I am a mother of a third year wrestler. To my knowledge, I was told that if the child placed first or second in any open tournament at least twice, then he cannot wrestle novice. It happened to my son last year. He wrestled novice. There was a kid in one of his brackets that we knew for sure wrestled in the open tournament and placed first. It was totally unfair to my child who was learning. He just "beat" up on all of the other novice children. I was quite angry over it.