I couldn't agree more about the weight discrepancy in the weight classes & age groups. There are a lot of big kids out there and they either have to wrestle up and age bracket or not at all. I know of several kids who would have done well at state but couldn't get under the minimum HWT requirements. This is especially true in the younger age groups.

My son is going to be in his first year of 8& under next season and he is already weighing around 115lbs and is 4'9". If he puts on 20lbs this summer and grows 3 more inches he will be way over the weight limit to participate in the State Tourney. My son isn't really that fat, he is big. He isn't alone. He wrestled several 6&U kids who were a lot heavier than he. That means those boys are already out of the line up.

I don't understand why there are so many lower weight groups. I am guessing but I imagine that at the state tourney a bunch of those kids in 8&U age class in the lower weight groups are really 6&U wrestling up. I fiddled with some numbers and here is what I came up with as an example.

8 & Under weight Classes

45lb
50lb
55lb
60lb
65lb
70lb
75lb
80lb
85lb
90lb
95lb
100lb
115lb
125lb
135lb
145lb

Same number of weight classes but a little more balanced and a lot less confusing to the parents and wrestlers with all the odd weight numbers. This type of format could be applied to all age groups with different weights as appropriate.

Just putting something out there for thought. Who decides this critera anyway. I would like to sit in on that meeting.