This dual team event is run as follows;

All teams consist of the same weight classes wrestled at the qualifier.

Weigh-ins are Friday March 28th

Each individual dual is wrestled and scored just like a high school dual. On Saturday, each of our 5 Kansas teams will wrestle in 5 or 6 team pools. If your wrestler’s team is in a 5 team pool, they would dual each of the other 4 teams on Saturday (4 matches). If they are in a 6 team pool, they would dual each of the other 5 teams (5 matches). Occasionally, two of our 5 teams will be in the same pool.

Placement in the pools is somewhat random – however, each state’s teams are ranked – for instance, our #1 team is our best, #2 second best, etc – all other states with multiple teams rank their teams as well. The tournament director seeds the pools based on last year and previous years finishes. Kansas has historically got one of its teams into the championship bracket - so our best team should be seeded. However at least once, our 2nd team has made the championship bracket and our 1st team has not. The pools are sometimes not perfectly balanced.

How your team finishes in their pool Saturday determines which 8 team bracket you wrestle in on Sunday. Win your pool and you are in the championship bracket. Take second and your team is in the silver bracket, etc, etc. Pool finish is determined by wins/losses and total number of team points scored. It is very important for each wrestler to score the maximum points per dual – if you win by 8 points(major decision) that is 1 additional team point – if you win by 15 point (tech fall) that is 2 additional team point and if you win by fall, that is 3 additional team points. It is also important to give up the least amount of points if we are getting beat – keep wrestling and never give up because any additional team points given up could cost us a dual. Also, it is important that we don’t have any OPEN weights on any of the teams. A forfeit at any weight is 6 team points for the other team – just like a pin.

If there are 7 pools of teams, then one of the second place teams from a pool will make the championship bracket – if there are 6 pools, the 2 of the 2nd place teams will make the championship bracket.

The Sunday brackets are wrestled like an 8 man bracket – except if you lose in the semi-finals, you wrestle for 3rd and 4th – there is no cross bracketing to the back side. Lose your first dual on Sunday and the best your team can finish is 5th. Be aware that Saturday pool wrestling can be a little rough for some of our teams. Once the brackets are set for Sunday, the competition should be a little more even.

There are also individual All-American awards for wrestlers who go undefeated (there is a 6 match minimum). For teams making the championship bracket, there are 2 MVP awards. For all other brackets, there is 1 MVP award. The team coaches are responsible for selecting the wrestlers who get the MVP awards. After your team finishes wrestling on Sunday, stick around for team pictures and awards.

ALTERNATES
We are allowed 3 alternates per team. Alternates get all the same gear, lodging, travel and food etc.

There are two options for alternates to get matches at this event.

One, is to get on the Team USA Alternate team. This team is formed at the event and consists of alternates from other states. So on the team, you could have 5 from Kansas, 2 from Nebraska, 1 from Iowa, 4 from Minnesota, etc, etc. The alternate team is put in the pools and wrestle just like all the other teams. There is a possibility that there could be more than one wrestler at your weight on this alternate team. There is no way to know how many or at what weight the alternates will be until just before the event. On Sunday, this team goes into one of the brackets and wrestles just like everyone else.

The other option is to be an alternate for one of the Kansas Teams and hope the other teams we dual has an alternate at or close to your weight. With only 3 alternates allowed per team, the chances of the other team having someone close to your weight isn’t that good. Occasionally, there has been an alternate mat where you can go and match up against similar sized wrestlers but this has not happened every year. It depends on how many alternates there are.

I believe the first option gives you the best chance of getting some matches and over the years, most of our alternates have chosen to go that route.