It’s time for high school wrestling postseason

By Rob Sherrill

There have been enough thrills and excitement to last a whole season already.

And the state tournaments haven’t even started yet.

But they will – and sooner than you think. In fact, a handful already have.

Alaska started the state tournament parade in 2019, the week before Christmas. Starting in January, three southern states, Georgia, Alabama and Florida, took center stage with the start of dual-state tournaments, and New York and North Carolina lead the parade into February.

Maine becomes the 21st state to institute a dual state series. The Pine Tree State’s duals will be contested the week after the individual state tournaments, and just two days before its New England Championships qualifier, an interesting twist. Finally, Nebraska flipped its two state tournaments. In 2020, the state duals take place prior to the individual state meet, after being contested in the opposite order through last season.

There aren’t many other changes to state formats. What is different is that state association calendars have flipped in the majority of states. In 33 of the 49 states with wrestling programs, along with the sanctioned New England Championships, the state tournament takes place a week later this year than it did in 2019. Those states are marked with an asterisk (*) on the list that follows.

Georgia remains the state with the most classifications – seven – followed by Virginia (six) and Oregon, Utah and Washington (five each).

Virginia continues to tinker with its state tournament format. This season, the state’s three largest classifications, 4A, 5A and 6A, are being contested in their entirety at northern Virginia high schools. In 2019, Groups 4A and 5A conducted their first-day sessions at separate schools, then migrated to the Group 6A site, James W. Robinson High School in Fairfax, where all three groups concluded in the same gym. Robinson will host only the 6A state meet in 2020. The Salem Civic Center again will host Groups 1A, 2A and 3A.

North Carolina and South Dakota lengthened their tournaments from two days to three, while Michigan reduced its tournament from three days to two. Alaska, Arkansas, Maryland and Missouri are initiating girls state tournaments that will run concurrently with the boys tournaments. In Kansas, the girls state takes place one day prior to the 4A boys event in Salina.

For six chaotic weeks, 48 states with state-sanctioned wrestling programs – plus the National Prep Championships, the New England Championships and a handful of non-sanctioned independent school state meets – will put it on the line. Twenty-two states and the National Prep Championships conduct season-ending tournaments on the third weekend in February, the most common weekend. The fourth and final weekend of February sees 19 more state tournaments take place.

This season, Ohio stands alone as the state that brings down the curtain on the high school season, March 13-15 in Columbus. That’s a week after Florida, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey and Pennsylvania open the month with their state tournaments, as does the New England Championships. After a four-year run in Rhode Island at the Providence Career and Technical Center, the New England meet moves to Methuen High School in Massachusetts, which will be hosting its third major wrestling event in four weeks. Methuen also is hosting the state’s Division I North sectional tournament and the Division I state tournament in February.

Want to know when and where your favorite team – or wrestler – will be competing for a state title? Then you’ve come to the right place. Following is a list of all the state tournaments in the nation, state by state. A single date and site given is for an all-class tournament. Some states split the classes by site or date, which will be listed as applicable. As explained above, an asterisk indicates a state tournament a week later than last season due to calendar turnover.

The rest is up to you. Buy those tickets and book those reservations…then, make sure you get there!