Ok here is a fun challenge of 1-upsmanship, see if you can go back into the State Brackets over the last 10 years or so and find a bracket that when you look at it now it just leaves you speechless or makes you say wow, based on the number of studs or whatever. Could break it down to bracket halves and 1/4's too.

Nice post. There are MANY that I'm missing here but three that come to mind are:

2004/4A/130:
Jake Kriegbaum
Cole Garcia
AJ Heckel
Kyle Grape

2007/5A/135:
Aldon Isenberg
Phillip Henes
Colby Crank
Joe Schridde

2008/4A/119
Ryne Cokeley
Zac Sparr
Tyler Anderson
Sharky Slyter
Derrick Weller

This wasn’t a State Bracket, but what about the 119# bracket at the Bobcat Classic in 2008
1st Sharky Slyter
2nd Collin Hasse
3rd Derrick Weller
4th Ryan Cokely
5th Nick Rockhold
6th Parker Madl

A lot of wins from that bunch and definitely the deepest bracket at a Kansas high school tournament I have ever seen! The Kid from Glenwood Iowa was ranked I believe 4th in Iowa and didn’t place!

2 State brackets standout the most to me, and they were both in 2004.

1 is for the quality of top competitors- 2004, 321A, 145 Pounds.
Champ = Drennan Minneapoplis
Runner-up = Johnson Norton
3rd - Englebert Beloit
4th- Pyle Sabetha.

I believe that Johnson, Drennan, and Pyle each were individual state champs and Englebert was a multiple time placer. They had all wrestled during the year and each match was extremely close. That was a bracket that could have gone anyway.

Another amazing bracket was also 2004, 4A, 152. There were 9 wrestlers with 30+ victories going into state, in addition to a 29 match winner, a 28 match winner, and a 25 match winner going into the state tourney. The finals involved a sophmore (Taplin from Abilene) defeating a freshman (Strawn from Holton). Those 2 youngsters were obviously men to wade through so many other men to get to the finals of that bracket. That bracket is the toughest I have seen at state to place in. There were returning state placers that didn't even sniff the podium in that bracket. It was a fun one to watch!

2006 6A 125
-Aaron Ely
-Adam Almauger
-Nick Shumate
-Jake Tanenbaum
=Russ Freeman
-Eric Servin
-Jacob Wagner

2005- 6A 112: -Larry Perez; -Nick Shumate; Phil Henes; Jake Tanenbaum; Mike Creekmore; Kelvin Patterson; Brock Gentry

2006- Johnson County Classic- Nick Shumate; Phil Henes; Jake Tanenbaum; Adam Almaguer; Sasha Ambrose; Justin Broadbent (returning state runner-up seeded 6th and took 6th at the classic)

103 never gets credit but man just the top half of the 2008 4a bracket is impressive (knowing what we know now!)

5 of the 8 on the top part of that bracket have either won state or were 2nd at the state meet.

Ornelas of Chanute was 1st in that bracket and went on to A.A.

Goepfert was Runner Up in 3a the next year for Marysville at 103

Moeder moved across the state from Colby to St. James and took the state title twice I believe in 4a. In 2010 I know he won it at 130

Zaldivar was runner up in 2010 at 119 for Douglass in 3a.

Newport was runner up in 2010 at 112 in 4a

In the 2008 bracket mentioned, all four of Ryne's opponents placed 2nd at state in their careers, Sparr winning it his Senior year. Anderson, Sparr, Slyter were all champs in their careers. Other state placers in there: Westin Shay, Denzell Davis, Zach Jesseph, Jarold Ribelin, Nick Rockhold. There were seven wrestlers with 30 wins, two with 28 and one with 27 when all of the dust settled. It was a fun bracket.