some state that does a 1 class wrestling state tournament. Its stupid. Our state tournament is an event, communities empty and show up to watch 4 kids. It's fun! I don't care that we have 3 state champions at each weight. Also, when you meet someone and talk wrestling and eventually it comes up they were a state champion from .... no one ever says, "in a one class system you would have been 3rd." No, a state champion is a state champion.

Second, expanding to 24 is awesome. I would much rather have a few kids with losing or 500 records make it into the bracket than leave a deserving kid home.
I agree with you here. If you want to criticize anything that the IHSAA does, I'd start with SEVEN different classes for Iowa HS football. That's utterly ridiculous in a state of this size.
 
2A 106 Rd of 16 seed busters...

17 over 16
12 over 5
11 over 6
10 over 7

Thurs morning quarters will see....
1 v 8
2 v 10
3 v 11
4 v 12

This was the first and only bracket I've looked at looking for seed busters. Reminds me of another entertaining NCAA tourney where 12's beat 5's.
 
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There is a nice article about BEN KUETER, listed on the IOWA WRESTLING FAN CLUB PAGE. It was copied from THEGAZETTE.COM. I was able to read it, and was going to copy and post, but when I clicked on it again, there was something about signing up for a subscription?

Maybe some of you can look it up and check it out if you wish.
I remember Ben’s Freshman year and wrestling Tate in the finals. Two stud Freshman going at it and it was probably the most anticipated match of the night. Feel bad for Tate Ben kept him from being a 4 timer and Gabe probably keeps him from winning 3. Talk about tough luck!
 
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Pierce, Knight, Trevino, The Luna brothers, Ross, Ayala, Wild, Carmicheal, Koester are just a few names among a slew of others that are freshman or sophomores and will be big on the scene soon. Keep an eye on kids state in the 5/6th grade and 7/8th grade brackets. Tons of future hammers in there.
Help me out here Gobblin who is the Freshman from Carlisle at 145 I think. Watched him in Independence lost in the finals to Osage kid but he is going to be really good!
 
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Trying to watch some replays but they are not streaming. Anyone know when these become playable on Flo?
 
Dru looks alot like Drake. What year is he in and is he interested in joining Drake at Iowa?
 
Seeding committee looks silly on that. The #18 seed in the semis had a 43-5 record.
Look there are always mistakes in seeding, it happens every year at the NCAA tournament (usually in Marinelli's bracket) but there are a couple of complete head scratchers. 2A HWT is one. How about 1A 145 where the #13 seed came into state with a 52-4 record. He has proceeded to pin the #4 and #5 seeds to get to the semis after a 13-1 first round win.

Again, mistakes happen but how in the world are guys who are 43-5 and 52-4 seeded outside the top 8?
 
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