Here is a little useless but interesting information I've put together about the 5A regionals. The toughest regional looks hands-down to be the Bishop Carrol Regional followed by the McPherson Regional, the Blue Valley Regional, then the KC Turner Regional. The Carrol Regional has thirty-three seeded wrestlers and seven one seeded wrestlers. Here are a few more facts about each regional.

Bishop Carrol Regional

Ranked wrestlers:
7 ranked first
5 ranked second
7 ranked third
5 ranked fourth
4 ranked fifth
5 ranked sixth
33 total

Team Favorites:
1. Bishop Carrol with nine ranked wrestlers and three ranked number one.
2. Ark City with six wrestlers ranked either two or three.
3. Goddard with six ranked wrestlers one of which is ranked one.

Toughest Weights:
1. 103
2. 189
3. 145

Other facts:
* Pittsbugh is the only team with no one ranked.
* Every weight has atleast one ranked wrestler in it.
* It could be a disadvantage having this hard of a regional to teams such as Bishop Carrol, Goddard and Ark City come state tournament time.

McPherson Regional

Ranked Wrestlers:
4 ranked first
2 ranked second
5 ranked third
2 ranked fourth
5 ranked fifth
4 ranked sixth
22 total

Teams Favorites:
1. Valley Center with five ranked wrestlers one of which is ranked first.
2. Salina South with four ranked wrestlers.
3. Great Bend with four ranked wrestlers one of which is ranked first.

Toughest Weights:
1. 112
2. 171
3. 119

Other Facts:
* Every team has atleast one wrestler ranked
* Two weights contain 0 ranked wrestlers: 160 and 215

Blue Valley Regional

Ranked Wrestlers:
2 ranked first
6 ranked second
3 ranked fourth
2 ranked fifth
3 ranked sixth
16 total

Team Favorites:
1. Paola with seven ranked wresters two of which are ranked first
2. Tecumseh - Shawnee Heights with four ranked wrestlers
3. Stillwell - Blue Valley - with two two ranked wrestlers

Toughest Weights:
1. 160
2. 152
3. 171

Other Facts:
* Neither Stillwell - Blue Valley West nor Topeka Seaman have anyone ranked
* Three weights have 0 ranked wrestlers: 103, 119 and 135
* Paola might have an advantage in 5A being in this regional considering Goddard, Ark City and Bishop Carrol are all in the same regional.

KC Turner Regional

Ranked Wrestlers:
1 ranked first
1 ranked second
2 ranked third
4 ranked fourth
4 ranked fifth
1 ranked sixth
13 total

Team Favorites:
1. KC Turner with five ranked wrestlers.
2. Bonner Springs with three ranked wrestlers.
3. KC Harmon with two ranked wrestlers and one ranked first.

Toughest Weights:
1. 275
2. 152
3. 130

Other Facts:
* Neither KC Schlagle nor KC Wyandotte have any wrestlers ranked
* Six weights have no ranked wrestlers in them: 112, 119, 135, 145, 171 and 189
* Probably is the weakest regional in 5A
* Should help KC Turner's chances at state because of how easy the regional is.

It's interesting to see you input to this regional but I believe you have based alot of your information off of the rankings. Until a better system is in place for the rankings I am not sure you can go off of these rankings. Now don't get me wrong you probably are right on target but after looking over the rankings there still are individuals ranked in a weight class that are not even, or should I say did not even, wrestle this past weekend at that class. I do however think the Rankers are doing a good job. But I am not sure they are getting all of the information that they need to do a complete and accurate ranking. This may be because some coaches don't or even won't give their input. Therefore it leaves the Rankers to do the best they can. Anyway your thoughts to these regionals was very informative and I look to see how your thoughts turn out.

I have heard many rumors of certain wrestlers at different weights for regionals, and have seen some kids have moved around this past weekend, both up or down. Until I can confirm where people will be (I will know for sure this week) I will not move a kid out. I know that I am going to get alot of good information from this weekend and even from seeding meetings tomorrow. I have not recieved as much information on rankings this year as I would have liked and it has taken a considerable effort on my part to find what I need. I do appreciate your thoughts on the rankings, however, I feel the way we do it is the best possible way. I would like to see more particpation on rankings but some coaches are "too busy" or do not value the rankings and therfore do not wish to input. The reason being is rankings don't do anything for a wrestler at a seeding meeting and some coaches just don't want to input. Also, some coaches don't want to tip their hat as to where their wrestlers are or are going to be. When you take a look at it, you can see what work the raters have gone through. Although it might not be perfect, it ain't bad.

10 days from now you might know which is the toughest regional. Even then there are different ways of looking at it. The regional with the most state placers? most champions? In my mind the toughest regional would be the one who had the best wrestlers not qualify for state which none of this would tell you..

I have noticed you don't see many of the really succesful programs in any class saying much about there own kids. I suspect some of the coaches would just as soon not put the target on them. I know this probably also effects the rankings. They would just as soon draw as little attention as possible. I am sure some of these coaches know their johnny beat joey and joey beat jimmy which is the kind of information which would be beneficial to raters. They also know the only thing that matters is if johnny can beat jimmy when he has to.

I know rankings mean nothing at all. They just give everyone an idea of who is good and, for the most part, who is at what weight. That is why at the beginning of the post I wrote, “here is a little useless but interesting information.” I was simply bored one night and decided to see where all the ranked wrestlers fell come this weekend. I'm sure this will not be 100% accurate, however I'm sure Mr. Lane has done a well enough job that it will be somewhat close.