There is not a match for true second because there are 2 qualifying tournaments prior to state. Most true second tournaments are to determine second place when seeding criteria may not have been a true gauge of positioning in the bracket. I.E., child 1 won Ohio state while child 2 was second in California state. Clearly the seed would go to the state champ, but perhaps the other state was tougher ( no offense to any one from these states just random examples)and the state second place kid from Cali is better. Tournaments that seed based purely off info submitted by coaches or clubs will wrestle a true second. Another example is a kid is seeded 1 based off being a national champ. Not every national tournament holds the same weight. Does the criteria of the tournament ask for what national tournament the kid won....not always.Or another example is in District 1 there was a kid (I will not mention names as it is a kid and I am not here to belittle any child) seeded 1 overall because his coach claimed him to be a high school state placer in the seeding meeting. Now if this was the only criteria for seeding at state- was coaches or clubs rankings, I would agree with a true second wrestle off. But Kansas has qualifying tournaments and in this process the kid did not even qualify for 14 and under state out of Districts.
Now however, Kansas state has two qualifying tournaments, subs and Districts. The emphasis is on winning these tournaments to draw better seeds at state.Obviously seeding is no guarantee on anything, one must wrestle to win every match. The seeding off these qualifiers does place more emphasis on winning these tournaments.
The down side to a true second, Is the kid who lost in the finals (and perhaps won every other match over the course of these 3 weeks other than this final match) is down and at perhaps an all time low and can be devistated. While the kid who just won 3rd place is coming off a tremendous high and is ecstatic. Who has the advantage here? Do the placements always work out to 100% flawless order. No, that is why the district match ups rotate every year. This at least tries to equalize everything out. Again the emphasis is on positioning yourself over the course of this postseason run at each postseason tournament to be able to utilize your talents and ablilty for a championship title.
Not to mention, then there is the parent who will want a true 4th because their 5th place kid never got to wrestle the 4th placer. You must beat who you draw and who you draw is based upon where you placed over the course of the last 2 weeks. 1 match at a time and focus on winning the match at hand.