Bo was never taken down. I do not care what part of the state you wrestled in. He had 4 5a state tournys that he was never taken down in. THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN! Im pretty sure your beloved Ark City was at those 4 5a tournys.
I think very few people on this site would disagree that the 5A State Tournament, or 6A,4A,321A, are not the toughest tournaments of the year. On a whole, Newton, Derby, Bobcat, Garden City, and Perry OK are tougher tournaments. Just for the fact that they combine the classes. And, Yes you are correct, my beloved Ark City was at all four of those State Tournaments, bringing home the Team State Championship at all Four.
Perry and Derby are not even in the discussion. The OK teams at Perry are WAY down from years past. Toughest tournament this year in Kansas is the Bobcat. The KC Classic (or whatever they call it) was tougher but it was in Missouri. GC and Ark C both attended this event but neither of these teams, even the beloved, placed any wrestler in the top 6. Ark C placed 26th. Garden City and Newton are close but Garden has more total teams so I would lean towards that tournament being second toughest. Toughest one day, Gardner.
The age old debate of which state tournament is tougher, in the finals 5A and 6A can get into the debate but below that it is very spotty. It is easier, just a fact, to qualify for state in 5A and 6A. If you are there anything can happen. You have to make weight twice and wrestle four matches to win a 4A or 321A regional which is tougher, no debate. Consistently there are more byes in 5A and 6A regionals than there are 4A (take away the automatic 4 since there are only 60 teams with programs, beyond me why KSHSAA doesn't take the next 64 WITH WRESTLING for 4A) so, in general, it is easier to make it to state in 5A or 6A. Who knows who is the best team in KS. We will never know because we don't have a dual state and if we did we would water it down by having four different classifications so this discussion would never go away. All in all it is fun to speculate and gives more exposure. Good luck to all these next two weeks. Half of they 5A and 6A wrestlers will be in Wichita the last weekend in February less than 1/2 from 4A will be in Salina and less than half from 321A will be in Hays. On the 25th four wrestlers from each weight class, whether we agree that the changes made to the classes were good or bad, will be called state champs. Good luck to all who seek to be one of those 56 wrestlers!
