Bearhugger wrote:1982, Ted Zervos of John Marshall placed 4th in his region. He won the state title a week later.
The next two seasons, 1983 and 1984, the regions were changed and only the top THREE were taken to the state tournament. This change never made sense when a regional 4th placer just won the state title in 1982. In 1985, taking the top four was restored.
I am just reciting historical facts about wrestling. I hope nobody gets offended or blames me for something they need to take responsibility for.
This is very true. I wrestled for Coach Zervos at Moundsville and John Marshall and he, to this day, uses 1982 as an example: just get there. In order to win the whole thing, you have to beat other good wrestlers. Doesn't matter when you beat them, but you have to beat them. Just get there. So, yes, a 4th guy has won it...and it was Ted's second state title, having won in 1981 as a regional runner-up.
What's even more interesting (to me, anyway) is that he counts his sophomore season state tournament as his best. He finished third. Why? He only gave up a single point that whole tournament, losing 1-0 in the semi-finals to Rod Haller of Park. I was looking at some of the brackets and sent him a text commenting on it.
It's hard to predict who will win a tournament, or how. Just in my history at John Marshall, Ryan Muldrew's win his junior year (in 1996) wasn't exactly unexpected, but he had yet to beat South's Zack Hasse...until he pinned him for the title. In 1994, Cliff Ward had a similar challenge--I want to say it was PHS's Bryce Edwards, but not entirely sure--finally beating him by decision in the finals. Then you have the very close ones...Rod Persinger, in both of his title runs, had nail-biters all through the tournament. I will grant that none of these three were 4th place regional guys (though Ryan didn't qualify his sophomore year, placing 5th out of 5 at 112 or 119, possibly due to being sick, having beaten all in his weight, save one, through the year). I know Ryan and Cliff were runners-up and I want to say that Rod lost to Mark Roberts in the region his senior year, but it shows how unpredictable these things can be. These were just my teammates that I was privileged to see win.
The point being that no match, regardless of history, is guaranteed to repeat. Nor does a 4th place guy automatically translate to no better than 12th or 16th best at the tournament. Weird things happen.