Having fewer numbers from our region will certainly hurt, as there are that many fewer athletes to knock off people from Iowa Central, Meramec, North Idaho, etc. It can also hurt the national title bid for our regional teams too, as they may have one or two people staying at home instead of picking up a point or two in the consolation bracket before they bow out of the tournament. The wild card meeting will be that much more heated too.
But there has never been a hang-up in the past about taking 2 or even 3 wildcards from a single weight, if necessary. I've seen them take a 5 place finisher who lost to a 4th place finisher in the conso semis and leave the 4th place guy at home to make room for another weight that was felt more deserving of berths.
The 70% qualifier rule can be pretty generous and sometimes allows qualifiers to slip in that won't make an impact, but you always hate to see anyone deprived f the opportunity to experience the national tournament......and you never know - Bryan Miller never won a match at the regional tournament, but placed 2nd and 5th in the national tournament with his wild card entries.
The positive is that comes from this is that when a 3rd place finisher or wildcard entry from our ultra-competitive regional meets his first round opponent in Rochester, we'll have a great chance to knock off the higher finishers from other regionals early in the tournament.....we just need to hope that the pairing isn't pitting us against Iowa Central Meramec or North Idaho, etc early because that turns into a medal round match in the first round.
Last edited by Jon Doe; 02/09/08 12:53 PM.
