After watching most of the coliseum state event, I have to just hand it over to the dominant teams. Clay Center and Abilene wrestled at a higher team level that everyone else, and if you asked anyone who is coming into their own as a future power, the answer seemed to be Andale most of the time. As a loyal westerner, I will admit to this grudgingly, but with respect. as the power begins to turn (my opinion), the really cool thing about it is that more crowds and bigger crowds are following the sport. Used to be that you could find Goodland, Scott City, Ulysses, Colby crowds in the place just by looking around in the first few rounds. Now they don't seem so obvious because teams like Abilene, Andale, Clay Center, Columbus, have bigger and bigger crowds. Now I know that those teams have always had support, but as they become favorites instead of challengers their following becomes larger. Its just a cool thing, and I think next year the Bicentennial center is gonna be rockin with more color than ever! East or West, 4a was a heck of a show, and I was really impressed by most of the young men that competed! (Also I finally got to meet Swayz-- What a completely cool guy!)

I agree, Swayz Rules!

I knew there was intelligence in the sport of wrestling!

Columbus has been a favorite for quite some time. Ken Jones had some great teams throughout the 80's and 90's. If you go down to their school you will find several state title banners followed up by several state runner up banners. They haven't been in the challenger category for about 25 years.

Mike:
If you were to ask Prant, all of those schools are in "Western Kansas", since he includes Manhattan as a Western Kansas School, so there is no reason to worry about Western Kansas losing its dominance!

Maybe he has learned how to read a map at that Fancy college he is going to!

Also I think Goodland, Colby, Scott City, and Ulysses will be back, they just seem to be going through a down cycle right now. They have great coaches and good tradition and they will be competeing at a championship level in the future as well!

while that may be true, there are so many really good programs now that when the four far west guys get back on their game there will also be more eastern teams that have come up, SFT , Augusta, Andale, even Mulvane had a champion and were pretty good as a team a couple years ago.
I have family in Scott City and I really think that they will be 3a in another few years, if not next year. I agree that those programs are just down for now, but I think they will have to get even better than they were before to be dominant because the quality curve is ascending to the extent that "good" is not good enough anymore. I really hate to say it because I dearly love the northwest kansas league and their neighbors, but when the western guys reload I believe that they will just be four more good teams among several good teams, instead of the favorites to win it all.

Over the net I have got to know and become friends with Swayz. For those that have never met him, you are missing out. I don't think I have ever met anyone who is as inspirational as Aaron. It is an honor to call him my friend and a part of our family. Only problem is, I had better not catch him kissing my wife again.

Swayz, by the way, the reason my daughter was so upset on Sunday, she was worried about her car and Aaron just reminded her that some things just aren't that important. Just thought you should know of the impact you have. (In a good way.) Get well too.