This week’s notebook previews the upcoming District Duals and also highlights some of the top showings at last weekend’s tournaments.
BIG MATCHES LOOM LARGE FOR SOL TEAMS:
COUNCIL ROCK SOUTH & PENNRIDGE EARN TOP SEEDS, WHILE QUAKERTOWN IS SURPRISINGLY MISSING FROM DISTRICT ONE DUAL FIELD
By Glenn Kaiser
The District One Team Championship bracket has been set, and two of the top four seeds hail from the Suburban One League. Council Rock South as the #2 seed represents the National Conference, and Pennridge, the #4 seed, will carry the Continental banner. The top four teams from the D1 Duals will advance to the State Duals. First round action gets under way Thursday night (1/22/15) at Methacton and West Chester Rustin.
The field has been reduced to 16 teams this year, a reduction from the 24-team bracket in the past. Changes have been made to lower costs and eliminate first round blowouts. The District One Wrestling Steering Committee was handcuffed by the District One brass to eliminate a host site for the opening round while reducing the total number of teams entering the duals. Traditionally, D1 has allowed for large playoff brackets for soccer and basketball, 32 teams to be exact. There doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of pushback there, despite the lopsided margins of victory in the early rounds and teams participating with losing records at times.
Although the 16-team bracket tournament for the duals makes sense in determining the top four teams, it does not account for the exposure, the added competition, and experience a team gets when participating in a playoff-like environment. I, for one, am stuck between a rock and a hard place on this one. I know if my team was the 17th seed I’d want the 24-team bracket, but on the other, I know as the 17th seed the road to Hershey would be a long one, even if your team was to get through that preliminary match. You can have your opinions on it, but we are stuck with the 16-team field moving forward.
The SOL will also have representation from the American Conference, as Plymouth-Whitmarsh made it in at #15 and will battle CR South in an opening round match at Methacton kicking off at 5:30pm. Perhaps one of the most interesting match-ups in the Sweet Sixteen is CR North (#7) versus Pennsbury (#10) also at 5:30 pm, featuring two SOL National teams going head to head. The second matches of the evening will follow the first matches at approximately 7:00pm.
All told, the SOL will have five teams participating. Noticeably missing from the event is Quakertown. Quakertown would most certainly have been a top 10 team if they had entered. However, an early loss to Upper Perkiomen may have been the decision maker for Coach Kurt Handel and the Panthers. Nonetheless, the duals will be a battle of SOL’s best versus the PAC 10’s best. The debate of who is the best will finally be decided on the mat.
Interestingly, the first round of these duals will most likely see major blowouts, with extremely lopsided scores, the only match of note other than the CRN/Pennsbury match appears to be Upper Perk (#9) against WC Rustin (#8). At least with a 24-team field, you’d have some highly contested bouts in the prelims before the quarterfinal matches. With six D1 teams ranked statewide in the top 25 by PA Power Rankings, the 2015 District One Duals may be one of the best ever. The six teams with a realistic opportunity to make it to Hershey are #5 ranked Boyertown, seeded #1, #2 seed CRS (#11), Spring-Ford, #12 in the state seeded third, 4th seeded Pennridge at #15, 5th seed Owen J Roberts (# 21), and Downingtown East, ranked #25 in as the 6th seed. Handicapping this event is no easy task, but I like to gamble, so I’ll give it a shot: In no particular order, the top four teams moving on will be Boyertown, CR South, Pennridge, and Spring-Ford. The possibility of Pennridge facing off with Council Rock South seems to be slim since both teams are in different brackets, but you never know they could meet in the finals.
Here’s a look at how the championship bracket may shake out. As mentioned earlier, CR South should have no scare from PW, which is making an appearance in the duals after a long drought in the first round, nor should Pennridge from a rugged Coatesville (#13) team. CR North will be challenged by Pennsbury, but they will again get by Pennsbury as they did earlier this season, but with a much closer outcome. The PAC-10 teams will cruise in round one with Boyertown, Spring-Ford, and OJR winning handily against lower seeded teams. The Ches-mont League will have strong contenders in Downington East and Rustin; however, Rustin will have to go through Perk to advance.
The Elite Eight will gather at Upper Dublin High School on January 30-31 for the finals. Look for an exciting semifinal round with Boyertown squaring off against the Rams from Pennridge, and the Golden Hawks from CRS scrapping with the Rams of Spring-Ford. Unfortunately, it looks like CRS and CRN will battle in a quarterfinal bout, and these two also will battle Wednesday (1/21/15) in the Unity Cup. Other quarterfinal matches that have the makings of a war will be OJR versus Pennridge and Spring-Ford versus Downingtown East. Boyertown should be victorious over either opponent facing the winner of the Rustin/Perk match. The losers in the semis will have serious competition to advance as the wrestlebacks will be full of dangerous teams who have been there before.
Good luck to the SOL teams in the Duals.
In other action over the weekend, Quakertown traveled to the center of the state to grapple with some of the former PA powers in wrestling at Bellefonte High School. The Panthers came away with the championship after beating the host, Bellefonte 40-33 in the championship bout of the Red Raider Duals. Q-twn went 5-0 on the day with victories over Dubois, Bald Eagle, State College, and Altoona.
Plymouth Whitemarsh continued its fine season by going 4-1 at the Denver Duals hosted by Cocalico. The Colonials defeated Wyomissing, Cocalico, Hempfield, and East Pennsboro. PW lost in the finals to Red Lion 34-15.
Also, American Conference team Wissahickon won two matches at the Kennett Duals with wins over Glen Mills 45-29 and Kennett 45-21. Outstanding performances were turned in by freshman Nick Prieston who went 4-1 and now has an overall record of 10-4, and senior Patrick Kovacs, who went 4-1 with an impressive win over Max Fitzgerald from Academy Park (8-4). Jason Caso continued his great run, also going 4-11 and upping his overall record to 17-4.
At the Escape the Rock held at Council Rock South over the weekend, CRS placed fourthoverall as a team with Riley Palmer garnering the championship belt at 106 pounds. Palmer defeated Gerard Angelo (Hanover Park, NJ) 3-1 in the finals. Pennridge was seventh as a team with Kyle Gentile winning the 170-pound title belt after dropping down from 182. Gentile was victorious in the championship tilt 4-3 over Drew Peck, Chambersburg.
Joe Kracz was 3rd at 285 defeating Boyertown’s Tommy Killoran for the second time in the tournament 3-1. Kracz remains the top dog at heavyweight in D1, and hopes to continue on to the podium at the Giant Center in March. ETR Championship results (1st thru 8th) can be found here on the SOL website.
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