Not a half-bad opening session of the PIAA Team Wrestling Championships on Thursday night, especially in Class AAA where two matches – McDowell’s 27-20 win over North Allegheny and Delaware Valley’s 28-25 win over DuBois – came down to the final bout. And Mechancisburg’s 30-23 triumph over Central Mountain was a good, old-school dual meet that featured a high-stakes gamble by Mechanicsburg head coach Roger Barrick, who sent his son Rustin out to challenge PIAA champ Brian Brill in the opening bout.
For a while, it appeared that Barrick’s decision might have backfired when Rustin was beaten 5-1 by Brill and Central Mountain’s good heavyweights evened up with Mechanicsburg’s good upper weights. But Mechanicsburg’s lower weights did the job in a very tough win. The Team Championships could use more matches like that.
Well, as it turns out, Mechanicsburg (15-1) could have a similar match this afternoon against unbeaten Owen J. Roberts (18-0) in the 2 p.m. quarterfinals. It will be the third straight unbeaten team Mechanicsburg has faced: Central Dauphin, which was 19-0 when the two met in the District 3-AAA finals last Saturday; Central Mountain, which was 15-0 heading into the PIAA Team Championships; and now OJR.
The focus in quarterfinals will shift primarily to Class AA, especially the Central Columbia (24-1) vs. Boiling Springs (21-0) match. That match should have a fair number of toss-ups and is the least predictable of the four quarterfinals, although some folks think that Fort LeBoeuf (15-2) can give defending champion Bethlehem Catholic (12-0) some trouble.
The latter match is brought to you by the PIAA’s unfortunate pairings process, which is hamstrung by PIAA policy. As you know, PIAA does not seed its team championship events. It provides for district champions and, in some cases, other district place winners to advance to the state championships. The championships are then paired either geographically (as is the case in football and, for the most part, in basketball) or by district size (as in wrestling).
Look at the AAA bracket: The largest AAA districts – 1 and 3 – are separated. The next two – 7 and 11- fill in what would essentially be the No. 3 and No. 4 seeded slots. The rest of the bracket is paired accordingly, which is why you have Districts 2 and 9, districts that have traditionally fared poorly at the Team Championships, meeting in the first round while the District 7 champion catches the District 11 runner-up.
Fans roar in outrage over the pairings, but the PIAA has a simple answer: it’s policy. And that’s the truth.
Like everyone else, I would love to see the see the tournament seeded. This would create howls, too, but it would be preferable. But if you compare waiting for the policy to change to waiting for a bus in winter, you’re going to end up mighty cold.
At that, tonight’s pending semifinals have a lot of buzz, especially the likely Central Dauphn vs. Canon-McMillan match. CD (21-0), which extended its state record for consecutive dual meet victories to 94 with its 47-20 win over Norristown, and Canon-McMillan (23-0) are heavy favorites against La Salle College (15-1) and Delaware Valley (18-4), respectively.
Please note: Should CD and Canon-Mac meet tonight, I WILL HAVE A LIVE, MOVE-BY-MOVE BLOG OF THE MATCH on a separate post starting at approximately 8 p.m.
That’s right. I busting out the musty ol’ wallet and ponying the PIAA’s real-time web publishing fee.
