Reaction from the state’s high school wrestling coaches are coming in as the Iowa High School Athletic Association announced this week that changes are coming to the annual state individual tournament. The IHSAA announced Monday that beginning this school year, they’ll start using TrackWrestling to seed the traditional wrestling tournament. The top eight wrestlers in each weight class will be seeded based on an eight-point criteria scoring system while the last eight seeds are chosen at random. Among the factors that go into deciding the top eight seeds includes results of head to head competitions, winning percentage against common opponents, if you’re a returning state qualifier or place winner and others.

The Raccoon Valley Radio Network taped an offseason interview with Panorama head wrestling coach Jason Kirtley Friday morning. Kirtley shared with us he’s on the fence about seeding the traditional state wrestling tournament. “I’m not opposed to it, but I’m not all for it either,” Kirtley said, “As far as separating the top two kids and getting a true No. 1 vs. No. 2 final, it’s set up to be perfect for that.”

On the other hand, Kirtley worries about the other 14 wrestlers in the tournament, especially those grapplers seeded three through eight. “Because you have teams across the state, we are one of them for sure, Lisbon comes to mind, that go to tough, two-day tournaments.” Kirtley said, “They wrestle (Class) 2A and 3A schools throughout the year, and they’ll come into (the state tournament) with records like 37-15. They’re legit kids who are probably going to place, but TrackWrestling will break up kids according to head to head and when there’s no head to head they’ll probably move to winning percentage or record. That’s where these kids are going to get lost in the mix.”

We’ll have more reaction from Kirtley on the implementation of seeding in the traditional Iowa High School State Wrestling tournament on Monday’s Raccoon Valley Radio local sports page. Listen to an interview with Kirtley on the next Guthrie County PM Sports Page, Monday at 6 p.m. on True Country, K 107.9.