I just experienced my first wrestling season in Oregon. There have been some big differences in Oregon compared to Washington in how things are done regarding wrestling.
One item, among others, sticks out and it is what Oregon does during post season qualifying tournaments...specifically on the consolation side of a bracket.
Some brief info regarding Oregon is they don't have two qualifying post-season tournaments. They only have a regional tournament before state.
During the regional tournament they swapped a consolation placement, in rounds prior to placing rounds, if two wrestlers from the same team were to meet up, they would separate them. This would keep from teammates knocking each other out prior to the placing rounds. This was only done on the consolation side and not the championship side. Was cool to see teammates not knocking one of them out early in a tournament on the consolation side and helped teams get more kids to state and the best kids to state.
At state in a 16 person bracket, for example, if wrestler A beat wrestler B in the first round (both positioned on the top half of the bracket). Wrestler B moves onto the consolation bracket without a crossover happening (going straight back). Wrestler B then wins their next two consolation matches putting them into the consolation quarterfinal. Wrestler A then ends up losing their next match, championship side quarterfinal. Wrestler A now goes to the consolation side but still on the same side (upper half) of the consolation bracket. He wins his first consolation side match which then puts him in the consolation quarter-final against the same kid he beat in the first round, wrestler B.
Here is where Oregon switches their consolation matches to prevent these two kids from wrestling each other again before the medal matches. They drop wrestler A down to the bottom half of the consolation bracket into the other quarter final. In this particular example, because of the switch, wrestler A and wrestler B are now able to work their way back into a spot to wrestle each other for 3rd and 4th place. Had the switch not happened, one of these kids would not have placed let alone meet up for 3/4th place. (Oregon only placed top 6)
Has anyone ever seen this done before and would WIAA and coaches ever consider this?
At first I was skeptical about the idea but when I saw it done at state and where I felt the two correct kids ended up going for 3rd/4th...I was impressed and sold on the idea.
Side note: how these two got a match against each other in the first round is another story. Lol!
Thoughts?
