Everyone needs to remember that records really don't mean that much and you definitely cannot compare records when assessing/ranking/seeding kids.

Some kids, especially less experienced wrestlers, will have a much higher growth curve and will usually show greater "improvement" in equal time compared to more experienced wrestlers. They get better as the year goes on. Even when it comes to experienced kids, they improve at different rates. The question is how good are they right now compared to the kids they are being compared to?

Usually when a good kid doesn't have as good of a record as another good kid it is because he had tougher/better competition.
My son wrestled at the Chanute tournament with a 24-8 record. In the quarters he wrestled a kid that was 18-1. I am glad that he didn't believe that this other kid should beat him as others did and/or do just because he had a better record because he would have lost. He handled the kid 9-3. He lost in the semis to Chief's #1, 5-2 and only because he took a desperation shot with 10 seconds left or it would have been 3-2. On the back side he beat another kid with a "better" record 10-3.

My son is 33-10 now and I am sure that there are people that look at his record and say what is wrong with Chief, why would he have this kid ranked? Well I am glad that Chief is much smarter then that and looks at everything that he can and measures the body of work and where are they now. My son lost to Chief's #1 5-2, #4 8-5, #5 5-3 and #6 3-1. Two losses at a heavier weight to ranked kids #4 7-3 and he lost to Missouri #1 4-1, Iowa #3 7-3 and Oklahoma #3 5-4. He also placed ahead of Chief's #8 at the classic and beat a kid 10-3 that #9 beat 2-1 but he has beat neither one this year so based on all that he appears to be well placed at #10 even with a 33-10 record. He proved that by winning the regional were Chief's #5 was 4th.

The rankings are nice and fun and interesting to follow. The rankings are a prediction and they are valid predictions based on evidence. I would say that they are overall 92-97% accurate based on the available evidence so I give Chief a solid A. But one thing I learned over the last 45 years as a competitor and coach is that kids are human and they don't always wrestle their best. Sometimes of course they do wrestle their best and we as parents and coaches, etc. can only hope that they wrestle their best when it really matters and on those occasions when they don't wrestle their best it doesn't matter much. Of course fate does not always come to us at a moment of our choosing and we don't always get what we deserve.

All my son really cares about is taking care of business next week at state and of course I share that sentiment. But he will not be judged by just that one moment in time, at least not by me. Surely there is more to the measure of a man then one moment in time. Let us all remember this next week after state and be extremely proud of the efforts of our kids. There will be a lot of heart broken kids that will need great support at that time. Remember that in the grand scheme of life it is not the end that is most important or matters most but the journey itself as life is a journey.