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District 11 Wrestling

The seeding in D1 was not good this year. Boyertown was easily the best team. Quakertown was seeded first and didn't even qualify for states. CRN finishes runner-up and CRS finishes 3rd. The irony is South just beat North 42-20. More irony is South having an easier road to the state semis than North, although nothing will be easy for D1. If CRN gets to the quarters, they will get rolled by BeCaHi.
I saw Connellsville lost, which is shocking. I thought they’d be the one team that may challenge the D11 schools (runner-up specifically), now I think they drop into Becahi’s half and will see them in semis.

District 11 Wrestling

The seeding in D1 was not good this year. Boyertown was easily the best team. Quakertown was seeded first and didn't even qualify for states. CRN finishes runner-up and CRS finishes 3rd. The irony is South just beat North 42-20. More irony is South having an easier road to the state semis than North, although nothing will be easy for D1. If CRN gets to the quarters, they will get rolled by BeCaHi.

District 11 Wrestling

Exploding. Brooke Zumas was the chair of the Sanction PA task force that helped schools add girls wrestling as a varsity sport with the goal to get over 100 programs in the state ti apply for PIAA sanctioned sport status. Brooke is from Bethlehem, went to Lehigh (her dad wrestled there) and is the school psychologist in Parkland schools (the Outstanding Wrestler Award is named after her at girls states). She obviously had a ton of sway in getting girls programs launched in D11, with Parkland (where she was the head coach), Easton, Nazareth, Emmaus, Liberty, Northampton, Palisades, and the Pocono schools all have it. Easton had a state champ last year who is #1 in the country at 136, represented the USA at pan am games, and going to Lehigh, and they have a freshman who is #2 in the state at 106. Bethlehem Catholic I think is adding next year, and has the inside track on getting Mia Emili, who has dominated the elementary league here against boys and is the next big thing coming up in girls wrestling (her brother is Becahi’s nationally ranked 107 and her dad was a 2x state finalist for Northampton in the ‘90s). The club I work with has a pretty good contingent of middle school girls, and it’s been majorly on the rise over the last three years.

with the success of the women’s Olympic team, that’s helped momentum I think as there has been a big push from USA wrestling on the girls side. It’s one of the biggest growing sports in America.

District 11 Wrestling

No mincing words, Nazareth smoked Easton. Getting Campbell and Parkins down helped, but Evan Carss having a 7-2 lead and losing 19-9 was an absolute killer. Justin Cosover also got beat at 172 (he majored Elijah Simak last time) and those two bout flips put Nazareth comfortably on top. 8-5 bout split after being 7-6 Easton last time.

Rovers have two weeks off now to get healthy and ready for the individual postseason, where they need a better state tournament performance than they had a year ago with one 8th place medalist.

District 11 Wrestling

Northampton blew it this morning against Notre Dame. Crusaders won 31-26, difference being Northampton’s #3 in the state heavyweight lost in overtime to an unranked 215 bumping up. Had they won that (which was the first bout of the dual!) they win 29-28.

Seeds hold for semis at 3. Winner goes to states out of
Notre Dame vs Bethlehem Catholic
Easton vs Nazareth

Biggest individual results this morning were Brayden Wenrich beating Cael Mueller, Nick Salamone majoring (!) a bumped up Emilio Albanese, and Jesse Scott and Xayden Sallit both getting one point wins over Quentin Hammerstone and Justin Cosover.

Nazareth has Jack Campbell and Tahir Parkins cut down to 133 and 139, presumably their postseason weights too. No other notable drops, other than the Northampton kids back down to their tournament weights from December (Ballard, Wenrich, and Wagner down)

My takeaway from 2024 PIAA state championships

5- Again them being "kinda woke" that includes adding "new sports" over the last 10-20 years- very tough for all sports to thrive- tough to be multi-sports- ie Hockey, vollyball, lacrosse, rowing, bowling, rowing- I'm sure football loses kids to those sports. Probably some of those sports did not exist in the "prime years" of Nh in the 80s and 90s
The boys soccer team at North Hills had a roster of 42 (!) players this year. And they won a playoff game, unlike the football team. There are a ton of great athletes playing soccer...

- FC is not very diverse, shitty sports and good education.

Not true. While the football team is terrible, they are usually excellent in other sports.

My takeaway from 2024 PIAA state championships

Cecil is the best dual threat QB to ever come out of McKeesport. I think Kopolovich (Princeton) executed it the best but Cecil was the best weapon they had at that position. He had some demons that kept him from reaching his potential later on.

With regards to the game, McKeesport was overwhelmed as a whole. Woody High was huge with a ton of skill talent. I think they 8 division 1 players on that squad.
what demons? I think he just was just overrated as a prospect, but very good in high school

George Smith said his best players were Brandon Short, Mike Logan, Khaleke Hudson, and Cecil Howard

also that 99 Mckeesport team probably overachieved, I think they had one more win than loss during the regular season, though Howard was the reason they went on that playoff run

BIG 33 Super Bowl Streak is still alive

I know he ended up at Rhode Island, but what could have been.

BIG 33 Super Bowl Streak is still alive

I would think this streak will be in jeopardy soon. The days of All-Americans like Dustin Picciotti playing are over. In essence, this game ruined his football career after he suffered a severe concussion.
I think Dustin's lack of love for the game hurt his career more then any concussion. If concussions were the issue he never would've transferred to Rhode Island and became a stud DE for them like he did.

My takeaway from 2024 PIAA state championships

Number 1 running QB in the country???? That’s wild. He didn’t look anything special to me. But maybe Woody high was just that much better than McKeesport and keyed in on him
Cecil is the best dual threat QB to ever come out of McKeesport. I think Kopolovich (Princeton) executed it the best but Cecil was the best weapon they had at that position. He had some demons that kept him from reaching his potential later on.

With regards to the game, McKeesport was overwhelmed as a whole. Woody High was huge with a ton of skill talent. I think they 8 division 1 players on that squad.

District 11 Wrestling

Match ups to watch in the first round
ND-Northampton
Brayden Wenrich vs. Cael Mueller (ND probably tries to keep Mueller down at 107, no idea where Wenrich will weigh in, he hasn't been at 107 since Ironman, but has stayed ranked #1 in the state there all season)
Gabe Ballard vs. Tanner Berkenstock (measuring stick match for Berkenstock)
Actually, I'll score this one:
107: Mueller fall Strauss: ND 6-0
114: Wenrich fall Vanick: Tie 6-6
121: R. Marano major Volpe: 10-6 Northampton
127: Feltmann decision C. Marano: 10-9 Northampton
133: Ballard major Berkenstock: 14-9 Northampton
139: Wagner major Kelton: 18-9 Northampton
145: Gonzalez decision Chlebove: 18-12 Northampton
152: Grabfelder major Bialek: 22-12 Northampton
160: Ramsay fall Williams: 22-18 ND
172: Sumpolec fall Chevere: 24-22 ND
189: Smalley fall Turner: 30-22 ND
215: Knorp decision Small: 33-22 ND
285: Grell fall whoever: 33-28 ND
If Chlebove can beat Gonzalez, Marano can beat Feltmann, or they get more bonus from Ballard/Wagner/Grabfelder, Northampton has some paths to victory. Or if they can give up less than 18 from 160-189, but that seems unlikely. Putting this up reinforces that ND should keep Mueller off of Wenrich, so seeing where Wenrich weighs in might give some intrigue to the coin toss. I don't think Notre Dame bumping at 160 helps them.

Emmaus vs. Easton
Emilio Albanese vs. Nick Salamone (rematch of D11 finals won by Salamone, but Albanese placed higher at states. Would mean sending Albanese up to 121).
Teagan Caciolo vs. Noah Fenner (if Albanese bumps, Caciolo will too. This was a one-point match earlier in the year)
Jesse Scott vs. Quentin Hammerstone (these two have gone back and forth and are probably the two competing for the last spot in the state tournament at 160 from the Northeast Region)

Whitehall-Nazareth
Wilmont Kai vs. Remy Trach (would require a bump and Trach staying at 121)

BIG 33 Super Bowl Streak is still alive

Big 33 was once a really big deal, but it has gone the way of most football all-star games due to fear of injury and already moving on to the next level.
I would think this streak will be in jeopardy soon. The days of All-Americans like Dustin Picciotti playing are over. In essence, this game ruined his football career after he suffered a severe concussion.
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