Hershey is here! The 88th PIAA Wrestling tournament starts on Thursday, with 20 man brackets in 3A and 2A and 16 woman brackets on the girls side. This is the second PIAA tournament that will feature an officially sanctioned girls bracket alongside the big school and small school classifications.
This preview will predominantly feature 3A, which is obviously what I follow most closely, and for my money is the most interesting. I’ll give high level info and picks on the 2A and Girls side. But 3A is where I make my money. It’s a fascinating year, where I don’t think there is a solid team favorite – Team Champ Bethlehem Catholic has finished third in both their District and Regional tournaments, with state runner-up Nazareth winning the titles in both spots. Easton, Notre Dame, and Council Rock South are sending the most athletes to states with seven. Thomas Jefferson and Connellsville were mere points away from each other and way out ahead of the field in the West Regional. It is the type of state tournament where if a team gets two or three to finals, that might be good enough to win a title. I don’t know if anybody is going to break 100 points, it’s either going to be a “we medaled a ton” or “we had two champs” decides it. Which is fun!
I’ll go weight-by-weight with a breakdown of regional champs and the bracket, which are preliminary right now (Pa-Wrestling is a wealth of information, and they’re good about knowing and applying the seeding criteria to get very accurate brackets out before the PIAA releases them tomorrow). This year, we’ve moved from five regions to four, meaning that the four regional champs all get seeded away from each other, there will be no Region 1 vs Region 1 in quarterfinals, as there has always been. Brackets then get determined based on the placement of each of the regional champs – so wrestlers who finished 2nd through 5th in any region are not seeded, and not seeded away from champs, but rather bracketed based on the seeding of the champ in their region. That may make more sense as we get into brackets. I'll add back in Jeff Upson's state rankings once they post on Tuesday or Wednesday. Here we go!
103 Pounds
Regional Champions
West: Nicholas McGarrity, Peters Township (So. 40-4): S6
Northeast: Brayden Wenrich, Northampton (Fr. 41-5): JH1
Southeast: Chase Williams, CB East (Fr. 36-2)
Southcentral: Sam Culp, Red Land (Sr. 29-6)
Nationally Ranked: #6 Brayden Wenrich, #21 Nico Emili, Bethlehem Catholic (Fr. 33-8; NE2): JH5
The Favorite: Brayden Wenrich, Northampton
Wenrich has been nationally ranked in the top ten all year and is one of the better freshmen in the country for the Konkrete Kids. He medaled at 107 at Ironman back in December, but spent most of the year up at 114. He was fourth at Ironman, third at the Hurricane Classic. He’s a tall, lanky 107 who is brutal on top.
Bracket Buster: Zach Rehak, Thomas Jefferson (So. 38-10; W2)
Rehak has been ranked in the top five in the state at various points in the year, and dropping a pair of matches at regionals has him in from the fifth spot in the west. He should win his first round match, then has Sam Culp on “upset” alert, and could easily get himself into quarters and a match from medaling.
Best First Round Match: Nico Emili, Bethlehem Catholic (Fr. 33-8; NE2): JH5 vs. Tommy Gretz, Connellsville (So. 39-9; W3)
Emili and Gretz met at team states when they were ranked #2 and #3 in the state, with Emili winning by major. Gretz dropped his regional semifinal to qualify out of the third spot, so what we thought might be a semifinal back in February is now a first round matchup.
Predicted Semifinals: Nicholas McGarrity vs. Brayden Wenrich / Andrew Alexander, Mifflin County (So. 39-4; W2) vs. Nico Emili
McGarrity is the most experienced guy here, a medalist last year as a freshman. He should get through quarters rather easily, ditto for Wenrich. That might be the de facto final if they hit in semis. On the bottom half, Alexander and Emili have brutal paths, with Alexander drawing Cael Muller (Notre Dame) in the first round, who easily could switch spots with him, then regional champ Chase Williams in the quarters. Emili has to go through Gretz and the Rehak/Culp winner.
Predicted Final: Brayden Wenrich, Northampton vs. Nico Emili, Bethlehem Catholic
This one feels like an all D11 affair. Wenrich and McGarrity is probably the best bout in the bracket, but give me the talented freshman. Emili is a physical load, and if he gets past his first match, I feel pretty good about him going to finals.
Predicted Champ: Brayden Wenrich, Northampton
Wenrich has beaten Emili 8-4 and 4-0 the last two weeks. The D11 final was a big move for seven, then he coasted. Last week actually showed me how big the gap is, with Wenrich riding out Emili and really staying out of harms way on his feet. He’ll become the second KKid to win a title as a freshman (Juliah Chlebove) and prevent KKid legacy Emili (whose father Dave was a two-time state finalist in the ‘90s for Don Rohn’s crew) from getting his first.
