Seeding coming to state wrestling tournament

The Iowa High School Athletic Association will begin seeding brackets at the traditional state wrestling tournament beginning in 2019.

In a unanimous decision announced Monday morning, the IHSAA Board of Control approved a wrestling advisory committee recommendation to build brackets with criteria that seeds the top eight wrestlers in each of the 14 weight classes across all three classifications.

The new online formula will replace the random draw the IHSAA had previously used, which paired district champions with district runners-up for the first round of the three-day event. Under the new format, wrestlers are compared in a pre-tournament scoring system against every other qualifier in their 16-person bracket, with the top eight wrestlers receiving seeding and the other eight drawn in at random, while separating qualifiers from the same district tournament.

The IHSAA will use TrackWrestling’s computerized system to seed competitors. With the change, the IHSAA joins approximately 30 other state associations utilizing TrackWrestling for state tournament seeding.

“The seeding of wrestling tournaments is something that happens every weekend across the state and across the country,” said Lewie Curtis, IHSAA wrestling administrator. “Our state tournament is one of very few that hasn’t used seeding to determine its brackets. With this decision, that’s no longer the case.”

The criteria used by TrackWrestling to determine seeds gives points to qualifiers based on the following factors, in order of their use: head-to-head competition, competition against common opponents, returning state champion;  returning second- or third-place finisher in previous season (equal value), returning fourth- through eighth-place finisher from previous season (valued in order), district champion and returning state qualifier in previous season. The eighth and final criteria is an individual’s winning percentage in the current season.

Glenwood head coach Brad Asche and East Mills’ Claude Lang both said the response to the seeding formula announcement among wrestling coaches has generally been positive. But that doesn’t mean they and many of their fellow coaches don’t have questions.

Both Asche and Lang are taking a decidedly wait and see approach to a new system they both feel isn’t a finished product yet.

“I think there will definitely be tweaks after next season as to what works and what doesn’t,” Asche said.
Lang, who has coached the Class 1A Wolverines’ since the program’s inception 12 years ago, wonders how easily the factors used to determine seeding will be applied to hundreds of wrestlers among all classes.

“There’s too many variables,” Lang said. “The idea is great, but to compare every wrestler across the state is impossible. Do they only seed district champs? Is there a set number of matches needed to be seeded? Are we going to use the common opponent of the common opponent of the common opponent? And those possible first round matchups of high seeded kids wrestling (each other) will be eliminated.”

Asche feels like the seeding formula favors bigger schools that play tougher schedules. He also doesn’t see it helping wrestlers who weren’t on the varsity all season or just barely slipped into the state tournament.

“Every year we’ve had someone get to the state tournament that probably just snuck in and now they have the potential of drawing the No. 1 seed instead of someone else they could potentially win a match against,” Asche said.

Seeding isn’t a perfect science, Asche said. That’s why he likes the idea of coaches being able to challenge seeding and wonders about the use of a computer model. While he likes TrackWrestling, he isn’t completely sold on a computer that is still subject to human error.

“If something doesn’t get punched in just right, then you’re basing everything off a computer system instead of system that’s already in place,” he said.

Asche said the seeding questions will “work themselves out” in time but wished the committee had also addressed other issues, including the state duals format and girls wrestling, when they made their recommendations.

“It feels like those issues got overlooked for this (seeding),” Asche said.
Despite his own concerns about the formula, Lang doesn’t see the seeding having a major impact on competition at state.

“To be a state champion you still have to win four matches. To get a medal, you still need to win two before you lose two,” Lang said. “That’s not changing.”

In April the Board of Control approved seeding at the dual team tournament will be done by qualifying  team coaches.