Takedown Report

State high school wrestling tourneys in 2024

Several state high school wrestling tourneys have new homes in 2024
By Rob Sherrill
It’s only January, but there have been enough thrills and excitement to last a whole season … and the 2024 state tournaments haven’t even started yet. But they will and sooner than you think. In fact, one’s already in the books.
Alaska started the state tournament parade in 2023, the week before Christmas. Starting later this month, four states, Alabama, Florida, Georgia and New York, take center stage with the start of dual state tournaments. Leading the parade of state tournament site changes is a state that normally doesn’t make this kind of news. For the first time since 2000, Indiana’s state tournament won’t be contested in Indianapolis’s main arena, Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The arena, which is also the home of the NBA’s Indiana Pacers, is hosting the NBA All-Star Game the same weekend, Feb. 16-17.

This column appeared in the January issue of WIN Magazine. Click on the cover or call 888-305-0606 to subscribe. 
That conflict necessitated moving the wrestling tournament south to the Ford Center in Evansville. As the home of University of Evansville basketball and the minor-league hockey Evansville Thunderbolts, the Ford Center has wrestling experience. It will host the Evansville semi-state qualifying tournament the previous weekend with Evansville’s Reitz High serving as the host school. It will mark the 12th time the Ford Center has hosted the semi-state since opening in 2011. Hawaii and Nevada are also moving to first-time host sites. The Aloha State migrates across the island of Oahu to the George Q. Cannon Events Center, on the campus of Brigham Young University-Hawaii, in Laie on Feb. 23-24.
Nevada’s state tournaments, shortened from two days to one day this year, debut at the Anderson Auto Group Fieldhouse in Bullhead City on Feb. 16. The state alternates between northern and southern sites and it’s the South’s turn to host this year; Bullhead City is about 100 miles south of Las Vegas. After a three-year hiatus that originated during the COVID-19 pandemic, Kentucky has returned to its traditional single-site state tournament format at Alltech Arena, located at the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington. The boys state tournament will take place on Thursday and Friday, Feb. 15-16, followed by the girls state tournament on Saturday, Feb. 17. The previous pandemic-based format saw the state tournament conducted over two weekends at high school sites.
Click here to view an entire listing of dates and locations of boys state wrestling tournaments

The National Prep Championships return to Stabler Arena at Lehigh University, the tournament’s home before the pandemic necessitated a similar move to The Show Place Arena in Upper Marlboro, Md. That facility will continue to host Maryland’s sanctioned state tournament.
Kansas, meanwhile, condensed from three state tournament sites to two. Tony’s Pizza Events Center in Salina, previously the host of the 4A state tournament, will host both the state’s smaller classifications, as Class A-2A-3A joins 4A under the same roof Feb. 22-24. Fort Hays State University had hosted the smallest classification in previous years. The state’s two largest classifications, 6A and 5A, remain at Wichita’s Park City-Hartman Arena the same weekend. Tennessee and Utah conduct their individual state tournaments across two weekends; the only states to do so (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire conduct New England qualifying events the week following their state meets). Tennessee’s Division II, which comprises the state’s private schools, is the nation’s only group of sanctioned schools permitted by its NFHS association, the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association, to compete in the National Prep Championships.
Iowa and Missouri have expanded their individual state tournaments to four full days at the same site. All three Iowa classifications compete all four days at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, starting on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Missouri’s two smaller classes, 1 and 2, compete on Wednesday and Thursday, Feb. 21-22, at the Mizzou Arena, with big-school Classes 3 and 4 competing on Friday and Saturday. … story at … WIN-magazine.com/Several-state-high-school-wrestling-tourneys-have-new-homes-in-2024

And …

2023-24 high school individual state champions list, as of January 23, adding Alabama and D.C. girls
Once again, USA Wrestling will publish regular updates on the 2023-24 state high school champions for both boys and girls. 
Winning a state high school title is an amazing achievement for a high school student-athlete. We will post the champions from official state high school championships for boys, as well as the girls who have won official state high school titles, as well as the recognized state competitions which are not run by their state high school association. We will also post the team champions at the state level as available. As available, we will include the state champion’s year in school and final record.
This week, we add the Alabama girls state champions, who competed in Birmingham this past weekend. Daphne won its third state team title in the last four years, led by state champions Alanah Girard (100), Emily Smith (114) and Kalyse Hill (132). 
The DCSSA, which runs high school wrestling in Washington, D.C., ran its Girls Invitational this past weekend, featuring athletes and teams from the surrounding area. We once again include the champions from this Invitational in our state champions list. State champions will be updated on a weekly basis until the state championship season has been completed in mid-March.
Alabama Girls State Championships at Birmingham, Ala. January 18-19
100 – Alanah Girard (Daphne) 26-2, Fr.
107 – Kloe Robb (Sparkman) 28-3, Sr.
114 – Emily Smith (Daphne) 38-0, Sr.
120 – Evelyn Holmes-Smith (Enterprise) 37-0, Jr. … story at … Themat.com/news/High-school-individual-state-champions-list-as-of-january-23-adding-alabama-and-d-c-girls

And …

Upcoming State Dual Championships
Six state dual championships are coming during the next two weekends. First will be New York’s this Saturday, followed by Iowa, Nebraska, Louisiana, Tennessee and North Carolina the following weekend.
Tournaments for New York, Iowa, Louisiana and North Carolina will stream live here on Flo, while the Nebraska and Tennessee tournaments will be available as archives after the individual duals end. Touching on a few of these tournaments, we’ll start with New York where there will be new dual state champs in both Division 1 and 2 as neither Tioga or Starpoint are in the field after both won a year ago. In both divisions, 12 teams will take part in four three-team pools with the winners advancing to a four-team bracket to determine the champion.  
In Division 1, Minisink Valley is looking to get back on top after winning in both 2020 and 2022 (there was no tournament in 2021). In D2, last year’s runner-up Central Valley Academy is the likely favorite.
In Iowa, regional dual tournaments will take place on Jan. 30 with the top 24 teams in each class (1A, 2A and 3A) competing at eight regionals per class. The top-ranked team at each regional hosts the event and gets a bye to the final with the other two teams dualing to face them. The eight winners advance to the state dual team tournament on Feb. 3 at the Xtream Arena in Coralville. 
Southeast Polk is the favorite in Iowa’s big-school class — Class 3A. In 2A, Osage, Mount Vernon and Sergeant Bluff-Luton are all in the mix, while Alburnett, Don Bosco and Wilton are the leaders in 1A.
Just to the west, Nebraska’s dual championships will also take place on Feb. 3 with the top eight teams battling it out. In Class A, the state’s biggest class, Millard South has won seven of the past eight tournaments and has dominated the state, even showing to be competitive nationally. 
Last year’s champs, Omaha Skutt Catholic, will battle it out with 2022 champs Bennington, Waverly and Blair in Class B. In Class C, Broken Bow won a year ago as well as in 2018 and 2019. The Class C champ in both 2020 and 2022 was Aquinas Catholic who dropped down to Class D last year and has dominated, winning the dual title in its first try last season.

January 26, 2024 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized