Schlottke

If you watched McCauley wrestle as a 7th grader, you'd sing a different tune... and this year (as an 8th grader at 112) he dominated his way through the tournament worse than Charlie Falck did- ever.

Champ Kind

That is one kid out of how many. There will always be a prodigy or two, but they are the exception, not the rule.

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goferphan

prodigy's or not, if a 7th grader wins it, he most likely is something pretty special...time will only tell...if mccauley becomes a six timer no one is going to go back and say, "well thats because his first win at 103 lb didn't have any competition"

usually the only kids winning four and five state tournaments started out at these "flyweights"

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Schlottke

DeVos is not as good as McCauley was as a 7th grader, but he is the only other 7th grader to ever win it in MN. He got an excellent draw, but showed up in the finals and beat a kid who had basically dominated him 2 days earlier in the team portion. That kid, who almost everyone assumed would win, was in 10th grade.

The only thing I can say about 103, is that after the wrestlers were required to make the weight half of the weigh ins after (I believe) Jan. 1st, the pool of quality 103's at state dropped significantly.

goferphan

you are right, devos isn't the wrestler that mccauley is but you just know after being in that wrestling room with mccauley all year devos began to feel like he belonged on the mat against anyone

you are right about the quality of wrestlers after J1 as well, half of them moved up

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pintowin

i think cutting 103 poses a big problem for upcoming freshman and some sphomores

BHiatt

I'd be suspect of the report as well. I grew up and wrestled in MN and would be greatly disappointed to see them drop two weight classes.

Tim Wussow

I grew up and wrestled in MN as well and now coach here, but I feel way different. I think dropping down to 12 weight classes will only help MN wrestling. I've seen to many teams FF on the varsity level and I can't tell you the last time I watched a full JV dual. I think with 14 weight classes some kids are getting rushed to the varsity level and taking some big lumps and not having fun with wrestling. I know the downfall of dropping 2 weight classes is less people make varsity, but try to remember back to when you were in high school, I know when I was in high school it was not uncommon for a person to wait till his Jr. year to be on varsity and that was fine because they were getting matches on JV and getting the experience needed for varsity. I know it will be difficult at first with bordering states and weight classes but I think it will all work out in time.

wrastler118

I come from a pretty small school(250) and if we felt we may have a hole in our line up, we'd recruit kids to come out.

Bottom line is that if coaches weren't lazy and just assume that kids will come to them, this wouldn't be an issue.

Wrestling has always been about being a sport that anyone of any size can do. Now, you want to be like all the other sports and dictate who can and can't compete based on size. I think this is the stupidest thing MN could be doing to the sport.

While we struggle to get people out, they want to lead the charge in getting rid of them. Doesn't make any sense.

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therick

I don't mind there being a 103. I never wrestled lower than 112 (seventh grade) but I agree that we probably don't need to cut at the bottom. I do agree that the weight is weaker than those that are dominated by upper classmen, but I don't know how to fix that problem. I don't know how much going from 103 to 108 would change that.

As an upper weight, I'm more in favor of spreading out the middle weights just a bit so that the high school weights look more similar to college. That jump from 171 to 189 seems too big of a gap. Especially with the new rules that prevent as much weight cutting. My in season weight was 182 so I had to go down to 171 or else end up wrestling 189 against guys who's non-cut weight was close to 200.

I'd suggest mirroring ncaa 157, 165, 174, 184, 197, add 220, 275 (maybe going up to 285). Or something very similar.