what does everybody think about the regional assingments. I would have to say the hardest would be the Norton regional with the Abilene regional just behind. The worst would have to be the Hesston regional.

I hope for your sake you were joking

I would say it is a toss up between the Norton Regional and the Abilene Regional. I don't know why Nigel would think that is a joke.

4A Top Ten

1. Abilene
2. Columbus
3. Goodland
4. Santa Fe Trail
5. Ulysses
6. Rose Hill
7. Clay Center
8. Chapman
9. Pratt
10. Colby

Abilene Reigional:
1. Abilene
3. Goodland
4. Santa Fe Trail
7. Clay Center
8. Chapman
10. Colby

Coffeyville Reigional:
2. Columbus
6. Rose Hill

Andale Reigional:
5. Ulysses
9. Pratt

Hiawatha Reigional:
none

Coachtwink, why would Nigel say half the stuff he says???? I guess because he is Nigel and you just have to understand who he is or at least try to understand.

Man they are trying to reunite the NCKL at regionals huh? I kind of liked having all the teams spread out that way we could qualify almost every NCKL guy to state...that's a super tough regional...Chapman is young don't know how they'll fair with the competition...reminds me of the 95 regional at Russell, that was tough!

CoachTwink, I think CoachJT pretty much summed up everything I was thinking, good thing he dis the research. Norton regional has a few good teams but certainly not 6 of the top 10 in the state.

Nigel I think you are wrong about the Norton regional but only time will tell. Norton, Hoxie, Oberlin, St. Francis, Minneapolis, S. Center and Atwood along with some teams I have probably missed all have a legit. shot at being in the top 10. In 321A the toughest regional will always be the one with the most NWKL and MCL teams.

I have to agree with BigDaddy.

While there is not a 321A preview to draw stats from I suspect that at least 6 of the top 10 teams in 321 A will be at Norton

Norton Regional:
Hoxie
Norton
Oberlin-Decatur Comm
St. Francis
Minneapolis
Beloit
Atwood

Easton-Pleasant Ridge Regional–
Effingham-Atchison County Comm.

Hesston Regional:
probably none

Hoisington Regional:
Oakley
Ellis
Ellsworth
Hays-Thomas More Prep-Marian

I am not trying to take anything away from the Abilene regional, but the best team in the State will be at Norton, and several other excellent teams.
(These were primarily drawn from state placings from last year).

The unfortunate part about the Abeline and Norton regionals is that since the best teams in 321a and 4a seem to be cheifly from the north central or northwest area , in too many cases they tend to weaken each other to the point that other teams from weaker competition in other regions are able to place well or even win because they will qualify more wrestlers. Columbus, ulysses and Pratt, in 4a, and Oakley and Effingham in 321a, stand to gain significantly at state due to having wrestlers with scoring potential that would never have survived Abeline or Norton. sad deal-- but what would you do--bus teams all over the state to acheive parity? This problem does seem to lend great credence to the claim that at least in 123A and 4A, the other areas of the state seem to be lagging behind. There will be some teams that do well at state that are not from those areas, but whether they earn it with championships or inherit it with numbers is the question.

A few reasons why i picked norton over abilene. There are 19 teams at Norton and 14 at abilene. 19 teams is the most teams i've recently seen at a regional. There is a big dropoff at abilene. you have about 8 good teams then it really goes downhill. norton is spread out pretty even. Don't get me wrong though, abilene is not going to be a walk in the park by any means.

Mr. Fairleigh said it very well. In tough economic times schools can not afford to bus, feed and house wrestlers and send them all over the state. However year in and year out better wrestlers from a tough regional (the NW regional)must watch wrestlers they have beat wrestling while they are spectators. I do not have an answer but I completely agree with his thoughts on parity. At a weak regional kids make it into the tourny. and may win a match when if they were at another regional they would never make it to the show.

Heard today that Oakley is now going to Norton. Anybody know if this is true? If it is true that only makes that regional that much tougher, as if it wasn't tough enough.

Mike I think your assesment it wrong. Point in case. Abilene last year qualified only 6 people to the state tournement. While several other teams sent 8, 9, even 10 guys to the tournament and Abilene still won state. At the State tournament is quality of quanity that really matter more.

it is true that oakley will be at the NOROTN regional this year making it the toughest compatition since the inception of sliced bread and reducing the quality of the other 3 321A regionals to a JR HIGH tourney level, why dont we just call Hays, Call of state this year, and award the norton regional placers. why doesnt somebody say, "maybee we shouldent send an overwhelming majority of the best teams in the state (int their class) to one regional" and start splitting it up logically. Lets see some gerrymandering of regionals!!!

How and why did Oakley switch regionals?

I am confident you will find Oakley did not switch regionals.

Fanatic,
I hope you are correct but the story I heard is that the KSHAA overlooked Deerfield HS when assigning the regionals. Once they were aware of this they assigned Deerfield to Hoisington and Oakley to Norton. Again, I hope you are correct as we see Oakley enough throughout the year and this creates a 125 lb bracket that would probably include 4 of the top 5 in that weight.

Well I couldn't imagine, but Deerfield isn't listed on the KSHSAA web and the Norton regional is the only one listed with less than 20 teams, which logically means they would have to gain one.

Nigel,
Just because Abilene was able to win state last year after only qualifying 6 does not prove your point. Think about it for a second. If Abilene had gone to a weaker regional, qualified 8-10, and had higher placings, do you think they wouldn't have won it? Of course not, they would probably have won it by a greater margin. Going to a weaker regional is an advantage. I agree quality is better than quantity, but both is even better.