Speaking of Sports

By John Fragodt, Sports Reporter

Wrestling losing a class; hate to say it, but should have been more

If you had read my columns when I worked at the Swift County Monitor-News in Benson you would have read some of my complaints about high school wrestling.  First of all, there are far too many forfeits.  Consider that the Lakers won a match recently that involved 10 forfeits and only four matches that were contested.  Another recent match included seven forfeits and among the other seven matches were four quick pins.

One of the reasons for so many forfeits is that there are far too many weight classes.  College wrestling goes with 10 weight classes so I can’t figure out why high school wrestling would think they need more.  Other high school sports don’t have 14 starters (which is what wrestling has) and most don’t rely on seventh and eighth-graders to fill spots in the lineup.

Another complaint I have is that the top wrestlers tend to avoid each other, although I can’t argue with the fact that it’s a strategic decision most times.  I don’t know how many times I’ve been to a wrestling match and looked forward to seeing a couple of strong wrestlers going at it during the match.  When the time comes though, a top wrestler from one team will earn a forfeit win (or a quick fall) over another wrestler and the other top wrestler will move up or down and earn another forfeit win or easy victory.  

Other sports would never think about doing that.  I can’t imagine a basketball team having its fifth or sixth best defensive player guarding the other team’s best offensive player, or the top tennis player from one school playing the 10th best player from the other team.  It just doesn’t work that way. 

Anyway, the Minnesota State High School League recently cut one class in high school wrestling starting with the 2023-24 season.

The current weight classes for high school wrestling are 106-113-120-126-132-138-145-152-160-170-182-195-220 and 285 pounds.  I’ve always thought the weight classes start too low and I’ve also said that teams should have two 152 or 160-pounders since most of the strongest wrestlers are at or close to those weights.

The new weight-class structure for boys wrestling will be 107 pounds, 114-121-127-133-139-145-152-160-172-189-215 and 285.  You don’t have to be a wrestling fan to realize that’s not much of a change from the current format.  Basically, the new weight system dropped one of the upper weight classes, but they should have taken it at least one step further and dropped at least one of the lower weight classes.

How about 110-120-130-140-150-160#1-160#2-170-185-200-220-285 for 12 weight classes, or drop the second 160-pound class and go with 11?  An odd number of classes seems the way to go to help out with any ties.

Anyway, I always heard about it from Benson and/or KMS wrestling fans when I approached the subject in past columns, but that’s fine.  I love all sports, including wrestling, but I also love to see actual matches, instead of the top wrestlers continually earning forfeit wins and never wrestling against each other until the postseason.  

I will say, though, once in the postseason, there aren’t many sports more exciting than high school wrestling.  And, Laker wrestling fans have a great opportunity to see some great wrestling this weekend as Minnewaska Area is set to host the Section 5A Individual Wrestling Tournament.  Once that’s completed, the gym will be reset for the Minnewaska vs. West Central Area girls basketball Section 3AA opener at 7:30 p.m.  Talk about a busy day of sports at MAHS.  Go Lakers!