Wrestling Weight Classes to Change

BLOOMINGTON - The Illinois High School Association has announced a change to the way high school wrestlers will be classified by weight.

Changes to the weight classification were made by the National Federation of High Schools' Wrestling Rules Committee, a department under the national governing body of high school sports. The IHSA then made it official for Illinois high school competition.

There will still be 14 weight classes, but 10 of them will change.

The 14 weight classes, starting with the 2011-12 school year, are as follows: 106, 113, 120, 126, 132, 138, 145, 152, 160, 170, 182, 195, 220 and 285. Three middle weight classes – 145, 152 and 160 – were retained, as well as the largest weight class of 285 pounds.

Ordering of the classes was changed by way of merging the 135- and 140-pound classes into 138, and creating an additional class above the former 171-pound (now 170) class.

In 2006, wrestling saw its more recent classification change when the largest weight class was increased from 275 pounds to 285. Prior to that, the former 215-pound class was made mandatory in 2002 (although Illinois has had state competition in that since 1998), and a restriction of 275 pounds was made to the former "heavyweight" class in 1993. The last shift in weight classfication prior to 2006 was the increase of the smallest weight class from 98 pounds to 103 in 1988.

Change in weight classification has happned at various times in the history of Illinois high school wrestling. Other significant changes occurred in 1940, 1949, 1960, 1970, and 1971.

Other wrestling rule changes were made along with the classification changes. The Figure-four lock is now illegal around the opponent's head in addition to the around the body and both legs. The circular boundary line itself is now considered inbounds, and a wrestler is ruled out-of-bounds when the body is past the entire line instead of the start of the line. A choice-of-starting-position rule change was made when an injury time-out ("blood time") is taken at the conclusion of the second period, and the opponent already has the choice at the beginning of the third period, the opponent would then have the added choice at the first restart after the beginning of the third period.

The Committee also recognized the increased number of dual-formatted tournaments throughout the nation, such as DeKalb's Flavin Duals.