It's easy, Manhattan is not good...

Perry has a great tradition and is always good for 2A. They have a national record for state titles with 30 something. But 2A and 6A in Oklahoma, unlike Kansas, are night and day. Invite Ponca City, Broken Arrow, Midwest City or El Reno if you want to get a good taste of Oklahoma wrestling.

Well St. Francis,Oberlin,and Norton in NW Kansas claim a huge proportion of the individual state titles in Kansas. St. Francis alone hass 100. Why is that,and are they that much better than the 5A and 6A schools in Kansas? A gentleman from the NW also told me jr. league wrestling was really not much of a factor except to cause discord and animosity. Outside a couple of statements like that the guy semed to know his wrestling. So why is 2A and 6A in Oklahoma so different than 2A and 6A in Kansas?

ponca city and midwest city both finished 1st and 2nd above carroll (3rd), ark city (5th) and perry (6th) at the perry tournament on 12/11. i dont know about midwest city but ponca city would completly DOMINATE us kansans in wrestling.

personally i think 3-2-1a in kansas is much harder than 6a. being just the opposite in oklahoma 6a being much tougher... just a personal opinion

Just asking one_on_one.......what school do you or did you wrestle for?

My OPINION is that Kansas wrestling was born in the smaller, especially Northwestern, schools and they ruled the roost for a long time. MOST of the bigger schools were into basketball, the sport king of Kansas. Wichita East, as you know, won many state titles way back, but they really were not East at all, they were just Wichita High later to be East. At the time there was just one Wichita school. They were able to win many state titles because of their size. When the school of Wichita began to break up, they could no longer "dominate" and there began to be more emphasis on the sport king basketball. Most of the Wichita schools fell way behind and have not caught up even though there has been a great resurgence lately in the city league. As time has gone by, many of the bigger schools throughout the state have placed more emphasis on wrestling and in my OPINION have caught up with the smaller schools. It is just a numbers game, nothing to be offended by. In time, it is my OPINION, that the smaller schools will not be able to keep up anymore and will eventually be passed. In Oklahoma, wrestling is the sport king and all of the schools small and big have been hooked since the beginning because of the success of OSU and OU. Back in the thirtys, even Southwestern of Weartherford had a great program and the three colleges were 1,2,3 at the Nationals. But because it is a numbers game, the bigger schools for the most part have always been better and the smaller schools will never be able to catch up. Perry and Blackwell were exceptions that kept up for awhile because there was not as much disparity between the large and small schools. Over time, not even they could keep up anymore. Although I believe what I have said to be the case, it is still just my OPINION.

WELL PUT WSEWC

Man my eyes are sore WSEWC.....hahah but that was a good comment

I agree with one_on_one
manhattan sucks, especially with 8 or so returning qualifiers

Well put WSEWC!

Wrestling is still strong in the western and northwestern Kansas small schools; however other small schools elsewhere in Kansas have great programs, the likes of Ark City, Abilene, Beloit, Effingham, Columbus, and Clay Center not to mention others who in any given year are tough.

But large schools in metropolitan areas have come on in the last few decades. The numbers of Division I wrestlers from those schools is evidence of that. Good coaching, powerful clubs, easy year round access to the sport, and enough affluence to travel to distant events and camps have played into this improvement. The point WSEWC makes about the shear numbers is absolutely correct. Some of the large school wrestling rooms have more kids in them that the entire population of the small schools. Many of these wrestlers are great athletes.

Kansas is very fortunate to have such a diverse population. With the strong family and community support enjoyed by the wrestlers from small high schools, to the well equipped weightrooms and the strong programs of the large high schools; Kansas wrestling has a good reputation nationwide. Oklahoma and Iowa may not have a lock on wrestling in the midwest.

Time Stands Still

you can pick 14 of the top kids in kansas and match them up with ponca city and they might win but it will be very close thats how good ponca is.

Mr. Ryan:

I will take that challenge with Wichita area wrestlers. This is how I perceive the outcome of a dual:

Wichita Area 54, Ponca City 18

103 lbs. Donnie Altman, Derby; Technical Fall Over Aaron Short, Ponca City
Wichita Area 5, Ponca City 0

112 lbs. Seth Metzler, Newton; Major Decision Over Marcelle Miller, Ponca City
Wichita Area 9, Ponca City 0

119 lbs. Tommy Edgmon, Goddard; Win by Fall Over Trey Branscum, Ponca City
Wichita Area 15, Ponca City 0

125 lbs. Tim Elliott, Wichita South; or Russell Freeman, Goddard; Win by Fall Over Landon Kincaid, Ponca City
Wichita Area 21, Ponca City 0

130 lbs. Josh Baldridge, Campus; Win by Fall Over Antrel Miller, Ponca City
Wichita Area 27, Ponca City 0

135 lbs. Tyler Shinn, Ponca City; Win by Fall Over Tyler Adcock, Wichita Northwest
Wichita Area 27, Ponca City 6

140 lbs. Scott Elliott, Augusta; Decision over Tanner Shelton; Ponca City
Wichita Area 30, Ponca City 6

145 lbs. Joseph Cornejo, Wichita Haysville Campus; Win by Fall Over Luke Kincaid; Ponca City
Wichita Area 36, Ponca City 6

152 lbs. David Loos, Bishop Carroll or David Anderson, Wichita Haysville Campus; Decision Over Josh Fansler, Ponca City
Wichita Area 39, Ponca City 6

160 lbs. Frank Jonas, Kapaun Mt. Carmel; Win by Fall Over Tim Harris, Ponca City
Wichita Area 45, Ponca City 6

171 lbs. Jarrett Edison, Wichita Northwest; Decison Over Daniel Morrison, Ponca City
Wichita Area 48, Ponca City 6

189 lbs. Kelsey Empting, Ponca City; Win by Fall Over Nathan Brenner, Bishop Carroll
Wichita Area 48, Ponca City 12

215 lbs. Jared Rosholt, Ponca City Win by Fall Over Anyone
Wichita Area 48, Ponca City 18

275lbs. Tyler Jessen, Wichita Northwest; Win by Fall Over Sunny Biggoose, Ponca City
Wichita Area 54, Ponca City 18

Miller at 112 must be Mimi Miller's little brother. That Ponca City school has produced some great talent in the last few years with the Dodgen Twins, Mimi Miller, Jake Rosholt and more that I'm sure I'm forgetting. Isn't Jasper Lockett from there too?

Sweazy:

Wrong once again!

Jake Rosholt did not go to school in Ponca City.

Rosholt is a graduate from Sand Point High School in Sand Point, Idaho.

The thing I find kinda fascinating about the talk here about Ponca---- back in the late 60's, there was an Oklahoma State wrestling camp held at Ponca City that was attended by some of the best wrestlers from all over the country, as there really weren't all that many good instructional caps in those years, I remember some of those Ponca City guys even back then, they would come in for the camp, (since they lived there they didn's stay in the cabins) they seemed to pick up stuff that Roderick and the staff waere showing like they had done it all before, and as a group they were as good or better than the best of us, and WAY better than the rest of us! As for the small schools vs. the big schools, WSEWC about said it all, I can think of many of the guys that were so good years ago that are now big school guys. Shane Boultinghous, a 103 pound state champ from Oberlin in the early 70's has a son at Great Bend that will certainly contend for a 5a title.
Tom Ankenman at Buhler has sons in that program that likely be very good as well, Bill Keller was a several time state champ at St. Francis, had kids in the program here at Pratt. The eastern migration of talent has taken place as business develops there, and as awareness of the sport in general begins to develop, it is only a matter of time until the NW becomes a memory of its former self. That doesn't mean that it has happened yet in my opinoin, it just means that it is in progress.

215. Jared Roshalt fall over anyone
not true... this is sad to say but he ONLY beat ryan sponsel from bishop carroll 13-2 in the finals at perry... key word: ONLY
going off ryan sponsel, marrs of clay center beat sponsel by 8 or so, and roshalt of ponca beat sponsel by 11... that would be interesting to see
hmmm, makes you wonder

Mr. Salyer,
That is one of the greatest reply's ive seen to date. When I went to Pennsylvania to Highschool Nationals in 1997 their program showed All Americans and how many from each state. I was surprised where Kansas stood, they are definetly up there. At that time they may have been around 8th I don't really remember exactlly,but it was up there. That would be nice if that info was posted on this forum All Americans by State at Highschool nationals. California was way up there, once again the numbers game.

Was sad to see Andale switch to the Bobcat. They have a young and talented team. Wouldn't be awesome to take top 4 from each tourney and have it out.

ponca would beat wichita wrestlers so bad maybe a win or two from baldrige and cornejo..............

M A Y B E THAT IS