Becker should be #2 at 152. There is absolutely no reason for him not to be. He didn't lose to anyone below him so no one should have moved above him. Gehring is solid and he has had a really good year no doubt. His close win over Thibault was commendable and he should obviously move ahead of Thibault but not Becker. All it means to me is that Thibault was probably ranked just a little too high and should never have been ahead of Becker in the first place as I already suggested. If Becker was undefeated, you know he would be at #2. Becker's schedule is much tougher than Gehrings or Thibaults. You can't even compare them. Both Becker's losses, very close losses in the finals at Newton and Rosehill, are to out of state wrestlers. Becker should not be punished because Derby's schedule is much tougher than Buhlers. Plus Becker had a close loss to Williams (top at 160) in the finals at state last year. It is too bad they will not meet so that my prediction could be verified. Obviously Blackwell should be #1. But again, until Becker is beaten by someone on the list he should be behind only Blackwell.
Here is where you are wrong...
Gehring has more quality wins this year and Becker's schedule is not what it appears to be.
Becker - Quality Wins: Helms - ARK Leeper - MH Wilson - LIB Watkins - COL Mitchell - SME - In OT
Gehring - Quality Wins: Has beaten 4 in the AC Top Ten. Fiss - HUG - 2X S. Ortiz - WNW Clayborn - AUG Hoskins - STA Younger - ELL Watkins - COL Ryan - SV Thibault - HAL - Previously undefeated.
Becker went to VC Duals and had no competition at 160. He went to SMNW tourney instead of Douglas on 12/8 and it was cake. Certainly the two OK guys that beat him are good, but he lost to them both. He is absolutely one of our best 152 pounders in the state but to say that he has had much tougher competition than Gehring is just not so.
Ok Chief, if you say so, you are the Chief.
No need to argue about the toughness of the schedule because we won't get anywhere on that. The fact that Becker had to wrestle two high quality out of staters pretty much proves my point. Yes, Gehring beat Thibault, in OT I might add, but that just may only prove that Thibault was over ranked as I already stated earlier as far as I am concerned. And Thibault being undefeated doesn't mean as much as you imply as his schedule is, well.....I still say that until Becker is beaten by someone on the list or someone from Kansas, you are punishing him because he had to wrestle two kids from OK and Gehring didn't have to.
And I am not "wrong" until proven wrong. I just have a different "opinion" about this than you Chief. You say Gehring has more quality wins and I don't agree. The quality of the kids you mentioned is not as high as you indicate. I would put Jack Mitchell over every kid you listed as a quality win except for Thibault. And let's also remember that our "opinions" are vastly different as most of my opinions are based on careful observation and comparison of actual matches as my son has wrestled just about everybody I ever have an "opinion" of or they were in a bracket, whereas your opinion is based more on your gleaning of published results. But I still love you.
And we all know that Chief can't be right all the time, just maybe 90-95% of the time.
Let me say this though to all. Becker, Gehring and Thibault are all great kids wrestling their hearts out. They are only dealing with what they can control. They don't deserve to be disrespected and I am certainly not doing that. The fact that we are even talking about them shows they are top quality and are greatly respected. If they weren't, we wouldn't even be talking about them. So don't get offended, just go wrestle. And let us old guys have a little fun talking our smack trying to blow smoke or whatever.
