Taking a statistical look at the Class 6A and 5A wrestling tournaments

Goddard put together the most dominant team performance in Kansas wrestling in the last 12 years over the weekend.

Here are some notes from the Lions’ performance and the rest of the action from the Class 6A and 5A tournaments at Hartman Arena.

Goddard scored the most points since at least 2006, the first year with team scores listed on the Kansas Sports High School Activities Association website. The Lions scored 250.5, bettering their 2016 mark of 223.5.

Valley Center finished second this year in Class 5A, 125.5 points behind.

Coinciding with Goddard’s massive point total, the Lions’ margin of victory was also larger than any Kansas state champion team over the same span.

Five of the 445 wrestlers who qualified finished the tournament with four pins.

The Wrestler of the Year, Goddard 170-pounder Troy Fisher did it quickest.

The 2018 tournament was the most pin-heavy at the 6A and 5A tournaments since 2013.

Fisher is talking with several Division I programs, as is Newton’s Wyatt Hendrickson. Kapaun’s Michael Spangler is also seeking a four-year scholarship, just to name a few within the Wichita area.

The trend is particularly clear over the past three years.

Class 6A was a four-horse race.

Olathe North won with 151 points, but only 10.5 points separated first from fourth, where Derby finished. That was the slimmest margin since 2006.

Heading into the final matches, the margin was 5.5 points between first and fourth.

Some teams were more efficient with their qualifiers than others.

Class 6A 120-pounder Jose Andrade was one of Southeast’s two to qualify. He was the only one to win a match, and he won three of them. Andrade made it to the final before losing to Olathe North’s Keegan Slyter.

Southeast finished 20th out of 31 schools.

The Buffaloes finished tied at the top in finalist efficiency, and the other top five schools were from the Wichita area.

This story was originally published February 25, 2018 at 4:45 PM with the headline "Taking a statistical look at the Class 6A and 5A wrestling tournaments."