This is not about taking opportunities away from smaller kids and giving them to larger kids. This is about reducing the number of classes from 14 to 12. It looks about just about all our current weight classes would lose a little ground in this proposal change to reduce two classes. Some of the reasons that I have seen given for the proposal are that coaches feel there are too many forfeits, many teams are having trouble filling all their spots, it would improve wrestling's image not to have so many forfeits and that competition would improve. The report states that the below weight classes would give the most equal distribution at actual weights for all three states in the Peterson survey. I am assuming that they are proposing this distribution or something close to it for their proposed 12 class system.
1 . 106
2 . 117
3 . 125
4 . 132
5 . 138
6 . 144
7 . 151
8 . 159
9 . 169
10. 184
11. 209
12. 285 (I assume this would remain 285 the new top weight)
The actual weight classification proposal:
The classes
Current / Proposed
103 / ---
112 / 108
119 / 117
125 / 125
130 / 132
135 / ---
140 / 138
145 / 145
152 / 152
160 / 160
171 / 170
189 / 185
215 / 210
285 / 285
Under the proposal the affected weight classifications were in the lower (lighter) half of the current weight classifications.
It is generally believed the weight study provided by Mr. Peterson is flawed and the most forfeited weight classification(s) were on the higher (heavier) weight classes.
A study of the forfeited weight classifications at the MSHSL state tournament(s) supported this argument.
