Garrett Scott update
Here is a link to a story that chronicles the season of Juniata Valley's Garrett Scott, who is chasing a fourth PIAA championship this season.
Here is a link to a story that chronicles the season of Juniata Valley's Garrett Scott, who is chasing a fourth PIAA championship this season.
There is nothing like a dominating performance in the postseason to raise expectations. But the performance of West Greene's Kory Bissett in the 135-pound finals of the WPIAL Class AA Championships was awesome. I don't recall a wrestler being so dominant in a final before. Bissett tossed Burrell's Devon Maloney all over the mat before pinning him in 3:22. Maloney left the mat a little shellshocked and West Greene fans left Charleroi's gym thinking maybe this is a precursor of what's to come in Hershey.
If you don't think wrestling is the most difficult scholastic sport, go talk to Kalvin Schultz. The junior from Trinity High School, who finished third in the state tournament last year, got knocked off by a familiar and dangerous opponent: hunger.
Much of the suspense has been ripped out of the WPIAL Class AA Wrestling Championships because a whopping six wrestlers in each weight class advance to the Southwest Regional Tournament in Johnstown. Too many. Anyone who won in the quarterfinals was assured another week of wrestling. That takes all the suspense out of the event. Winning a WPIAL title is quite an accomplishment, but the semifinals and consolation finals have little meaning because these wrestlers are already advancing.
The lack of wrestlers in the Section 4-AA Tournament was appalling. It got even worse when 11 pulled out right before the start. But with every bit of bad news, someone profits and this tournament was no different. So I present to you the wrestlers who have a lot to be thankful for, particularly for qualifying for next week's WPIAL Championships.
One look at the pairings for the Section 4-AA Tournament and you notice the lack of wrestlers in many of the weight classes. This is interesting for one reason. The section tournaments were brought back because the WPIAL believed it would spark interest in the sport if there were more medals to be had.
O-R Wrestling Rankings
PIAA Team Tournament
After sitting through a 14-hour day and watching hundreds of bouts in the PIAA Team Tournament, I can't help but wonder one thing. Where have all the good teams gone? If this tournament was filled with the two best wrestling teams from each of the state's districts, I would shudder to think about how bad the ones were that didn't make it to Hershey.
O-R Wrestling Rankings
The first round of the PIAA Class AAA Team Tournament was not kind to the state's two largest cities: Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Langley, the City League (District 8) champion dropped a 75-0 decision to Canon-McMillan in the first round and Frankford, the Philadelphia (Dist. 12) champion was shut out 73-0 by Council Rock South. That's a combined score of 148-0 for those of you who do not have calculators inside your pocket protectors.
The WPIAL Team Tournament got good at the end, real good. The semifinals in Class AAA were fantastic to watch and I don't even root. The Class AA final between Mt. Pleasant and Burrell was fairly close and Penn-Trafford's fairly tale season continued at the expense of Canon-McMillan, 28-27. The Big Macs came this close to winning the title. It's that type of excitement that makes wrestling fun to watch.
O-R Wrestling Rankings
Prior to team tournament