Follow RodFrisco.com on Facebook and Twitter. Click the icons on the lower right side of the page. Want to find information on a specific sport? Use the tabs at the top of the page or click on the category to the right.
—
The PIAA released the Team Wrestling Brackets for 2010-2011. And someone loves their small districts.
In both the Class AAA and Class AA brackets, there are some interesting pairings involving District 9. See the brackets here.
In the 20-team Class AAA bracket, District 9 wrestles District 2 in the second round at Giant Center on Feb. 10. Why is that interesting?
Elk Lake (green) has managed to reach the PIAA Team Wrestling Championships out of District 2. But like most D-2 teams that make it to Hershey, the Warriors are winless. (Photo credit: www.timestribune.com).
So, someone with a, um, suspect track record with be guaranteed a spot in Friday’s quarterfinals.
In Class AA, where District 9 has had much more success (primarily in the consolation bracket), the 9-AA champion will catch either the District 1 or District 12 champion in the second round. District 1 and District 12 teams have never won a PIAA Team Championships match.
Contrast that to District 10′s draws. District 10 teams have won the last four of the last five PIAA Class AA titles (three by Reynolds and one by Fort LeBoeuf), but the 10-AA champion catches the 7-AA runner-up (usually a decent team like Shady Side Academy or Burrell) while the 10-AA runner-up hits the 3-AA champion, often a team capable of challenging for a top three spot. Note that Fort LeBoeuf was the 10-AA runner-up this past season.
Also in Class AA, the District 2 and District 5 champions square off in the second round. District 5 has had reasonable representation from Bedford and North Star, but has never advanced to a championship match. District 2′s AA history, at 7-18 with all but one victory coming in either the first round or the consolations, is nearly as dismal as its AAA history. West Scranton’s 36-31 win over North Star in 2005 is the only time a 2-AA team advanced to the state quarterfinals.
The pairings are not the result of smoky back-room shenanigan by the PIAA staff (no one on the staff smokes and I think there’s only one room that could be considered “back”), but basically the result of PIAA policy.
Note that where districts have multipile qualifiers in AAA, their lower places wrestle other lower places (with the exception of 7-AA third getting a first-round pass against the woeful City League rep) in Monday’s first round. The second-round matches then are basically paired by size of district with the larger districts facing the first-round survivors, which has been PIAA’s policy since they expanded the tournament beyond champions-only.
That leaves the remaining district champions to be paired against other champions or the runners-up from Districts 3 and 7. And PIAA policy again forces champions and runners-up from the same district to be on opposite sides of the bracket. Thus, you end up with, virtually by necessity, pairings that pit weak district vs. weak district.
Same in AA. That’s why the 10-AA runner-up is facing a larger district champion from D-3 rather than a smaller district like 1, 2, 5 or 9 despite District 10′s historical strength.
On the other hand, it appears the PIAA violated policy by pairing the 6-AA runner-up, which was nearly left out of the tournament when the Board botched the first vote on Team Wrestling in May, with the District 8 champion rather than the District 3 runner-up or the District 5 champion. Policy provides that, where possible, first-round matches should match teams from contiguous districts. But PIAA ignores this rule in basketball, too.
Trust me, 6-2 vs. 8-1 in the AA first round is the right matchup for the tournament (and especially for the 6-AA runner-up, which gets a much easier first-match draw than the 6-AA champion, which wrestles the 4-AA runner-up in its first match).
No doubt many people will find the brackets unfair, especially when it comes to their partisan concerns. But by and large, it’s not bad for an unseeded draw.
Well, until the actual results in February become apparent. Then the bitching will really begin.
