I too believe that the lack of a NCAA DI school hurts our perception as a talented wrestling state. Our consistency at the NHSCA senior nationals has brought some accolades our way, but I don't feel we get the respect we deserve.

It is true we don't have many people go on to earn DI AA honors, but we also don't have the number of DI recruits go on to compete that other states do. Kansas' best recruits can go anywhere, but there are a lot of talented individuals who give up the sport to attend K-State or KU instead of competing at the most elite of levels.

Unfortunately budgetary constraints and Title IX have not helped the likelihood of K-State or KU or WSU.... starting the sport. It is nice to see KSU and KU fielding teams for the club circuit - at least its a start.

Also in this thread Cardfan indicated that Hoxie did not deserve to be mentioned in the pre-season ranking using the basis that they didn't have anyone compete well on the freestyle and/or greco tours.

I guess I am assuming that the poll is based on folkstyle not freestyle/greco, so I disagree with his logic in excluding them.

While certainly adequate on their feet, Hoxie's overwhelming strength has never been from the neutral position. But they, as a group, are quite good on the mat. And that alone can create a pretty big difference in success between the various disciplines. Couple that with the lack of a dedicated freestyle club in NW KS and it is little wonder that Hoxie does not field a lot of AA's in the summer months - not an excuse, just an observation.

Do they deserve to be on the list? Who knows? Last year Hoxie received ranking as one of the top 10 teams in the OK, MO, KS, TX region and some of the best teams in the nation come from those states. But it is purely speculation as to whether last year's team should have cracked into the nation's top 40. Regardless, they were pretty dog-gone tough.

This year's version has a lot of firepower too and, barring injury, they should have another great season. Their senior class is loaded with talent - especially when considering Charlie Ochs missed most of his sophomore season and was not able to wrestle last year. And Jeremiah Moss has not wrestled since his freshman year.

With that said, it will be interesting to see whether Hoxie is able to match the depth and consistency all the way through the line-up that they did a year ago. 13 qualifiers, 11 medals and 218.5 team points will be tough to top - especially with the amount of returning talent that 3-2-1A is bringing back this year.

One thing is for certain, you can bet Baker and Porsch will have them ready to go once they finish up the fine football season they have going.

Just felt compelled to offer my biased opinion here. Thanks.

And hey.....we are less than a month away from best sport in Kansas. Good luck to all.