There seems to be a lot of confusion as to how the UIL placed wrestlers in each bracket. A lot of folks think that a couple of people seeded each bracket. Well that’s not the case, there was no individuals making decisions on seeding.
The placement in each bracket followed the new UIL guide lines which separated the previous state placers. Not who is the best “in anyone’s opinion” per weight class.
The Texas High School Wrestling Coaches Association assisted with the placement only by following the UIL rules posted on the UIL website.
Below we go through several scenarios
- When there were multiple returning state placers who won their region, they were separated according to the rules outlined on the UIL website. The remaining region champions that did not win their region were blind drawn into one of the region champion positions.
- When there was only 1 returning state placer who won their region, that state placer was placed on the 1st line. The remaining 3, 1st place regional champs were blind drawn into the remaining 3 region champion positions.
- A good example of how it did work great was the 152lb-6A girls where you had 2 undefeated returning state champs. Samaria Barrett was 2nd in 2023, and 1st in 2024 while Hayden Stine was 6th in 2023 and 1st in 2024. So Barrett was seeded #1 and Stine seeded #2 and the remaining 2 regional champs where tossed into the bag for a blind draw. The other returning state placers weren’t regional champs so they followed the matrix.
- The 175lb-5A boys had no returning state placers so all 4 regions champs would have been blind drawn.
- Freshmen region champions, who by their nature aren’t returning state place winners, were blind drawn into the 4 region champion positions after the returning state place winner region champions were separated according to the formula.
- Previous state placers who weren’t regional champs fell into the matrix that has always been in place.
