First Annual KSHSAA Girls Wrestling Regional

High school girl wrestlers from Holton, Royal Valley and Atchison County will compete in all-class re­gional wrestling to be held Friday and Saturday, Feb. 14-15 at Paola High School, according to the Kan­sas State High School Activities As­sociation.

This is the first year that KSH­SAA has sanctioned girls wrestling as a sport, and for the inaugural sea­son — as of Jan. 2 — there are 972 girls participating in Kansas with an alpha weight. Regional girls wrestling was originally scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 15, but has been expanded into a two-day event.

By rule, each wrestler is limited to five matches per day. The amount of matches needed to complete the re­gional would not be possible under the one day format.

One classification made up of 150 schools has been divided into two re­gionals, at Paola and McPherson. Brackets will be 16 or 32-person brackets. Each school will be permit­ted one entry per weight class and KSHSAA will qualify the top six fin­ishers in each weight class from each regional event for the state tourna­ment, it was reported.

Other area schools that are sched­uled to participate in the Paola re­gional include Atchison, Jefferson West, Oskaloosa, Sabetha, Silver Lake and St. Marys, as well as all Topeka schools.

The state tournament is scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 27 in Salina.

Note: Names of participating wrestlers not im­mediately available; trying to get them.